OH! fairer than vermilion | |
| Shed upon western skies, | |
| Was the blush of that sweet Castilian | |
| With the deep brown eyes; | |
| As her happy heart grew firmer | 5 |
| In the strange bright days of yore, | |
| When she heard young Edward murmur | |
| “I love thee Eleanor!” | |
| |
| They twain went forth together, | |
| Away o’er the Midland Main, | 10 |
| Through the golden summer weather, | |
| To Syria’s mystic plain. | |
| Together, toil and danger | |
| And the loss of their loved ones bore, | |
| And perils from Paynim, stranger | 15 |
| Than death to Eleanor. | |
| |
| Where Lincoln’s towers of wonder | |
| Soar high o’er the vales of Trent, | |
| Their lives were torn asunder, | |
| To her home the good queen went. | 20 |
| Her corse to the tomb he carried, | |
| With grief at his heart’s stern core, | |
| And wherever at night they tarried, | |
| Rose a cross to Eleanor. | |
| |
| As ye trace a meteor’s onset | 25 |
| By a line of silver rain, | |
| As ye trace a royal sunset | |
| By streaks of a saffron stain, | |
| So to the minster holy | |
| At the west of London’s roar, | 30 |
| Mark ye how sadly, slowly, | |
| Passed the corse of Eleanor. | |
| |
| Back to where lances quiver, | |
| Straight back, by tower and town, | |
| By hill and wold and river, | 35 |
| For the love of Scotland’s crown; | |
| But ah! there is woe within him | |
| For the face he shall see no more; | |
| And conquests can not win him | |
| From the love of Eleanor. | 40 |
| |
| Years after, sternly dying | |
| In his tent by the Solway sea, | |
| With the breezes of Scotland flying | |
| O’er the gray sands wild and free, | |
| His dim thoughts sadly wander | 45 |
| To the happy days of yore, | |
| And he sees in the blue sky yonder | |
| The eyes of his Eleanor. | |
| |
| Time must destroy those crosses | |
| Raised by the poet king; | 50 |
| But as long as the blue sea tosses, | |
| As long as the skylarks sing; | |
| As long as London’s river | |
| Glides stately down to the Nore, | |
| Men shall remember ever | 55 |
| How he loved Queen Eleanor. | |
| |
