Vivien

Alan Seeger

Her eyes under their lashes were blue pools

Fringed round with lilies; her bright hair unfurled

Clothed her as sunshine clothes the summer world.

Her robes were gauzes — gold and green and gules,

All furry things flocked round her, from her hand

Nibbling their foods and fawning at her feet.

Two peacocks watched her where she made her seat

Beside a fountain in Broceliande.

Sometimes she sang. . . . Whoever heard forgot

Errand and aim, and knights at noontide here,

Riding from fabulous gestes beyond the seas,

Would follow, tranced, and seek . . . and find her not . . .

But wake that night, lost, by some woodland mere,

Powdered with stars and rimmed with silent trees.