Poems (Jackson)/Amreeta Wine
AMREETA WINE.
HE rose up from the golden feast, And her voice rang like the sea;"Sir Knight, put down thy glass and come To the battlement with me."That was a charmed wine thou drank'st, Signed white from heaven, signed black from hell.Alas! alas! for the bitter thing The sign hath forced thy lips to tell!"
"Ho here! Ho there! Lift up and bear My choice wine out," she said;"That which hath brand of a clasping hand, And the seal blood-red."
"Ho here! Ho there! To the castle stair Bear all that branded wine;And dash it far, where the breakers are Whitest, of the brine!
"Let no man dare to shrink or spare, Or one red drop to spill;Of the endless pain of that wine's hot stain Let the salt sea bear its fill.
"O woe of mine! O woe of thine O woe of endless thirst!O woe for the Amreeta wine, By fate and thee accurst!"
The knight spake words of sore dismay But her face was white like stone;She saw him mount and ride away, And made no moan.
The wind blew east, the wind blew west, The airs from sepulchres;No royal heart in all of them So dead as hers!