Angry and sad shall be my way
  If I behold not her afar,
And yet I know not when that day
  Shall rise, for still she dwells afar. 
God, who has formed this fair array
  Of worlds, and placed my love afar,
Strengthen my heart with hope, I pray,
  Of seeing her I love afar.
]

VII.

THE ROMAUNT OF THE CASTLE OF WEIR.

I.

The baron has gone to the hunting green,
All by the ancient Castle of Weir,
With his guest, Sir Hubert, of Norman kin,
And a maiden, his only daughter dear—­
The Ladye Tomasine, famed around
For beauty as well as for courtesie,
Wherever might sensible heads be found,
Or ears to listen, or eyes to see. 
Nor merely skin-deep was she fair: 
She had a spirit both true and leal,
As all about the Castle of Weir
Were many to know, and many to tell. 
Right well she knew what it was to feel
Grim poverty in declining day,
With a purse to ope, and a hand to deal,
And tears to bless what she gave away;
Yet she was blithe and she was gay. 
And now she has gone to the hunting green,
All on this bright and sunshiny day,
To fly her favourite peregrine,
With her hunting coat of the baudykin,
Down which there flowed her raven hair,
And her kirtle of the red sendal fine,
With an eagle’s plume in her heading gear.

II.

If the knight had not a hawk on his wrist,
He had kestrel eyes both cunning and keen,
And the quarry of which he was in quest
Was the heart of the lovely Tomasine;
But the ladye thought him a kestrel kite,
With a grovelling eye to the farmer’s coop,
And wanted the bold and daring flight
That mounts to the sun to make a swoop.

The Baron of Weir points to the sky,
“Ho! ho! a proud heron upon the wing! 
Unhood, my Tomasine dear, untie! 
Off with the jesses—­away him fling!”
“Up! up! my Guy,” cried the laughing maid,
As with nimble fingers she him unjessed,
“Up! up! and away! and earn thy bread,
Then back to thy mistress to be caressed.” 
Up sprang the bird with a joyful cry,
And eyed his quarry, yet far away,
Still up and up in the dark blue sky,
That he might aim a swoop on his prey;
Then down as the lightning bolt of Jove
On the heron, who, giving a scream of fear,
Shoots away from his enemy over above,
And makes for the rushing Water of Weir.

III.