that lies Where Alpine shadows fall

On scenes that to the pil

grim's eyes Might Eden's bloom recall,

As when, undimmed by curse or crime,

It rose amid the dawn of

time

That early spring whose blossoms grew While yet the heavens and earth were new. There stood beside the rapid Rhone,

That, now from Leman free, By wood and city wall swept on

To meet the classic sea,

An ancient and a stately hall,
With donjon-keep and moated wall,

And battlements whose bannered pride

Had many a hostile host defied.

And she, the lady of the tower,

Though last of all her line,
Was mightiest in the matchless power

Of beauty-at whose shrine.
The flower of chivalry adored

And proved their vows by song and sword.
But knightly vow and minstrel strain
Beneath her lattice flowed in vain,
For in the maiden's bower there hung
A warrior's portrait, pale,
But wondrous beautiful and young,
And clad in burnished mail.

But there the maiden's earliest glance
And latest gaze would turn,
From thrilling harp and gleaming lance,
With love that seemed to spurn
All other vows, and serve alone
That nameless idol of its own;
For oft such glorious shadows rise,
And early hide from youthful eyes
The substance of this world, and claim
The heart's first-fruits, that taste
Of Paradise, though naught but Fame
Hath on the altar traced
The name no wave can wash away.
As old-remembered legends say
The Eastern maiden loved so long
The youth she only knew in song,

So loved the lady of the tower;
And summers glided on
Till, one by one, from hall and bower,
Her kindred maids were gone :
Some had put on the bridal-wreath,
Some wore the chaplet twined for death;
But still no mortal charms could wean
Her fancy from that pictured mien.
At length there came a noble knight,

Though past his manhood's prime;
His sword had been in many a fight,

His steps in many a clime;

But, ah! what thoughts that wooer's name
Awakened for it was the same
That the old painter's magic art
Had graven on the maiden's heart.

The idol of her youth was now
Before her, but she gazed
Upon the veteran's furrowed brow,
And then, in wonder, raised
Her eyes to that bright pictured face,
Whose changeless beauty bore no trace
Of wasting time or withering war,
Like his, in furrow or in scar.
Oh, many a loved and lovely face
Had
less fond and fair
Since first that picture met her gaze,
But still no change was there.
That age could dim or sorrow bow
The sunny cheek or stately brow-
She had not thought of things like these
In all her lonely reveries.

grown

Like him who saw through Alpine woods
The glacier's gemlike glow,

And climbed the rocks and crossed the floods

To find it only snow,

So felt the maiden as she said,

"My star is set—my rainbow fled!
Why hast thou come at last to break
My pleasant dream? How sad to wake!
What thoughts of thee o'er heart and mind.
Have sped their visioned gleam!

I meet thee now, but not to find

The shadow of my dream.
This heart hath only bowed before
The glory that the canvas wore:
That spell hath passed; my soul is free,
And turns no more to love or thee.

NA, the heroine of the poem, through the valor of St. George, the knight of the Red Cross, delivers her parents from the imprisonment under which they are held by a great dragon. The following extract from a letter of the poet addressed to Sir Walter Raleigh gives the plot of the

poem :

“In the beginning of the feast there presented himself a tall clownish young man, who, falling before the Queene of Faeries, desired a boon (as the manner then was), which during that feast she might not refuse; which was that he might have the achievement of any adventure which during that feast should happen. That being granted, he rested him on the floor, unfit through his rusticity for a better place. Soon after entered a fair lady in mourning weeds, riding on a white ass, with a dwarf behind her, leading a warlike steed, that bore the arms of a knight, and his spear in the dwarf's hand. She, falling before the Queene of Faeries, complained that her father and mother, an ancient king and queen, had been by an huge dragon many years shut up in a brazen castle, who thence suffered them not to issue, and therefore besought the Faerie Queene to assign her some one of her knights, to take on him that exploit. Presently that

clownish person, upstarting, desired that adventure; whereat the Queene much wondering, and the lady much gainsaying, yet he earnestly importuned his desire. In the end the lady told him that unless that armor which she brought would serve him, that he could not succeed in that enterprise; which being forthwith put upon him with due furnitures thereunto, he seemed the goodliest man in all that company, and was well liked of the lady. And eftesoones1 taking on him knighthood, and mounting on that strange courser, he went forth with her on that adventure."

THE COMBAT.

The Knight with that old Dragon fights
Two days incessantly;

The third, him overthrows; and gains
Most glorious victory.

HIGH time now gan it wex2 for Una fair
To think of those her captive parents dear,
And their forwasted3 kingdom to repair;
Whereto whenas they now approached near,
With hearty words her knight she
gan to
cheer,
And in her modest manner thus bespake :
"Dear Knight, as dear as ever knight was
dear,

That all these sorrows suffer for my sake, ye for High Heaven behold the tedious toil

me take!

"Now are we come unto my native soil,

And to the place where all our perils dwell;

But all so soon as he from far descried Those glistering arms that heaven with light did fill,