Poems By the Way Part 28

It was the King's son Hafbur O'er his shoulder cast his eye, And beheld how Signy's house of maids On a red low stood on high.

"Now take ye down my cloak of red, Let it lie on the earth a-cold; Had I ten lives of the world for one, Nought of them all would I hold."

King Siward looked out of his window fair, In fearful mood enow, For he saw Hafbur hanging on oak And Signy's bower on a low.

Out then spake a little page Was clad in kirtle red: "Sweet Signy burns in her bower aloft, With all her mays unwed."

Therewithal spake King Siward From rueful heart unfain: "Ne'er saw I two King's children erst Such piteous ending gain.

"But had I wist or heard it told That love so strong should be, Ne'er had I held those twain apart For all Denmark given me.

O hasten and run to Signy's bower For the life of that sweet thing; Hasten and run to the gallows high, No thief is Hafbur the King."

But when they came to Signy's bower Low it lay in embers red; And when they came to the gallows tree, Hafbur was stark and dead.

They took him the King's son Hafbur, Swathed him in linen white, And laid him in the earth of Christ By Signy his delight.

_O wilt thou win me then_, _or as fair a maid as I be_?

GOLDILOCKS AND GOLDILOCKS.

It was Goldilocks woke up in the morn At the first of the shearing of the corn.

There stood his mother on the hearth And of new-leased wheat was little dearth.

There stood his sisters by the quern, For the high-noon cakes they needs must earn.

"O tell me Goldilocks my son, Why hast thou coloured raiment on?"

"Why should I wear the hodden grey When I am light of heart to-day?"

"O tell us, brother, why ye wear In reaping-tide the scarlet gear?

Why hangeth the sharp sword at thy side When through the land 'tis the hook goes wide?"

"Gay-clad am I that men may know The freeman's son where'er I go.

The grinded sword at side I bear Lest I the dastard's word should hear."

"O tell me Goldilocks my son, Of whither away thou wilt be gone?"

"The morn is fair and the world is wide And here no more will I abide."

"O Brother, when wilt thou come again?"

"The autumn drought, and the winter rain,

The frost and the snow, and St. David's wind, All these that were time out of mind,

All these a many times shall be Ere the Upland Town again I see."

"O Goldilocks my son, farewell, As thou wendest the world 'twixt home and h.e.l.l!"

"O brother Goldilocks, farewell, Come back with a tale for men to tell!"

So 'tis wellaway for Goldilocks, As he left the land of the wheaten shocks.

He's gotten him far from the Upland Town, And he's gone by Dale and he's gone by Down.

He's come to the wild-wood dark and drear, Where never the bird's song doth he hear.

He has slept in the moonless wood and dim With never a voice to comfort him.

He has risen up under the little light Where the noon is as dark as the summer night.

Six days therein has he walked alone Till his scrip was bare and his meat was done.

On the seventh morn in the mirk, mirk wood, He saw sight that he deemed was good.

It was as one sees a flower a-bloom In the dusky heat of a shuttered room.

He deemed the fair thing far aloof, And would go and put it to the proof.

But the very first step he made from the place He met a maiden face to face.

Face to face, and so close was she That their lips met soft and lovingly.

Sweet-mouthed she was, and fair he wist; And again in the darksome wood they kissed.

Then first in the wood her voice he heard, As sweet as the song of the summer bird.

"O thou fair man with the golden head, What is the name of thee?" she said.

"My name is Goldilocks," said he; "O sweet-breathed, what is the name of thee?"

"O Goldilocks the Swain," she said, "My name is Goldilocks the Maid."

He spake, "Love me as I love thee, And Goldilocks one flesh shall be."

She said, "Fair man, I wot not how Thou lovest, but I love thee now.

But come a little hence away, That I may see thee in the day.