Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/72

While shrill as bird on topmost twig
 Piped merry May;
Honey-smooth the double flow

Sped a herdsman from the vale,
 Mounting like a flame,
All on fire to hear and see,
 With floating locks he came.
Looked neither north nor south,
 Neither east nor west,
But sat him down at Meggan's feet
 As love-bird on his nest,
And wooed her with a silent awe,
 With trouble not expressed;
She sang the fears into his eyes,
 The heart out of his breast:
So he loved her, listening so.

She sang the heart out of his breast,
 The words out of his tongue:
Hand and foot and pulse he paused
 Till her song was sung.
Then he spoke up from his place
 Simple words and true:
"Scanty goods have I to give,
 Scanty skill to woo;
But I have a will to work,
 And a heart for you:
Bid me stay or bid me go."