Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A BALLAD OF QUEEN ELIZABETH, by MARGARET WIDDEMER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A BALLAD OF QUEEN ELIZABETH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Queen elizabeth sat on her threshold
Last Line: I think they never knew.
Alternate Author Name(s): Schauffler, Mrs. Robert H.
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Elizabeth I, Queen Of England (1533-1603


Queen Elizabeth sat on her threshold
Before she had quite grown old,
The gown she wore was of scarlet satin
And her coif was of silk and gold:

The Lord of Leicester knelt at her shoulder
And a lute-child played by her knee --
It was one of those hours that are never forgotten,
And nothing to hear or see;

Lord Leicester talked of a day they remembered
When they were little together,
Of young Queen Jane and a robe she wore,
And the old King's chain and feather:

The child with the lute leaned close to the Queen
And laid his head on her knee
To hear their stories of once-on-a-time
When they were little as he,

And the Queen put a hand on Lord Leicester's shoulder
And a hand on the lute-child's head . . .
Yet there was little she seemed to hear
Of the things they sang and said. . . .

And the trumpets blew from under the window,
Calling the Queen to rise,
And her face turned back to a Queen's again
And her eyes turned hard and wise,

And she said, "I think I hear England calling,
That I wedded while I was fair,
And England is calling, that is my child":
And she went and left them there.

But Leicester was only a man after all,
And the boy was a man-child too,
So the thing she was feigning before she left them
I think they never knew.





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