Winifred Welles’s speaker voices a romantic daydream and then refuses it. She says she would gladly slip out at night like Nicolette, the heroine of the medieval love story Aucassin et Nicolette, running through rose gardens and dew-soaked grass, leaving her warm bed and lamplight behind—if only she knew a lover like Aucassin were waiting for her. The poem’s turn comes with “But”: she won’t make that barefoot, trembling journey merely to imagine an embrace, to see a face that isn’t there, or to feel only the south wind on her mouth. The closing image deepens the loneliness: she would stand by a fountain whose water moans from one unresponsive stone to another, a mirror of her own unanswered longing. The mood is tender, wistful, and quietly grieving.
Plaint — Summary
I too would run like Nicolette Down aisles of rose and mignonette, And stain my knees with midnight dew Passing the ghostly gardens through, If I should know that loverly Young Aucassin awaited me!
And I could leave without regret My warm white bed like Nicolette, And flee from roof and candle-light Into the deepest hour of night, If by the ivy-shadowed wall, I knew that Aucassin would call.
But I'll not tremble in the wet. Nor bruise my feet like Nicolette, Only to dream of his embrace, Only to think I see his face. Feel nothing sweeter on my mouth Than heedless wind lips from the south, Only to stand unloved, alone, And listen to the fountain moan From stone to unresponsive stone.