Ballade Of The Unchanging Bloved

(TO I -    - a)     When rumour fain would fright my ear     With the destruction and decay     Of things familiar and dear,     And vaunt of a swift-running day     That sweeps the fair old Past away;     Whatever else be strange and new,     All other things may go or stay,     So that there be no change in you.     These loud mutations others fear     Find me high-fortressed 'gainst dismay,     They trouble not the tranquil sphere     That hallows with immortal ray     The world where love and lovers stray     In glittering gardens soft with dew -     O let them break and burn and slay,     So that there be no change in you.     Let rapine its republics rear,     And murder its red sceptre sway,     Their blood-stained riot comes not near     The quiet haven where we pray,     And work and love and laugh and play;     Unchanged, our skies are ever blue,     Nothing can change, for all they say, -     So that there be no change in you.     ENVOI     Princess, let wild men brag and bray,     The pure, the beautiful, the true.     Change not, and changeless we as they -     So that there be no change in you.