Poetry Archives

A nobler king had never breath—
  I say it now, and said it then.
Who weds with such is wed till death
  And wedded stays in Heaven. Amen.

(And oh, the shirts of linen-lawn,
  And all the armor, tagged and tied,
And church on Sundays, dusk and dawn.
  And bed a thing to kneel beside!)

The bravest one stood tall above
  The rest, and watched me as a light.
I heard and heard them talk of love;
  I’d naught to do but think, at night.

The bravest man has littlest brains;
  That chalky fool from Astolat
With all her dying and her pains!—
  Thank God, I helped him over that.

I found him not unfair to see—
  I like a man with peppered hair!
And thus it came about. Ah, me,
  Tristram was busied otherwhere….

A nobler king had never breath—
  I say it now, and said it then.
Who weds with such is wed till death
  And wedded stays in Heaven. Amen.