England and Yesterday

<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</SPAN><br/><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>A BALLAD OF KENELM.</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">“<i>In Clent cow-batch, Kenelm, King born,</i></div> <div class="verse"><i>Lieth under a thorn.</i>”</div> </div></div> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">It was a goodly child,</div> <div class="verse">Sweet as the gusty May;</div> <div class="verse">It was a knight that broke</div> <div class="verse">On his play,</div> <div class="verse">A fair and coaxing knight:</div> <div class="verse">“O little liege!” said he,</div> <div class="verse">“Thy sister bids thee come</div> <div class="verse">After me.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“A pasture rolling west</div> <div class="verse">Lies open to the sun,</div> <div class="verse">Bright-shod with primroses</div> <div class="verse">Doth it run;</div> <div class="verse">And forty oaks be nigh,</div> <div class="verse">Apart, and face to face,</div> <div class="verse">And cow-bells all the morn</div> <div class="verse">In the space.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">“And there the sloethorn bush</div> <div class="verse">Beside the water grows,</div> <div class="verse">And hides her mocking head</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</SPAN></span>Under snows;</div> <div class="verse">Black stalks afoam with bloom,</div> <div class="verse">And never a leaf hath she:</div> <div class="verse">Thou crystal of the realm,</div> <div class="verse">Follow me!”</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Uplooked the undefiled:</div> <div class="verse">“All things, ere I was born,</div> <div class="verse">My sister found; now find</div> <div class="verse">Me the thorn.”</div> <div class="verse">They travelled down the lane,</div> <div class="verse">An hour’s dust they made:</div> <div class="verse">The belted breast of one</div> <div class="verse">Bore a blade.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The primroses were out,</div> <div class="verse">The aislèd oaks were green,</div> <div class="verse">The cow-bells pleasantly</div> <div class="verse">Tinked between;</div> <div class="verse">The brook was beaded gold,</div> <div class="verse">The thorn was burgeoning,</div> <div class="verse">Where evil Ascobert</div> <div class="verse">Slew the King.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">He hid him in the ground,</div> <div class="verse">Nor washed away the dyes,</div> <div class="verse">Nor smoothed the fallen curls</div> <div class="verse">From his eyes.</div> <div class="verse">No father had the babe</div> <div class="verse">To bless his bed forlorn;</div> <div class="verse">No mother now to weep</div> <div class="verse">By the thorn.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">There fell upon that place</div> <div class="verse">A shaft of heavenly light;</div> <div class="verse">The thorn in Mercia spake</div> <div class="verse">Ere the night:</div> <div class="verse">“Beyond, a sister sees</div> <div class="verse">Her crownèd period,</div> <div class="verse">But at my root a lamb</div> <div class="verse">Seeth God.”</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Unto each, even so.</div> <div class="verse">As dew before the cloud,</div> <div class="verse">The guilty glory passed</div> <div class="verse">Of the proud.</div> <div class="verse">Boy Kenelm has the song,</div> <div class="verse">Saint Kenelm has the bower;</div> <div class="verse">His thorn a thousand years</div> <div class="verse">Is in flower!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />