SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETRY
The King had watched with a heart sore stirred
For two whole days, and this was the third:
And still to all his court would he say, 225
'What keeps my son so long away?'
And they said: "The ports lie far and wide
That skirt the swell of the English tide;
And England's cliffs are not more white
Than her women are, and scarce so light 230
Her skies as their eyes are blue and bright;
And in some port that he reached from France
The Prince has lingered for his pleasance.'
But once the King asked: 'What distant cry
Was that we heard 'twixt the sea and sky?' 235
And one said : * With suchlike shouts, pardie !
Do the fishers fling their nets at sea.'
And one : * Who knows not the shrieking quest
When the sea-mew misses its young from the nest ?'
'Twas thus till now they had soothed his dread, 240
Albeit they knew not what they said :
But who should speak to-day of the thing
That all knew there except the King?
Then pondering much they found a way,
And met round the King's high seat that day: 245
And the King sat with a heart sore stirred,
And seldom he spoke and seldom heard.
313