Explore "The Refusal" by Edith Nesbit on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Mine is a palace fair to see, / All hung with gold and silver things, / It is more glorious than a king's, / And crownèd queens might envy me.
Ah, no, I will not let you in! / Stay rather at the gates and weep / For all the splendour that I keep, / The treasures that you cannot win.
While you desire and I refuse, / For both the palace still is here -- / Its turrets gold, its silver gear / Are yours to wish for -- mine to use.
But if I let you in, I know / The spell would break, the palace fade, / And we stand, trembling and afraid, / Lost in the dark where chill winds blow.