As thro' the land at eve we went, We fell out, my wife and I, O we fell out I know not why, And kiss'd again with tears. For when we came where lies the child We lost in other years, There above the little grave, O there above the little grave, We kiss'd again with tears. II. Ar break of day the College Portress came : She brought us Academic silks, in hue The lilac, with a silken hood to each, And zoned with gold; and now when these were on, And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons, She, curtseying her obeisance, let us know The Princess Ida waited: out we paced, I first, and following thro' the porch that sang Compact of lucid marbles, boss'd with lengths Betwixt the pillars, and with great urns of flowers. And here and there on lattice edges lay Or book or lute; but hastily we past, And up a flight of stairs into the hall. There at a board by tome and paper sat, With two tame leopards couch'd beside her throne, All beauty compass'd in a female form, The Princess; liker to the inhabitant Of some clear planet close upon the Sun, Than our man's earth; such eyes were in her head, 'We give you welcome: not without redound Of use and glory to yourselves ye come, The first-fruits of the stranger: aftertime, And that full voice which circles round the grave, Will rank you nobly, mingled up with me. What! are the ladies of your land so tall?' 'We of the court' said Cyril. 'From the court' She answer'd, then ye know the Prince?' and he : 'The climax of his age! as tho' there were One rose in all the world, your Highness that, He worships your ideal:' she replied: 'We scarcely thought in our own hall to hear This barren verbiage, current among men, Light coin, the tinsel clink of compliment. Your flight from out your bookless wilds would seem As arguing love of knowledge and of power; Your language proves you still the child. Indeed, We dream not of him: when we set our hand Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling The tricks, which make us toys of men, that so, You may with those self-styled our lords ally Your fortunes, justlier balanced, scale with scale.' At those high words, we conscious of ourselves, Rose up, and read the statutes, such as these: We enter'd on the boards: and Now' she cried 'Ye are green wood, see ye warp not. Look, our hall! Our statues!-not of those that men desire, Sleek Odalisques, or oracles of mode, Nor stunted squaws of West or East; but she The foundress of the Babylonian wall, The Carian Artemisia strong in war, The Rhodope, that built the pyramid, |