She says, being forbidden:
And was there not a king somewhere who said:
“Back, waves! I do command you!” I forget
His name, beloved, or his race, and yet
I know the story and am comforted.
The tides will rise, are rising—see, they spread
About your robes, your ermine will be wet,
Your velvet shoes, your dear dear feet! Ah let
Me warn you, sir, the waves will reach your head!
My king, my kingly love, how shall we stay
The bold broad lifting of this lovely sea?
What is the master word that we must say
To bring these roaring waters to the knee?
The other king went scampering away!
Will you so do? Or will you drown with me?
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on March 1, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.
“She says, being forbidden:” was published in Leonora Speyer’s collection, Fiddler’s Farewell (Alfred A. Knopf, 1926). About the book, Harriet Monroe, poet and founder of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, writes in her review, “Fiddler and Poet,” published in Poetry, Volume XXVII (April–September 1926), “As a poet, [Speyer] is most successful when most moved; it is feeling rather than intellect which brings her the exact word, the thrilling figure, the fitting rhythm. Her prevailing mood is that of a conqueror; she hits back against whatever blows of fate, and faces even death unbowed.”
Leonora Speyer
Leonora Speyer was born in Washington, D.C., in 1872. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1927 for her poetry collection Fiddler’s Farewell (Alfred A. Knopf, 1926)