description: Excerpt from Poetical Works, Vol. 1A Ballad of Life.I found in dreams a place of wind and flowers,Full of sweet trees and color of glad grass,In midst whereof there wasA lady clothed like summer with sweet hours,Her beauty, fervent as a fiery moorMade my blood burn and swoonLike a flame rained upon.Sorrow had filled her shaken eyelids' blue,And her mouth's sad red heavy rose all throughSeemed sad with glad things gone.She held a little cithern by the strings,Shaped heartwise, strung with subtle-colored hairOf some dead lute playerThat in dead years had done delicious things.The seven strings were named accordingly;The first string charity,The second tenderness,The rest were pleasure, sorrow, sleep, and sin,And loving kindness, that is pity's kinAnd is most pitiless.There were three men with her, each garmentedWith gold and shod with gold upon the feet;And with plucked ears of wheat.The first man's hair was wound upon his His face was red, and his mouth curled and sad;All his gold garment had Pale stains of dust and rust.A riven hood was pulled across his eyes;The token of him being upon this wiseMade for a sign of Lust.The next was Shame, with hollow heavy faceColored like green wood when flame kindles it.He hath such feeble feet They may not well endure in any place.His face was full of grey old miseries.And all his blood's increase Was even increase of pain.The last was Fear, that is akin to Death;He is Shame's friend, and always as Shame saithFear answers him again.My soul said in me; This is marvellous,Seeing the air's face is not so delicateNor the sun's grace so great,If sin and she be kin or amorous.And seeing where maidens served her on their knees,I bade one crave of these To know the cause thereof,Then Fear said; I am Pity that was dead,And Shame I am Sorrow comforted,And Lust I am Love.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
language: English
title: Poetical Works: Part 1
titlecomplete: Poetical Works: Part 1
publisher: Classic Publishers