| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Queen’s Vespers |
| | | Aubrey Thomas De Vere (b. 1814) |
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| HALF kneeling yet, and half reclining, | |
| She held her harp against her knees: | |
| Aloft the ruddy roofs were shining, | |
| And sunset touch’d the trees. | |
| From the gold border gleam’d like snow | 5 |
| Her foot: a crown enrich’d her brow: | |
| Dark gems confin’d that crimson vest | |
| Close-moulded on her neck and breast. | |
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| In silence lay the cloistral court | |
| And shadows of the convent towers: | 10 |
| Well order’d now in stately sort | |
| Those royal halls and bowers. | |
| The choral chaunt had just swept by; | |
| Bright arms lay quivering yet on high: | |
| Thereon the warriors gaz’d, and then | 15 |
| Glanced lightly at the Queen again. | |
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| While from her lip the wild hymn floated, | |
| Such grace in those uplifted eyes | |
| And sweet, half absent looks, they noted | |
| That, surely, through the skies | 20 |
| A Spirit, they deem’d, flew forward ever | |
| Above that song’s perpetual river, | |
| And, smiling from its joyous track, | |
| Upon her heavenly face look’d back. | |
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