Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/48

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22
THE PRINCE'S PROGRESS.
Watch for me asleep and awake?"—
"Spell-bound she watches in one white room,
  And is patient for thy sake.

"By her head lilies and rosebuds grow;
The lilies droop, will the rosebuds blow?
The silver slim lilies hang the head low;
Their stream is scanty, their sunshine rare:
Let the sun blaze out, and let the stream How,
  They will blossom and wax fair."

Red and white poppies grow at her feet,
The blood-red wait for sweet summer heat,
Wrapped in bud-coats, hairy and neat;
But the white buds swell, one day they will burst,
Will open their death cups drowsy and sweet—
  Which will open the first?"

Then a hundred sad voices lifted a wail,
And a hundred glad voices piped on the gale:
"Time is short, life is short," they took up the tale:"
Life is sweet, love is sweet, use to-day while you may;
Love is sweet, and to-morrow may fail;
  Love is sweet, use to-day."

While the song swept by, beseeching and meek,
Up rose the Prince with a flush on his cheek,
Up he rose to stir and to seek,