No More Learning

Sir, you may,
You are a knight and very valorous;
I am a woman. I shall never come
This way but once.
(The Knight and the Lady appear on the top of the tower. )

K.
Kiss me at last, my love.

L.
Oh, my sweet lord, I am too tired to kiss.
Look how the earth is like an emerald,
With rivers veined and flawed with fallow fields.

K. (Lifting her veil)
Then I kiss you, a thousand thousand kisses
For all the days ere I had won to you
Beyond the walls and gates you barred so close.
Call me at last your love, your castle's lord.

L. (After a pause)
I love you.

(She kisses him. Her veil blows away like a white butterfly
over the parapet.
Faint cries and laughter from men and women
under the tower. )

Men and Women.
The veil, the lady's veil!

(The knight takes the lady in his arms. )

L.
My lord, I pray you loose me from your arms
Lest that my people see how much we love.

K.
May they not see us? All of them have loved.

L.
But you have been an enemy, my lord,
With walls between us and with moss-grown moats,
Now on a sudden must I kiss your mouth?
I who was taught before I learned to speak
That all my house was hostile unto yours,
Now can I put my head against your breast
Here in the sight of all who choose to come?

K.
Are we not past the caring for their eyes
And nearer to the heaven than to earth?
Look up and see.

L.