Explore "A Forced Music" by Robert Graves on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Of Love he sang, full-hearted one. / But when the song was done / The King demanded more, / Ay, and commanded more. / The boy found nothing for encore, / Words, melodies, none: / Ashamed the song's glad rise and plaintive fall / Had so charmed King and Queen and all.
He sang the same verse once again, / But urging less Love's pain, / With altered time and key / He showed variety, / Seemed to refresh the harmony / Of his only strain, / So still the glad rise and the plaintive fall / Could charm the King, the Queen, and all.
He of his song then wearying ceased, / But was not yet released; / The Queen's request was _More_, / And her behest was _More_. / He played of random notes some score, / He found his rhymes at least -- / Then suddenly let his twangling harp down fall / And fled in tears from King and Queen and all.