StoryTitle("caps", "Lady Clare") ?>
StoryOrigin("center", "by Alfred Lord Tennyson") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lord Ronald courted Lady Clare,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "I trow they did not part in scorn;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lord Ronald, her cousin, courted her", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And they will wed the morrow morn.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It was the time when lilies blow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And clouds are highest up in air,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lord Ronald brought a lily-white doe", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To give his cousin Lady Clare.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I trow they did not part in scorn:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Lovers long-betroth'd were they:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They two will wed the morrow morn!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "God's blessing on the day!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"He does not love me for my birth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Nor for my lands so broad and fair;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He loves me for my own true worth,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And that is well,\" said Lady Clare.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In there came old Alice the nurse,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Said, \"Who was this that went from thee?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"It was my cousin,\" said Lady Clare,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"To-morrow he weds with me.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"O God be thank'd!\" said Alice the nurse,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"That all comes round so just and fair:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lord Ronald is heir of all your lands,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And you are not the Lady Clare.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Are ye out of your mind, my nurse, my nurse?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Said Lady Clare, \"that ye speak so wild\";", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"As God's above,\" said Alice the nurse,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"I speak the truth: you are my child.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"The old Earl's daughter died at my breast;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "I speak the truth, as I live by bread!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I buried her like my own sweet child,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And put my child in her stead.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Falsely, falsely have ye done,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "O mother,\" she said, \"if this be true,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To keep the best man under the sun", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So many years from his due.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Nay now, my child,\" said Alice the nurse,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"But keep the secret for your life,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And all you have will be Lord Ronald's,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "When you are man and wife.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"If I'm a beggar born,\" she said,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"I will speak out, for I dare not lie.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Pull off, pull off, the broach of gold,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And fling the diamond necklace by.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Nay now, my child,\" said Alice the nurse,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"But keep the secret all ye can.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She said, \"Not so: but I will know", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "If there be any faith in man\".", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Nay now, what faith?\" said Alice the nurse,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"The man will cleave unto his right.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"And he shall have it,\" the lady replied,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"Tho\" I should die to-night.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Yet give one kiss to your mother dear!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Alas, my child, I sinn'd for thee.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"O mother, mother, mother,\" she said,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"So strange it seems to me.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Yet here's a kiss for my mother dear,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "My mother dear, if this be so,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And lay your hand upon my head,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And bless me, mother, ere I go.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She clad herself in a russet gown,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "She was no longer Lady Clare:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She went by dale, and she went by down,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With a single rose in her hair.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The lily-white doe Lord Ronald had brought", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Leapt up from where she lay,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Dropt her head in the maiden's hand,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And follow'd her all the way.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Down stept Lord Ronald from his tower:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"O Lady Clare, you shame your worth!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Why come you drest like a village maid,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That are the flower of the earth?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"If I come drest like a village maid,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "I am but as my fortunes are:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I am a beggar born,\" she said,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"And not the Lady Clare.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Play me no tricks,\" said Lord Ronald,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"For I am yours in word and in deed.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Play me no tricks,\" said Lord Ronald,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"Your riddle is hard to read.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "O and proudly stood she up!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Her heart within her did not fail:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She look'd into Lord Ronald's eyes,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And told him all her nurse's tale.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He laugh'd a laugh of merry scorn:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "He turn'd, and kiss\"d her where she stood:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"If you are not the heiress born,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And I,\" said he, \"the next in blood—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"If you are not the heiress born,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And I,\" said he, \"the lawful heir,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We two will wed to-morrow morn,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And you shall still be Lady Clare.\" ", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>