| |
| THEN saw they how there hove a dusky barge, | |
| Dark as a funeral scarf from stem to stern, | |
| Beneath them; and descending they were ware | |
| That all the decks were dense with stately forms, | |
| Black-stol’d, black-hooded, like a dream—by these | 5 |
| Three Queens with crowns of gold: and from them rose | |
| A cry that shiver’d to the tingling stars, | |
| And, as it were one voice, an agony | |
| Of lamentation, like a wind that shrills | |
| All night in a waste land, where no one comes, | 10 |
| Or hath come, since the making of the world. | |
| |
| Then murmur’d Arthur, “Place me in the barge.” | |
| So to the barge they came. There those three Queens | |
| Put forth their hands, and took the King, and wept. | |
| But she, that rose the tallest of them all | 15 |
| And fairest, laid his head upon her lap, | |
| And loos’d the shatter’d casque, and chaf’d his hands, | |
| And call’d him by his name, complaining loud, | |
| And dropping bitter tears against a brow | |
| Strip’d with dark blood: for all his face was white | 20 |
| And colorless, and like the wither’d moon | |
| Smote by the fresh beam of the springing east; | |
| And all his greaves and cuisses dash’d with drops | |
| Of onset; and the light and lustrous curls— | |
| That made his forehead like a rising sun | 25 |
| High from the dais-throne—were parch’d with dust; | |
| Or, clotted into points and hanging loose, | |
| Mix’d with the knightly growth that fringed his lips. | |
| So like a shatter’d column lay the King; | |
| Not like that Arthur who, with lance in rest, | 30 |
| From spur to plume a star of tournament, | |
| Shot thro’ the lists at Camelot, and charged | |
| Before the eyes of ladies and of kings. | |
| |
| Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere: | |
| “Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go? | 35 |
| Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes? | |
| For now I see the true old times are dead, | |
| When every morning brought a noble chance, | |
| And every chance brought out a noble knight. | |
| Such times have been not since the light that led | 40 |
| The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh. | |
| But now the whole Round Table is dissolv’d | |
| Which was an image of the mighty world, | |
| And I, the last, go forth companionless, | |
| And the days darken round me, and the years, | 45 |
| Among new men, strange faces, other minds.” | |
| |
| And slowly answer’d Arthur from the barge: | |
| “The old order changeth, yielding place to new, | |
| And God fulfils himself in many ways, | |
| Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. | 50 |
| Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me? | |
| I have liv’d my life, and that which I have done | |
| May He within himself make pure! but thou, | |
| If thou shouldst never see my face again, | |
| Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer | 55 |
| Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice | |
| Rise like a fountain for me night and day. | |
| For what are men better than sheep or goats | |
| That nourish a blind life within the brain, | |
| If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer | 60 |
| Both for themselves and those who call them friend? | |
| For so the whole round earth is every way | |
| Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. | |
| But now farewell. I am going a long way | |
| With these thou seëst—if indeed I go | 65 |
| (For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)— | |
| To the island-valley of Avilion; | |
| Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, | |
| Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies | |
| Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns | 70 |
| And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea, | |
| Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.” | |
| |
| So said he, and the barge with oar and sail | |
| Mov’d from the brink, like some full-breasted swan | |
| That, fluting a wild carol ere her death, | 75 |
| Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood | |
| With swarthy webs. Long stood Sir Bedivere | |
| Revolving many memories, till the hull | |
| Look’d one black dot against the verge of dawn, | |
| And on the mere the wailing died away. | 80 |
| |
