{"collection":"cfu","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cfu/boo/boo04.htm","path":"cfu/boo/boo04.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cfu/boo/boo04.htm","text":"The Book of Odes, by L. Cranmer-Byng, [1908]\nYou came\u2014a simple lad\n In dark blue cotton clad,\n To barter serge for silken wear;\n But not for silk you dallied there.\n Ah! was it not for me\n Who led you through the K\u2019e,\n Who guided you\n To far Tun-K\u2019ew?\n \"It is not I who would put off the day;\n But you have none your cause to plead,\"\n I said,\u2014\"O love, take heed,\n When the leaves fall do with me what you may.\"\nI saw the red leaves fall,\n And climbed the ruined wall,\n Towards the city of Fuh-kwan\n I did the dim horizon scan.\n \"He cometh not,\" I said,\n And burning tears were shed:\n You came\u2014I smiled,\n Love\u2014reconciled,\n You said, \"By taper reed and tortoise-shell,\n I have divined, and all, O love, is well.\"\n[paragraph continues] \"Then haste the car,\" I cried,\n \"Gather my goods and take me to thy side.\"\nBefore the mulberry tree\n With leaves hath strewn the lea,\n How glossy-green are they! how rare!\n Ah! thou young thoughtless dove beware!\n Avoid the dark fruit rife\n With sorrow to thy life.\n And thou, whose fence\n Is innocence,\n Seek no sweet pleasuring with any youth!\n For when a man hath sinned, but little shame\n Is fastened to his name,\n Yet erring woman wears the garb of ruth.\nWhen the lone mulberry tree\n With leaves bestrews the lea,\n They yellow slowly, slowly down\n From green to gold, from gold to brown.\n Three sombre years ago\n I fled with you, and lo,\n The floods of K\u2019e\n Now silently\n Creep to the curtains of my little car.\n Through cloud and gloom I was your constant\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0star;\n Now you have gone from sight,\n And love's white star roams aimless through\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the night.\n[paragraph continues] For three long years your wife,\n Toil was my part in life,\n Early from sleep I rose and went\n About my labour, calm, content;\n Nor any morn serene\n Lightened the dull routine.\n Early and late,\n I was your mate,\n Bearing the burdens that were yours to share.\n Fain of the little love that was my lot,\n Ah, kinsmen scorn me not!\n How should ye know when silence chills despair?\nOld we should grow in accord,\n Old\u2014and grief is my lord.\n Between her banks the K\u2019e doth steer,\n And pine-woods ring the lonely mere.\n In pleasant times I bound\n My dark hair to the sound\n Of whispered vows\n \u2019Neath lilac boughs,\n And little recked o\u2019er broken faith to weep.\n Now the grey shadows o\u2019er the marshland creep:\n The willows stir and fret:\n Low in the west the dull dun sun hath set.","title":"The Book of Odes: The Deserted Wife","type":"page"}