Nine feat Fiddlers had good Queen Bess To play her music as she did dress. Behind an arras of horse and hound They sate there scraping delightsome sound. Spangled, bejewelled, her skirts would she Draw o'er a petticoat of cramasie; And soft each string like a bird would sing In the starry dusk of evening. Then slow from the deeps the crisscross bows, Crooning like doves, arose and arose. When, like a cage, did her ladies raise A stiff rich splendour o'er her ribbed stays, Like bumbling bees those four times nine Fingers in melodies loud did pine; Last came her coif and her violet shoon And her virgin face shone out like the moon: Oh, then in a rapture those three times three Fiddlers squealed shrill on their topmost C. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE NEW APOCRYPHA: THE FIG TREE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS GOD'S YOUTH by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE FIRST VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT [1497] by KATHARINE LEE BATES FETES GALANTES: MANDOLINE by PAUL VERLAINE PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 69. AL-MAKUTADIR by EDWIN ARNOLD |