Queen Summer
or the Tourney
of the Lily & the Rose
penned & portrayed
by Walter Crane

Cassell & Co: Ld: London: Paris: & Melbourne

When Summer on the earth was queen
She held her court in gardens green
Fair hung with tapestry of leaves,
Where threads of gold the sun enweaves
With checquered patterns on the floor
Of velvet lawns the scythe smoothes o’er:
Their waving fans the soft winds spread
Each way to cool Queen Summer’s head:
The woodland dove made music soft,
And Eros touched his lute full oft.

Round Time’s dial thronged the hours,
Masking in the Masque of Flowers

Like knights and ladies fair be-dight
In silk attire, both red and white.

And as the winds about them played,
And shook the flowers or disarrayed,

A whispered word among them goes
Of how the Lily flouts the Rose,

Suitors for Summer’s favor dear,
To win the crown of all the year—
And how each champion brave would fight,
Queen Summer to decide the right.

Then shrill the wind-winged heralds blew;
The lists were set in Summer’s view,