Alice Cary

Balder’s Wife

Her casement like a watchful eye
  From the face of the wall looks down,
Lashed round with ivy vines so dry,
  And with ivy leaves so brown.
Her golden head in her lily hand        
  Like a star in the spray o’ the sea,
And wearily rocking to and fro,
She sings so sweet and she sings so low
  To the little babe on her knee.
But let her sing what tune she may,        
Never so light and never so gay,
It slips and slides and dies away
  To the moan of the willow water.

Like some bright honey-hearted rose
  That the wild wind rudely mocks,        
She blooms from the dawn to the day’s sweet close
  Hemmed in with a world of rocks.
The livelong night she doth not stir,
  But keeps at her casement lorn,
And the skirts of the darkness shine with her        
  As they shine with the light o’ the morn,
And all who pass may hear her lay,
But let it be what tune it may,
It slips and slides and dies away
  To the moan of the willow water.        

And there, within that one-eyed tower,
  Lashed round with the ivy brown,
She droops like some unpitied flower
  That the rain-fall washes down:
The damp o’ the dew in her golden hair,        
  Her cheek like the spray o’ the sea,
And wearily rocking to and fro,
She sings so sweet and she sings so low
  To the little babe on her knee.
But let her sing what tune she may,        
Never so glad and never so gay,
It slips and slides and dies away
  To the moan of the willow water.