Kate by Alfred (Lord) Tennyson

Kate

I know her by her angry air,

Her bright black eyes, her bright black

hair,

Her rapid laughters wild and shrill,

As laughters of the woodpecker

From the bosom of a hill.

'T is Kate she sayeth what she will:

For Kate hath an unbridled tongue,

Clear as the twanging of a harp.

Her heart is like a throbbing star.

Kate hath a spirit ever strung

Like a new bow, and bright and sharp

As edges of the scymetar.

Whence shall she take a fitting mate?

For Kate no common love will feel;

My woman-soldier, gallant Kate,

As pure and true as blades of steel.

Kate saith "the world is void of might."

Kate saith "the men are gilded flies."

Kate snaps her fingers at my vows;

Kate will not hear of lovers' sighs.

I would I were an armed knight,

Far famed for well won enterprise,

And wearing on my swarthy brows

The garland of new-wreathed emprise;

For in a moment I would pierce

The blackest files of clanging fight,

And strongly strike to left and right,

In dreaming of my lady's eyes.

Oh ! Kate loves well the bold and fierce;

But none are bold enough for Kate,

She can not find a fitting mate.