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Christina Georgina Rossetti - Maude Clare
Work rating: Low

Out of the church she followed them
  With a lofty step and mien:
His bride was like a village maid,
  Maude Clare was like a queen.

`Son Thomas,` his lady mother said,
  With smiles, almost with tears:
`May Nell and you but live as true
  As we have done for years;

`Your father thirty years ago
  Had just your tale to tell; 
But he was not so pale as you,
  Nor I so pale as Nell.`

My lord was pale with inward strife,
  And Nell was pale with pride;
My lord gazed long on pale Maude Clare
  Or ever he kissed the bride.

`Lo, I have brought my gift, my lord,
  Have brought my gift,` she said:
`To bless the hearth, to bless the board,
  To bless the marriage-bed. 

`Here`s my half of the golden chain
  You wore about your neck,
That day we waded ankle-deep
  For lilies in the beck:

`Here`s my half of the faded leaves
  We plucked from budding bough,
With feet amongst the lily leaves,—
  The lilies are budding now.`

He strove to match her scorn with scorn,
  He faltered in his place: 
`Lady,` he said,—`Maude Clare,` he said,—
  `Maude Clare:`—and hid his face.

She turn`d to Nell: `My Lady Nell,
  I have a gift for you;
Though, were it fruit, the bloom were gone,
  Or, were it flowers, the dew.

`Take my share of a fickle heart,
  Mine of a paltry love:
Take it or leave it as you will,
  I wash my hands thereof.` 

`And what you leave,` said Nell, `I`ll take,
  And what you spurn, I`ll wear;
For he`s my lord for better and worse,
  And him I love, Maude Clare.

`Yea, though you`re taller by the head,
  More wise, and much more fair;
I`ll love him till he loves me best,
  Me best of all, Maude Clare.`
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