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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=356089" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Maiden-Song</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Long ago and long ago, <br>And long ago still, <br>There dwelt three merry maidens <br>Upon a distant hill. <br>One was tall Megan, <br>And one was dainty May, <br>But one was fair Margaret, <br>More fair than I can say, <br>Long ago and long ago. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">When Megan plucked the thorny rose,<br>And when May pulled the brier, <br>Half the birds would swoop to see, <br>Half the beasts draw nigher; <br>Half the fishes of the streams <br>Would dart up to admire: <br>But when Margaret plucked a flag-flower, <br>Or poppy hot aflame, <br>All the beasts and all the birds <br>And all the fishes came <br>To her hand more soft than snow.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Strawberry leaves and May-dew <br>In brisk morning air, <br>Strawberry leaves and May-dew <br>Make maidens fair. <br>'I go for strawberry leaves,' <br>Megan said one day: <br>'Fair Margaret can bide at home, <br>But you come with me, May; <br>Up the hill and down the hill, <br>Along the winding way 30 <br>You and I are used to go.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">So these two fair sisters <br>Went with innocent will <br>Up the hill and down again, <br>And round the homestead hill: <br>While the fairest sat at home, <br>Margaret like a queen, <br>Like a blush-rose, like the moon <br>In her heavenly sheen, <br>Fragrant-breathed as milky cow <br>Or field of blossoming bean, <br>Graceful as an ivy bough <br>Born to cling and lean; <br>Thus she sat to sing and sew. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">When she raised her lustrous eyes <br>A beast peeped at the door; <br>When she downward cast her eyes <br>A fish gasped on the floor; <br>When she turned away her eyes <br>A bird perched on the sill, <br>Warbling out its heart of love, <br>Warbling warbling still, <br>With pathetic pleadings low. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Light-foot May with Megan <br>Sought the choicest spot, <br>Clothed with thyme-alternate grass: <br>Then, while day waxed hot, <br>Sat at ease to play and rest, <br>A gracious rest and play; <br>The loveliest maidens near or far, <br>When Margaret was away, <br>Who sat at home to sing and sew. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sun-glow flushed their comely cheeks, <br>Wind-play tossed their hair, <br>Creeping things among the grass <br>Stroked them here and there; <br>Megan piped a merry note, <br>A fitful wayward lay, <br>While shrill as bird on topmost twig <br>Piped merry May; <br>Honey-smooth the double flow. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sped a herdsman from the vale, <br>Mounting like a flame, <br>All on fire to hear and see, <br>With floating locks he came. <br>Looked neither north nor south, <br>Neither east nor west, <br>But sat him down at Megan's feet <br>As love-bird on his nest, <br>And wooed her with a silent awe,<br>With trouble not expressed; <br>She sang the tears into his eyes, <br>The heart out of his breast: <br>So he loved her, listening so. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">She sang the heart out of his breast, <br>The words out of his tongue; <br>Hand and foot and pulse he paused <br>Till her song was sung. <br>Then he spoke up from his place <br>Simple words and true:<br>'Scanty goods have I to give, <br>Scanty skill to woo; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But I have a will to work, <br>And a heart for you: <br>Bid me stay or bid me go.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then Megan mused within herself: <br>'Better be first with him, <br>Than dwell where fairer Margaret sits, <br>Who shines my brightness dim, <br>For ever second where she sits,<br>However fair I be: <br>I will be lady of his love, <br>And he shall worship me; <br>I will be lady of his herds <br>And stoop to his degree, <br>At home where kids and fatlings grow.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sped a shepherd from the height <br>Headlong down to look, <br>(White lambs followed, lured by love <br>Of their shepherd's crook):<br>He turned neither east nor west, <br>Neither north nor south, <br>But knelt right down to May, for love <br>Of her sweet-singing mouth; <br>Forgot his flocks, his panting flocks <br>In parching hill-side drouth; <br>Forgot himself for weal or woe. