THE LADYE'S ROCK
A faery dwells in a cove by the sea,
Stately as maiden of high degree;
And ever and aye by night and by day
She carols a melody clear and free.
Many a stout and stalwart knight
She has tempted over the waters bright:
With dance and with song she has led them
along
To the deadly realms of endless night.
And it befell one noontide hour
(Dark was the sky with a glooming shower!)
A gallant knight his troth did plight
To a fair ladye in a lonely tower.
"Sir Knight, Sir Knight!" said the proud
ladye,
"Haste to the faery who dwells by the sea;
And tryst at the Scar with the evening star—
So shall I prove thy love to me."
He mounted his charger, and gallop'd away
By down and valley and cove and bay:
He chaunted a song as he cantered along
By the dismal coast at close of day.
The wind blew fresh and the foam ran high;
Naught he heard but the seamew's cry,
Till he came to the cave by the crisping wave
Where the billow lies calm and the breezes die.
There, over the sea-weed and over the shells
And the tufted glens and the heathery dells,
O'er cave and dale, in the twilight pale,
The blissful melody floats and swells.
The knight grew faint as he ambled along,
And his heart beat high to the charmed song;
Never thought he of the lorn ladye
As he tript the pebbles and shells among.
The Faery stood in a curve of the sand,
And she waved to the Knight with her delicate
hand,
And on to a light on the waters bright
She pointed afar with her silvery wand.
(Her tresses are dark as the tangle that lies
In the calm blue deep at the red sunrise,
And they never have rest on her beautiful
breast,
That heaves and falls as the melody sighs.)
The fickle Knight follow'd her pearl-white feet,
For his bosom was thrill'd with the roundel sweet;
She stept on the sea with frolic and glee,
And he spurr'd his charger dark and fleet.
A meadow it seem'd, the bright green sea,
It seem'd a level and flowery lea;
Nor foam nor spray was dash'd away,
As the good steed over the tide did flee.
On to an isle of purple light
The Faery led him with rapid flight;
She waved her hand, she poised her wand,
And the billows roll'd over the faithless Knight.
[Original]
Ah, what will become of the sweet ladye
Who prays for her lover on bended knee
By the pointed Scar that looms afar
O'er tarn and turret and winding lea?
She heard a hoof-pace faint and far,
As she pored on the pallid evening star.
Through the distant dell arose and fell
The clattering hoofs of a steed of war.
She sprang to her feet; she clomb the Scar;
And watch'd for the galloping steed of war,
As the sound came near both loud and clear
From the wood lying under the evening star.
Lo, to the tarn a horseman sped;
Pale was his face and his eyes were dead;
He lifted his spear as he gallop'd anear,
And on and on the phantom fled!
O wildly cried the lorn ladye,
And tore her tresses that floated free,
Then madly leapt to the tarn that slept
Under the cliff by the winding lea.
And oft when the sad pale evening star
Touches the tip of the rifted Scar,
A maiden's cry comes shuddering by,
And wakes the echoings near and far.
—-E. J. Armstrong.