IX A COTTAGE INSCRIPTION
Reading edition
“Time trieth troth.” Who carved the text Above the narrow cottage door? Two hundred years of storm have vexed The words which front the western moor.
Was it a hind who loved the king That held his court beyond the sea, A hind who taught his child to sing Of Stuart rose and Stuart tree?
Was it a swain whose soul adored A maid who went to London town? And did she choose some spangled lord And coldly flout her country clown?
“Time trieth troth.” And was he true Whose chisel carved that rugged line? And was he loyal till the yew O’erarched his heart’s now silent shrine?
Then, though bereft of king or love, He found the poet’s secret gain, The sympathy of suns above, The friendship of the falling rain.