Poetry > Lady of the lake

78
THE LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto II,
This little flower, that loves the lea,
May well my simple emblem he ;
It drinks heaven’s dew as blithe as rose1
That in the king’s own garden grows ;
And when I place it in my hair,
Allan, a bard is bound to swear
He ne’er saw coronet so fair.”
Then playfully the chaplet wild
She wreath’d in her dark locks, and smiled,
X.
Her smile, her speech, with winning sway,
Wiled the old harper’s mood away.
With such a look as hermits throw,
When angels stoop to soothe their woe,
He gazed, till fond regret and pride
Thrill’d to a tear, then thus replied :
“ Loveliest and best! thou little know’st
The rank, the honours, thou hast lost!
0 might I live to see thee grace,
In Scotland’s court, thy birth-right place,
To see my favourite’s step advance,2
The lightest in the courtly dance,
The cause of every gallant’s sigh,
And leading star of every eye,
And theme of every minstrel’s art,
The Lady of the Bleeding Heart!”—3
1 [MS.—“ No blither dew-drop cheers the rose.’J
2 [This couplet is not in the MS.] .
3 The well-known cognizance of the Douglas family.