PROVENÇAL LOVERS
AUCASSIN AND NICOLETTE
by: Edmund Clarence Stedman
(1833-1908)
- ITHIN the
garden of Beaucaire
- He met her by a secret stair, --
- The night was centuries ago.
- Said Aucassin, "My love, my pet,
- These old confessors vex me so!
- They threaten all the pains of hell
- Unless I give you up, ma belle";--
- Said Aucassin to Nicolette.
-
- "Now, who should there in Heaven be
- To fill your place, ma très-douce mie?
- To reach that spot I little care!
- There all the droning priests are met;
- All the old cripples, too, are there
- That unto shrines and altars cling
- To filch the Peter-pence we bring";--
- Saud Aucassin to Nicolette.
-
- "There are the barefoot monks and friars
- With gowns well tattered by the briars,
- The saints who lift their eyes and whine:
- I like them not -- a starveling set!
- Who'd care with folk like these to dine?
- The other road 't were just as well
- That you and I should take, ma belle!"--
- Said Aucassin to Nicolette.
-
- "To purgatory I would go
- With pleasant comrades whom we know,
- Fair scholars, minstrels, lusty knights
- Whose deeds the land will not forget,
- The captains of a hundred fights,
- The men of valor and degree:
- We'll join that gallant company,"--
- Said Aucassin to Nicolette.
-
- "There, too, are jousts and joyance rare,
- And beauteous ladies debonair,
- The pretty dames, the pretty brides,
- Who with their wedded lords coquet
- And have a friend or two besides,--
- And all in gold and trappings gay,
- With furs, and crests in vair and gray,"--
- Said Aucassin to Nicolette.
-
- "Sweet players on the cithern strings,
- And they who roam the world like kings,
- Are gathered there, so blithe and free!
- Pardie! I'd join them now, my pet,
- If you went also, ma douce mie!
- The joys of heaven I'd forego
- To have you with me there below,"--
- Said Aucassin to Nicolette.
"Provencal Lovers" is
reprinted from The Little Book of American Poets: 1787-1900.
Ed. Jessie B. Rittenhouse. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1915. |
MORE POEMS BY EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN |
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