Let me not weep! Thou wert as true a knight
As ever yet laid his proud lance in rest
For tilt or tournament, or wore his crest
Of blazoned splendor in the thickest fight!
When trumpets blared, in all thine armor dight,
Forth didst thou fare to do thy lord’s behest,
Nor shrank from fiercest field, nor hardest quest
Keeping his banner ever in thy sight.
If now thy liege hath further need of thee
In the high courts of some wide realm afar,
Where in fair state his best and noblest are,
Shall I bewail thee with my woman’s tears?
Nay! Go thou on at his most wise decree,
And dwell triumphant in those higher spheres!