In such a hand as when a field of corn Bows all its ears before the roaring East; Three ladies of the Northern empire pray Your Highness would enroll them with your own, As Lady Psyche's pupils.' This I seal'd: The seal was Cupid bent above a scroll, And over him Uranian Venus hung, And raised the blinding bandage from his eyes: I gave the letter to be sent with dawn ; II. AT break of day the College Portress came: She brought us Academic silks, in hue The lilac, with a silken hood to each, And zoned with gold; and now when these were on, And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons, She, curtseying her obeisance, let us know The Princess Ida waited out we paced, : I first, and following thro' the porch that sang Compact of lucid marbles, boss'd with lengths Betwixt the pillars, and with great urns of flowers. And here and there on lattice edges lay Or book or lute; but hastily we past, There at a board by tome and paper sat, With two tame leopards couch'd beside her throne, All beauty compass'd in a female form, The Princess; liker to the inhabitant Of some clear planet close upon the Sun, Than our man's earth such eyes were in her head, power, breathing down From over her arch'd brows, with every turn Lived thro' her to the tips of her long hands, And to her feet. She rose her height, and said: 'We give you welcome: not without redound Of use and glory to yourselves ye come, The first-fruits of the stranger: aftertime, And that full voice which circles round the grave, Will rank you nobly, mingled up with me. What are the ladies of your land so tall? 'We of the court' said Cyril. From the court' She answer'd, then ye know the Prince?' and he : The climax of his age! as tho' there were One rose in all the world, your Highness that, He worships your ideal:' she replied: 'We scarcely thought in our own hall to hear This barren verbiage, current among men, Your flight from out your bookless wilds would seem Your language proves you still the child. For us, Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling The tricks, which make us toys of men, that so, Some future time, if so indeed you will, You may with those self-styled our lords ally Your fortunes, justlier balanced, scale with scale.' |