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Two Red Roses Across The Moon

By William Morris

Topics: classic

There was a lady lived in a hall,     Large of her eyes, and slim and tall;     And ever she sung from noon to noon,     Two red roses across the moon.     There was a knight came riding by     In early spring, when the roads were dry;     And he heard that lady sing at the noon,     Two red roses across the moon.     Yet none the more he stopp'd at all,     But he rode a-gallop past the hall;     And left that lady singing at noon,     Two red roses across the moon.     Because, forsooth, the battle was set,     And the scarlet and blue had got to be met,     He rode on the spur till the next warm noon:     Two red roses across the moon.     But the battle was scatter'd from hill to hill,     From the windmill to the watermill;     And he said to himself, as it near'd the noon,     Two red roses across the moon.     You scarce could see for the scarlet and blue,     A golden helm or a golden shoe:     So he cried, as the fight grew thick at the noon,     Two red roses across the moon!     Verily then the gold bore through     The huddled spears of the scarlet and blue;     And they cried, as they cut them down at the noon,     Two red roses across the moon!     I trow he stopp'd when he rode again     By the hall, though draggled sore with the rain;     And his lips were pinch'd to kiss at the noon     Two red roses across the moon.     Under the may she stoop'd to the crown,     All was gold, there was nothing of brown;     And the horns blew up in the hall at noon,     Two red roses across the moon.

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"There was a lady lived in a hall,..."

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Author:William Morris

"There was a lady lived in a hall,..." by William Morris

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

William Morris

About William Morris

William Morris (1834–1896) was an English poet, artist, and socialist reformer associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts movement. His epic poems "The Earthly Paradise" and "Sigurd the Volsung" draw on medieval legend and Norse mythology.

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