Page:Poems Bacon.djvu/83

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THE WANDERERS
PRINCE
There, there! You heard it? Ah, unhappy prince!
For me the green earth spreads her fields in vain,
The forest pleads in vain with dusky arms:
I shall die caged.
I shall die caged.Ah, do you see him there?

MAN-AT-ARMS
See whom, my lord?

PRINCE
See whom, my lord? The stranger in the wood.
How brown, how bright! How gallantly it swings,
That tattered robe! And see his gleaming chain,
His scarlet berries!
His scarlet berries! Nay, I will not go!
Nay, if you touch me I shall kill you! Nay,
I will speak with him if I die for it!
He turns his eye upon me—
He turns his eye upon me—Ah, dear saints!
I mind me of my mother suddenly,
That died for sorrow when she brought me forth
To chain me to a throne. Ah me, ah me!
When did my mother die?

MAN-AT-ARMS
When did my mother die?The queen, my lord,
Left life behind her at the early dawn,
Just as the spring was coming on.

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