Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)/Noble Sisters
NOBLE SISTERS.
"Now did you mark a falcon,Sister dear, sister dear,Flying toward my windowIn the morning cool and clear?With jingling bells about her neck,But what beneath her wing?It may have been a ribbon,Or it may have been a ring."—"I marked a falcon swoopingAt the break of day:And for your love, my sister dove,I 'frayed the thief away."—
"Or did you spy a ruddy hound,Sister fair and tall,Went snuffing round my garden bound,Or crouched by my bower wall?With a silken leash about his neck;But in his mouth may beA chain of gold and silver links,Or a letter writ to me."—"I heard a hound, highborn sister,Stood baying at the moon:I rose and drove him from your wallLest you should wake too soon."—
"Or did you meet a pretty pageSat swinging on the gate;Sat whistling whistling like a bird,Or may be slept too late:With eaglets broidered on his cap,And eaglets on his glove? If you had turned his pockets out,You had found some pledge of love."—"I met him at this daybreak,Scarce the east was red:Lest the creaking gate should anger you,I packed him home to bed."—
"O patience, sister. Did you seeA young man tall and strong,Swift-footed to uphold the rightAnd to uproot the wrong,Come home across the desolate seaTo woo me for his wife?And in his heart my heart is locked,And in his life my life."—"I met a nameless man, sister,Hard by your chamber door:I said: Her husband loves her much,And yet she loves him more."—
"Fie, sister, fie, a wicked lie,A lie, a wicked lie,I have none other love but him,Nor will have till I die.And you have turned him from our door,And stabbed him with a lie:I will go seek him thro' the worldIn sorrow till I die."—"Go seek in sorrow, sister,And find in sorrow too:If thus you shame our father's nameMy curse go forth with you."—