Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Stopford Augustus Brooke b. 1832

Songs from “Riquet of the Tuft.” I. Queen’s Song

YOUNG Sir Guyon proudly said,

“Love shall never be my fate.”

“None can say so but the dead,”

Shriek’d the witch wife at his gate.

“Go and dare my shadow’d dell,

Love will quell your happy mood.”

Guyon, laughing his farewell,

Rode into the faery wood.

There he met a maiden wild,

By a tree she stood alone;

When she look’d at him and smil’d,

At a breath his heart was gone.

In her arms she twin’d him fast,

And, like wax within the flame,

Melted memory of the past,

Soul and body, name and fame.

Late at night the steed came back,

“Where ’s our good knight?” cried his men;

Far and near they sought his track,

But Guyon no one saw again.