Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses

That flame through water which their hue encloses.

 

Maiden

A Lover’s Complaint      Line 286

 

A Lover’s Complaint is one of Will’s long poems, this one telling the story of a young maiden lamenting the woes of her love life. These lines are near the end of the poem, and she’s talking about the lad who seduced and then left her. Specifically, in this stanza she’s talking about his face with the tears streaming down his cheeks, and how those tears melted her heart and won her over. The lines directly preceding today’s two lines are easier to understand.

         Each cheek a river running from a fount

        With brinish current downward flow’d apace:

        O, how the channel to the stream gave grace

The tears were running down his face and made him look even better than without them. And then today's lines…

         Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses

That flame through water which their hue encloses 

What the heck?

Who or what is the who here? The lad? The maiden? The lad’s eyes? Something else?

And is the glazed with crystal gate a modifier of who, or an action of who.

This is a mystery waiting to be solved. But who’s going to solve it?

I'm not exactly sure it's that kind of mystery, Mojo, or one that has an answer to be found in the carpet fibers.

Nonetheless, it's good to see that you're on the case!