Two Lovers

Oh Rose, a woman stuck between two worlds,
Two men, two heroes, two lovers
One could say she had fallen apart;
Only love could quench her hungry heart.

Her husband the great Duke Coldworth
Now lay rest beneath the mulchy earth
Rose, her love, still in her heart and by his coffin.
Oh Rose, who could never let go of her one lover,
Now found she had another.

The great knight Sir Valens
Champion of the county taverns
Stumbled into her heart one day

And she watched his steely gaze,
Shielded by a visor haze,
As he jousted from combatant to combatant and what for,
Not for money but for honour and glory;
Rose’s heart began to beat once more.

The gilded knight with his manly complexion
A man of wonder, no need for correction,
Entered her every dream, and,
As she woke, her bed was but cold and bare.

She had to meet this mysterious man,
But oh, her husband, a voice beyond the grave;
What would he have to say about this striking knave?
But love beckoned, a widow as people would know,
And still caught in her husband’s deathly grip,
Her heart controlled her mind, in love with a knight she could not see
Oh Rose, why did you let love control you so?

Sir Valens was a fit man indeed,
But not of riches, only beauty, strength
And English breed.
Rose stumbled past his dorm one day,
To see this fairest knight
But she found she could not go away,
She would talk to him from dark to light.

She told him how she loved her husband,
The great Duke Coldworth now deceased
And how she longed to be with him once more,
Each day her hope decreased.

One day Sir Valens could take no more
“Aghast!” he cried,
and removed his helmet,
“And now I know your love has lied!”

For within that steely helm hid the mighty Duke,
Not dead,
He had escaped the fire by a fluke
And now he had caught his wife in turmoil
For her love for him, nought but spoil
“I see now that all you love,
This helm you may have, take it,
For all you want lies within this glove
No man of whom you love.

Oh Rose, why? Still I question why?
Her love for me so tender and great
That on that day she felt unworthy
And her life she did decide to take.

Still I find it hard to see,
That my wife had been in love with me,
Now I regret that fateful day,
When my anger took my Rose away,
But now I see she did not lie,
And I wish, I too could die.