Poems (Forrest)/The queen's room

by Mabel Forrest

THE QUEEN'S ROOM

All yellow were the curtains of her room,
 Only the prie-Dieu was of leafy green,
Of yellow wood the tall and carven chairs
 With ebony and ivory studs between:

And broidered on the curtains was a stag,
 Golden, with antlers like a branch of flame,
And orange hounds that trailed him thro' the trees
 Even as envy muttered on her name.

And yellow was the pale robe of the Queen,
 As primrose petals blowing by a wood.
Her cincture was of gold, while emeralds
 In frozen pools betwixt the bright links stood.

All yellow was the moon above the lake,
 Where the red deer stamped in the silver glade:
And in the dark the ivory of her brow
 Against the green of her prie-Dieu was laid:

Yet she was listening thro' her flooding hair
 (As ears might listen on a headsman's block
Before the axe has fallen) for the sound
 Of stealthy key set in a grudging lock.

All yellow were the curtains in her room,
 All yellow was the moon above the tide:
The yellow door has opened to the King,
 "Mary have pity!" thus the great Queen cried.