Читать книгу The Song Maker - A Collection of Poems - Sara Teasdale - Страница 20

THE PRINCESS
IN THE TOWER

I

The Princess sings:

I am the princess up in the tower

And I dream the whole day thro'

Of a knight who shall come with a silver spear

And a waving plume of blue.

I am the princess up in the tower,

And I dream my dreams by day,

But sometimes I wake, and my eyes are wet,

When the dusk is deep and gray.

For the peasant lovers go by beneath,

I hear them laugh and kiss,

And I forget my day-dream knight,

And long for a love like this.

II

The Minstrel sings:

I lie beside the princess' tower,

So close she cannot see my face,

And watch her dreaming all day long,

And bending with a lily's grace.

Her cheeks are paler than the moon

That sails along a sunny sky,

And yet her silent mouth is red

Where tender words and kisses lie.

I am a minstrel with a harp,

For love of her my songs are sweet,

And yet I dare not lift the voice

That lies so far beneath her feet.

III

The Knight sings:

O princess cease your dreams awhile

And look adown your tower's gray side—

The princess gazes far away,

Nor hears nor heeds the words I cried.

Perchance my heart was overbold,

God made her dreams too pure to break,

She sees the angels in the air

Fly to and fro for Mary's sake.

Farewell, I mount and go my way,

—But oh her hair the sun sifts thro'—

The tilts and tourneys wait my spear,

I am the Knight of the Plume of Blue.