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Wilfrid Scawen Blunt - A Ballad Of The Heather
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We spent a day together,
 One day of all our lives,
 Of love in cloudless weather--
 Such only youth contrives--
 One day in the red heather,
 Alone with our two lives.

 The tall grey rocks were near us,
 The birch--trees lent us shade,
 The moorfowl did not fear us,
 Nor was the fox afraid.
 No other life was near us
 Of matron, man or maid.

 The glory of the morning
 Had made our pulses beat,
 The dangers we were scorning,
 The pleadings of retreat,
 Her mother`s eyes of warning,
 The foes that we might meet.

 Earth`s silence was our token,
 The sunlight on the hill.
 We whispered things unspoken,
 We stopped and gazed our fill.
 The stillness was not broken,
 Save thus at our own will.

 We sat down by the water,
 A green and quiet place.
 She ate what I had brought her
 When she had said her grace.
 She was Eve`s fairest daughter.
 I kneeled and kissed her face.

 O Love, what deeds thou darest,
 When truth is on thy lips!
 What royal robes thou wearest!
 What wealth is in thy ships!
 What glories thou declarest
 With thy mad finger--tips!

 We called on the high Heaven
 In witness of our troth,
 From morning until even,
 While time was little loath
 To give and be forgiven
 The dear love in us both.

 Aloft the raven scouting
 Gave warning to the glen.
 We heard a sound of shouting
 The tramp of angry men.
 No time was there for doubting,
 And I was one to ten.

 I hid her in the braken,
 A brood--bird on its nest.
 She wept as one forsaken
 And held me to her breast.
 We dared not thus be taken.
 I fled, for it was best.

 They passed her by unheeded.
 They hunted me in sight.
 I lured them while she needed,
 A lapwing feigning flight.
 Then o`er the hills I speeded
 And left them to the night.

 Alas, dear love, together
 No more in all our lives
 Shall we in cloudless weather,
 Outwitting maids and wives,
 Take joy of the red heather
 And love and our two lives.
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