and
the poem is as follows:--

"_What is good for a bootless bene?_"
The Lady answer'd, "_endless sorrow_."
_Her_ words are plain; but the Falconer's words
Are a path that is dark to travel thorough.

These words I bring from the Banks of Wharf,
Dark words to front an ancient tale:
And their meaning is, whence can comfort spring
When prayer is of no avail?

"What is good for a bootless bene?"
The Falconer to the Lady said,
And she made answer as ye have heard,
For she knew that her Son was dead.

She knew it from the Falconer's words
And from the look of the Falconer's eye,
And from the love that was in her heart
For her youthful Romelli.

Young Romelli to the Woods is gone,
And who doth on his steps attend?
He hath a greyhound in a leash,
A chosen forest Friend.

And they have reach'd that famous Chasm
Where he who dares may stride
Across the River Wharf, pent in
With rocks on either side.

And that striding place is call'd THE STRID,
A name which it took of yore;
A thousand years hath it borne that name,
And shall a thousand more.

And thither is young Romelli come;
And what may now forbid
That He, perhaps for the hundredth time,
Shall bound across the Strid?

He sprang in glee; for what cared he
That the River was strong, and the Rocks were steep?
But the greyhound in the Leash hung back
And check'd him in his leap.

The Boy is in the arms of Wharf,
And strangled with a merciless force;
For never more was young Romelli seen,
Till he was a lifeless corse.

Now is there stillness in the vale
And long unspeaking sorrow,
Wharf has buried fonder hopes
Than e'er were drown'd in Yarrow.[E]

If for a Lover the Lady wept
A comfort she might borrow
From death, and from the passion of death;
Old Wharf might heal her sorrow.

She weeps not for the Wedding-day
That was to be to-morrow,[F]
Her hope was a farther-looking hope
And hers is a Mother's sorrow.

Oh was he not a comely tree?
And proudly did his branches wave;
And the Root of this delightful Tree
Is in her Husband's grave.

Long, long in darkness did she sit,
And her first word was, "Let ther