Paid Ad: Visit our Royal Wedding shop and buy online china, artwork and Royal Wedding prints
Paid Ad: All you need to know about the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II June 2-5, 2012

The Lady Jane Grey Internet Museum Poetry

Lady Jane Grey. On Seeing A Picture Representing Her Engaged In The Study Of Plato

Author: Lydia Howard Sigourney
Source: "Poems"
Year: 1850
Found here.

So early wise! Beauty hath been to thee
No traitor-friend to steal the key
Of knowledge from thy mind,
Making thee gorgeous to the eye,
Flaunting and flushed with vanity,
Yet inly blind.

Hark! the hunting-bugle sounds,
Thy father's park is gay,
Stately nobles cheer the hounds,
Soft hands the coursers sway,
Haste to the sport, away! away!
Youth, and mirth, and love, are there,
Lingerest thou, fairest of the fair,
In thy lone chamber to explore
Ancient Plato's classic lore?

Grave Roger Ascham's gaze
Is fix'd on thee with fond amaze;
Doubtless the sage doth marvel deep,
That, for philosophy divine,
A lady could decline
The pleasure 'mid yon pageant-train to sweep,
The glory o'er some five-barr'd gate to leap,
And, in the toil of reading Greek,
Which many a student flies,
Find more entrancing rhetoric
Than fashion's page supplies.

Ah, sweet enthusiast! happier far for thee
Had'st thou thy musing intellectual joy
Thro' life indulg'd without alloy,
In solitary sanctity,—
Nor dar'd ambition's fearful shrift,
Nor laid thy shrinking hand on Edward's fatal gift.

The crown! the crown! It sparkles on thy brow,
I see Northumberland with joy elate,
And low thy haughty sire doth bow,
Honouring thy high estate,
She, too, the austerely beautiful, whose eye
Check'd thy timid infancy,
Until thy heart's first buds folded their leaves to die,
Homage to her meek daughter pays:
Yet, sooth to say, one fond embrace,
One kiss, such as the peasant-mother gives
When on its evening bed her child she lays,
Had dearer been to thee, than all their courtly phrase.
The tower! the tower! thou bright-hair'd beauteous one!
There, where the captive's breath
Hath sigh'd itself in bitterness away,
Where iron nerves have withered one by one,
And the sick eye, shut from the glorious sun,
Grop'd mid those chilling walls till idiocy
Made life like death,—
There must thy resting be?

Not long! Not long'. What savage band
'Neath thy grated window bears
His headless form, his lifeless hand
The magic of whose love could charm away thy cares?
Guildford! thy husband! yet the gushing tear
Scarce flows to mourn his fate severe,
Thy pious thought doth rise
To those unclouded skies,
Where he, amid the angel train,
Doth for thy coming wait, to part no more again.

The scaffold! Must it be!—Stern England's Queen,
Hast thou such doom decreed?
Dwells Draco's soul beneath a woman's mein?
Must guileless youth and peerless beauty bleed?
Away! Away! I will not see the deed!
Fresh drops of crimson stain the new-fall'n snow,
The wintry winds wail fitfully and low;—
But the meek victim is not there,
Far from this troubled scene,
High o'er the tyrant queen,
She finds that crown which from her brow
No envious hand may tear.
Back To Front Page
Life: 1 - 1a - 1a2 - 1a3 -1b : Jane & Ascham - 1c - 1d - 1e: Jane & Guildford - 2 - 3 - 3a - 4: Jane & Prince & the Pauper - 5
Reign: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 | Tower: 1 - 2 | Execution: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 | Miscellany: 1 - 2 - Uneekdolldesign's Lady Jane Grey Dolls
Lee Porritt's Jane Artwork | Jane Comic | Movies: "Lady Jane" - "Tudor Rose"
Stephan Edwards' Page On The Eworth Painting, Tower Images & Bradgate Images
Newest Additions - Past Additions: 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010
Library - Links - Bookcase - Book Store - Donate - Site Map

This site is constantly under construction. When I have more images to share or more details for images already listed that have none, I will be updating the site. Please join my update only list if you wish to be informed of those updates.

Read the GuestbookSign the Guestbook

Copyright © 2002 - 2011 Sonja Marie - Contact Owner
Want to know when this site is updated? Join my UPDATE ONLY mailing list! Enter your email address below, then click the 'Join List' button:
Subscribe to JaneGreyMuseumUpdate
Powered by groups.yahoo.com