Alice: An Adultery

THE FIFTH DAY “ Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.” Richard III. All thought of work is almost cast aside. I followed like a dog the way she went, Speaking but seldom, very well content To day-dream, oft imagining a bride, A wife, a lover, even a sister, tied By some soft bond of twinning : thus I blent A real joy with a brighter element Of fancy free to wander far and wide. For as I followed by the shore and bended Over her footsteps in the wood, my will Rose to high strength assertive and transcended The petty forms of the seducer’s skill. Chaste love strode forth, a warrior’s stern and splendid Determined footsteps on the Arcadian Hill. 27