SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETRY
'Twas then through the hall the King was 'ware
Of a little boy with golden hair,
As bright as the golden poppy is 250
That the beach breeds for the surf to kiss:
Yet pale his cheek as the thorn in Spring,
And his garb black like the raven's wing.
Nothing heard but his foot through the hall,
For now the lords were silent all. 255
And the King wondered, and said, 'Alack !
Who sends me a fair boy dressed in black ?
'Why, sweet heart, do you pace through the hall
As though my court were a funeral ?'
Then lowly knelt the child at the dais, 260
And looked up weeping in the King's face.
'O wherefore black, O King, ye may say,
For white is the hue of death to-day.
'Your son and all his fellowship
Lie low in the sea with the White Ship.' 265
King Henry fell as a man struck dead;
And speechless still he stared from his bed
When to him next day my rede I read.
There's many an hour must needs beguile
A King's high heart that he should smile,— 270
Full many a lordly hour, full fain
Of his realm's rule and pride of his reign :—
314