For Mary Stuart, in Captivity

Though by wide seas and Time we sundered are,
Sweet Queen, the light-flash of that beauteous sun,
Your eyes, whose like the whole world holdeth none,
Ne'er from my heart can wander long or far.

Thou other queen, that under prison bar
Holdest so rare a queen, bid wrath begone
And change thy rede. From dawn to evening star
The sun sees not so base an action done!

Peoples, you shame your birth, sluggards at arms!
Your forbears Roland, Renault, Lancelot,
Fought with glad hearts for noble ladies' charms,

Warded, and saved them. While you, Frenchmen, dare
Not don your armor! — nay, have touched it not
To free from slavery a queen so fair!