Read it through once

Well, such as he was, he must marry, we heard; And out of a convent, at the word, Came the lady, in time of spring. --Oh, old thoughts they cling, they cling! That day, I know, with a dozen oaths I clad myself in thick hunting-clothes Fit for the chase of urox or buffle {130} In winter-time when you need to muffle. But the Duke had a mind we should cut a figure, And so we saw the lady arrive: My friend, I have seen a white crane bigger! She was the smallest lady alive, Made in a piece of nature’s madness, Too small, almost, for the life and gladness That over-filled her, as some hive Out of the bears’ reach on the high trees Is crowded with its safe merry bees: {140} In truth, she was not hard to please! Up she looked, down she looked, round at the mead, Straight at the castle, that’s best indeed To look at from outside the walls: As for us, styled the “serfs and thralls”, She as much thanked me as if she had said it, (With her eyes, do you understand?) Because I patted her horse while I led it; And Max, who rode on her other hand, Said, no bird flew past but she inquired {150} What its true name was, nor ever seemed tired-- If that was an eagle she saw hover, And the green and gray bird on the field was the plover, When suddenly appeared the Duke: And as down she sprung, the small foot pointed On to my hand,--as with a rebuke, And as if his backbone were not jointed, The Duke stepped rather aside than forward, And welcomed her with his grandest smile; And, mind you, his mother all the while {160} Chilled in the rear, like a wind to nor’ward; And up, like a weary yawn, with its pulleys Went, in a shriek, the rusty portcullis; And, like a glad sky the north-wind sullies, The lady’s face stopped its play, As if her first hair had grown gray; For such things must begin some one day.