All rich in pearls that rare one bright
Drew near the shore beyond the flood;
From here to Greece no gladder wight
Than I, when by the brink she stood.
Nearer than niece or aunt, of right
I found in her my joy and good.
Then low she bowed her figure slight,
Cast by her crown in happy mood,

And as I looked, I understood,
And heard her greet me full of grace.
Dear Lord! who me with life endued
"Twas worth it all to see her face.

XXI

"O Pearl," I cried, "in pearlės dight,
Art thou that pearl that I have plained 13
Much missed by me alone, at night?
What longing have I long sustained

13 Bewailed.

204

229

235

240

Drawn by delight of eye and ear,
My yearning mood to madness grows;
I would be with my dear one there,
Though swift the severing current flows.
Nothing will harm me if on I fare,
Or lame me, methought, by baffling blows;
If I only the plunge in the stream can dare
I will swim the space though the waves oppose,
Or die in the deed. Yet a thought arose 1161
Ere I plunged perverse in that water chill,
That stilled my impatience and brought re-

700

All Anglesey's isles on the left hand he leaves,
And fares o'er the fording hard by the foreland,
Over at Holy-head, till he had journeyed
To Wirral's wilderness, where few are dwelling
Who God or man with good hearts regard.
Fain would he find from men that he met with
News of a Knight in that neighborhood dwelling
Who garbed him in green, or of a green chapel.
All denied him with "nay," saying not in a
lifetime

Wist they ever a wight that was of such hues
Of green.

The Knight rode ways most strange,
The rocky banks between,

And oft his cheer3 doth change,

Ere he that church hath seen.

706

710

At morn by a mountain he merrily rideth, 740 Through a woodland full wild that was wondrous and deep,

High hills on each hand, with a holt stretching under

Of hoar oaks full huge, a hundred together;
And tangled thickets of thorn and of hazel,
With shaggy robes of rough ragged mosses; 745
Many birds sit unblithely on the bare twigs,
And piteously pipe for pain of the cold.

The rider on Gringolet rideth beneath them
Through mire and marshes, a man all alone, 749
Perturbed in his toil lest to him 'twere forbidden
To share in His service, who, on that same
night,

Was born of a maid, all our sorrows to cure. Therefore sighing he said: "I beseech Thee, O Lord,

And Mary, mildest mother so dear,

Some shelter to show me, some spot to hear

O noble worthy king, Henry the ferthe,
In whom the gladde fortune is befalle
The people to govérne here upon erthė,
God hath thee chose, in comfort of us allė;

The Praise of Peace (or De Pacis Commendatione, as Gower entitled it) was a poem of welcome to Henry IV., on his accession to the throne in 1399. Gower had been distressed and disappointed by the misgovernment of Richard II.; in this poem he greets the new King, as one who, he trusts, will bring in a better time.

With peace stands every creature in resté,
Withouté peace there may no life be glad;
Above all other good, peace is the bestė;
Peace hath him-self, whan war is all bestad;2
The peace is safe, the war is ever adrad.
Peace is of alle charitie the keye,

Which hath the life and soule for to weigh.

40

My liege lord, if that thee list to seche
The sooth ensamples, what the war hath
wrought,

Thou shalt well hear, of wiseė mennės speché, 45
That deadly werré tourneth in-to nought.
For if these oldė bokės be well sought,

There might thou see what thing the war hath do

Both of conquest and conqueror alsó.

50

For vain honour, or for the worldės good,
They that whilom the stronge werres made,
Where be they now? Bethink well, in thy mood,
The day is goon, the night is dark and fade;
Her cruelte, which made them thanne glade,
They sorrow now, and yet have naught the