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Trilled her song and swelled her song <br>With maiden coy caprice <br>In a labyrinth of throbs,<br>Pauses, cadences; <br>Clear-noted as a dropping brook, <br>Soft-noted like the bees, <br>Wild-noted as the shivering wind <br>Forlorn through forest trees: <br>Love-noted like the wood-pigeon <br>Who hides herself for love, <br>Yet cannot keep her secret safe, <br>But coos and coos thereof: <br>Thus the notes rang loud or low.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He hung breathless on her breath; <br>Speechless, who listened well; <br>Could not speak or think or wish <br>Till silence broke the spell. <br>Then he spoke, and spread his hands, <br>Pointing here and there: <br>'See my sheep and see the lambs, <br>Twin lambs which they bare. <br>All myself I offer you, <br>All my flocks and care,<br>Your sweet song hath moved me so.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">In her fluttered heart young May <br>Mused a dubious while: <br>'If he loves me as he says'-- <br>Her lips curved with a smile: <br>'Where Margaret shines like the sun <br>I shine but like a moon; <br>If sister Megan makes her choice <br>I can make mine as soon; <br>At cockcrow we were sister-maids,<br>We may be brides at noon.' <br>Said Megan, 'Yes;' May said not 'No.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Fair Margaret stayed alone at home, <br>Awhile she sang her song, <br>Awhile sat silent, then she thought: <br>'My sisters loiter long.' <br>That sultry noon had waned away, <br>Shadows had waxen great: <br>'Surely,' she thought within herself, <br>'My sisters loiter late.'<br>She rose, and peered out at the door, <br>With patient heart to wait, <br>And heard a distant nightingale <br>Complaining of its mate; <br>Then down the garden slope she walked, <br>Down to the garden gate, <br>Leaned on the rail and waited so. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The slope was lightened by her eyes <br>Like summer lightning fair, <br>Like rising of the haloed moon <br>Lightened her glimmering hair, <br>While her face lightened like the sun <br>Whose dawn is rosy white. <br>Thus crowned with maiden majesty <br>She peered into the night, <br>Looked up the hill and down the hill, <br>To left hand and to right, <br>Flashing like fire-flies to and fro. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Waiting thus in weariness <br>She marked the nightingale <br>Telling, if any one would heed, <br>Its old complaining tale. <br>Then lifted she her voice and sang, <br>Answering the bird: <br>Then lifted she her voice and sang, <br>Such notes were never heard <br>From any bird when Spring's in blow. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The king of all that country <br>Coursing far, coursing near, <br>Curbed his amber-bitted steed,<br>Coursed amain to hear; <br>All his princes in his train, <br>Squire, and knight, and peer, <br>With his crown upon his head, <br>His sceptre in his hand, <br>Down he fell at Margaret's knees <br>Lord king of all that land, <br>To her highness bending low. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Every beast and bird and fish <br>Came mustering to the sound,<br>Every man and every maid <br>From miles of country round: <br>Megan on her herdsman's arm, <br>With her shepherd May, <br>Flocks and herds trooped at their heels <br>Along the hill-side way; <br>No foot too feeble for the ascent, <br>Not any head too grey; <br>Some were swift and none were slow. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">So Margaret sang her sisters home<br>In their marriage mirth; <br>Sang free birds out of the sky, <br>Beasts along the earth, <br>Sang up fishes of the deep-- <br>All breathing things that move <br>Sang from far and sang from near <br>To her lovely love; <br>Sang together friend and foe; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sang a golden-bearded king <br>Straightway to her feet,<br>Sang him silent where he knelt <br>In eager anguish sweet. <br>But when the clear voice died away, <br>When longest echoes died, <br>He stood up like a royal man <br>And claimed her for his bride. <br>So three maids were wooed and won <br>In a brief May-tide, <br>Long ago and long ago.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Christina+Georgina+Rossetti">Christina Georgina Rossetti</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=356089" data-title="Maiden-Song de Christina Georgina Rossetti" data-description="Long ago and long ago, 
And long ago still, 
There dwelt three merry maidens 
Upon a distant hill. 
One was tall Megan, 
And one was dainty May, 
But one was fair Margaret, 
More fair than I can say, 
Long ago and long ago. 

When Megan plucked th..."></div>
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