The Proud Lady by Henry van Dyke

When Stävoren town was in its prime / And queened the Zuyder Zee, / Her ships went out to every clime / With costly merchantry.

A lady dwelt in that rich town, / The fairest in all the land; / She walked abroad in a velvet gown, / With many rings on her hand.

Her hair was bright as the beaten gold, / Her lips as coral red, / Her roving eyes were blue and bold, / And her heart with pride was fed.

For she was proud of her father's ships, / As she watched them gaily pass; / And pride looked out of her eyes and lips / When she saw herself in the glass.

"Now come," she said to the captains ten, / Who were ready to put to sea, / "Ye are all my men and my father's men, / And what will ye do for me?"

"Go north and south, go east and west, / And get me gifts," she said.

"And he who bringeth me home the best, / With that man will I wed."

So they all fared forth, and sought with care / In many a famous mart, / For satins and silks and jewels rare, / To win that lady's heart.

She looked at them all with never a thought, / And careless put them by; / "I am not fain of the things ye brought, / Enough of these have I."

The last that came was the head of the fleet, / His name was Jan Borel; / He bent his knee at the lady's feet --

In truth he loved her well.

"I've brought thee home the best i' the world, / A shipful of Danzig corn!"

She stared at him long; her red lips curled, / Her blue eyes filled with scorn.

"Now out on thee, thou feckless kerl, / A loon thou art," she said.

"Am I a starving beggar girl?

Shall I ever lack for bread?"

"Go empty all thy sacks of grain / Into the nearest sea, / And never show thy face again / To make a mock of me."

Young Jan Borel, he answered naught, / But in the harbour cast / The sacks of golden corn he brought, / And groaned when fell the last.

Then Jan Borel, he hoisted sail, / And out to sea he bore; / He passed the Helder in a gale / And came again no more.

But the grains of corn went drifting down / Like devil-scattered seed, / To sow the harbour of the town / With a wicked growth of weed.