{ "id": "alfred-lord-tennyson/guinevere", "title": "Guinevere", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Alfred, Lord Tennyson", "poet_slug": "alfred-lord-tennyson", "language": "en", "book": "Idylls of the King", "book_slug": "idylls-of-the-king", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 12, "container": null, "epigraph": null, "first_published": { "year": 1885, "venue": "Idylls of the King (1885)", "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.", "uncertain": false, "sources": [ "https://archive.org/details/idyllsofking00tenn", "https://github.com/standardebooks/alfred-lord-tennyson_idylls-of-the-king", "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/610" ] }, "source": { "kind": "standard-ebooks", "repo": "standardebooks/alfred-lord-tennyson_idylls-of-the-king", "file": "guinevere.xhtml", "upstream": [ "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/610", "https://archive.org/details/idyllsofking00tenn", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/101901267" ], "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)" }, "verification": { "level": "structural-only", "last_checked": "2026-08-20" }, "stats": { "n_lines": 698, "n_stanzas": 35, "n_parts": 0, "longest_line_chars": 55, "max_indent": 0 }, "site_ready": true, "parts": [], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "Queen Guinevere had fled the court, and sat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There in the holy house at Almesbury", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Weeping, none with her save a little maid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A novice: one low light betwixt them burned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blurred by the creeping mist, for all abroad,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath a moon unseen albeit at full,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The white mist, like a face-cloth to the face,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Clung to the dead earth, and the land was still.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "For hither had she fled, her cause of flight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sir Modred; he that like a subtle beast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lay couchant with his eyes upon the throne,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ready to spring, waiting a chance: for this", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He chilled the popular praises of the King", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With silent smiles of slow disparagement;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tampered with the Lords of the White Horse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Heathen, the brood by Hengist left; and sought", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make disruption in the Table Round", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Arthur, and to splinter it into feuds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Serving his traitorous end; and all his aims", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were sharpened by strong hate for Lancelot.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "For thus it chanced one morn when all the court,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Green-suited, but with plumes that mocked the may,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had been, their wont, a-maying and returned,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That Modred still in green, all ear and eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Climbed to the high top of the garden-wall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To spy some secret scandal if he might,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And saw the Queen who sat betwixt her best", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enid, and lissome Vivien, of her court", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wiliest and the worst; and more than this", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He saw not, for Sir Lancelot passing by", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spied where he couched, and as the gardener’s hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Picks from the colewort a green caterpillar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So from the high wall and the flowering grove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of grasses Lancelot plucked him by the heel,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And cast him as a worm upon the way;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when he knew the Prince though marred with dust,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He, reverencing king’s blood in a bad man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made such excuses as he might, and these", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Full knightly without scorn; for in those days", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No knight of Arthur’s noblest dealt in scorn;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But, if a man were halt or hunched, in him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By those whom God had made full-limbed and tall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scorn was allowed as part of his defect,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And he was answered softly by the King", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all his Table. So Sir Lancelot holp", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To raise the Prince, who rising twice or thrice", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Full sharply smote his knees, and smiled, and went:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But, ever after, the small violence done", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rankled in him and ruffled all his heart,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As the sharp wind that ruffles all day long", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little bitter pool about a stone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On the bare coast.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But when Sir Lancelot told", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "This matter to the Queen, at first she laughed", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Lightly, to think of Modred’s dusty fall,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Then shuddered, as the village wife who cries", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "“I shudder, someone steps across my grave;”", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Then laughed again, but faintlier, for indeed", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "She half-foresaw that he, the subtle beast,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Would track her guilt until he found, and hers", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Would be for evermore a name of scorn.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Henceforward rarely could she front in hall,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Or elsewhere, Modred’s narrow foxy face,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Heart-hiding smile, and gray persistent eye:", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Henceforward too, the Powers that tend the soul,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "To help it from the death that cannot die,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And save it even in extremes, began", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "To vex and plague her. Many a time for hours,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Beside the placid breathings of the King,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "In the dead night, grim faces came and went", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Before her, or a vague spiritual fear⁠—", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Like to some doubtful noise of creaking doors,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Heard by the watcher in a haunted house,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "That keeps the rust of murder on the walls⁠—", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Held her awake: or if she slept, she dreamed", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "An awful dream; for then she seemed to stand", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "On some vast plain before a setting sun,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And from the sun there swiftly made at her", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "A ghastly something, and its shadow flew", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Before it, till it touched her, and she turned⁠—", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "When lo! her own, that broadening from her feet,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And blackening, swallowed all the land, and in it", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Far cities burnt, and with a cry she woke.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And all this trouble did not pass but grew;", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Till even the clear face of the guileless King,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And trustful courtesies of household life,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Became her bane; and at the last she said,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "“O Lancelot, get thee hence to thine own land,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "For if thou tarry we shall meet again,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And if we meet again, some evil chance", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Will make the smouldering scandal break and blaze", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Before the people, and our lord the King.”", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And Lancelot ever promised, but remained,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And still they met and met. Again she said,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "“O Lancelot, if thou love me get thee hence.”", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And then they were agreed upon a night", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "(When the good King should not be there) to meet", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And part forever. Vivien, lurking, heard.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "She told Sir Modred. Passion-pale they met", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And greeted. Hands in hands, and eye to eye,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Low on the border of her couch they sat", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Stammering and staring. It was their last hour,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "A madness of farewells. And Modred brought", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "His creatures to the basement of the tower", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "For testimony; and crying with full voice", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "“Traitor, come out, ye are trapt at last,” aroused", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Lancelot, who rushing outward lionlike", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Leapt on him, and hurled him headlong, and he fell", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Stunned, and his creatures took and bare him off,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And all was still: then she, “The end is come,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And I am shamed forever;” and he said,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "“Mine be the shame; mine was the sin: but rise,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And fly to my strong castle overseas:", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "There will I hide thee, till my life shall end,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "There hold thee with my life against the world.”", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "She answered, “Lancelot, wilt thou hold me so?", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Nay, friend, for we have taken our farewells.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Would God that thou couldst hide me from myself!", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Mine is the shame, for I was wife, and thou", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Unwedded: yet rise now, and let us fly,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "For I will draw me into sanctuary,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And bide my doom.” So Lancelot got her horse,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Set her thereon, and mounted on his own,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And then they rode to the divided way,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "There kissed, and parted weeping: for he past,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Love-loyal to the least wish of the Queen,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Back to his land; but she to Almesbury", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Fled all night long by glimmering waste and weald,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And heard the Spirits of the waste and weald", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Moan as she fled, or thought she heard them moan:", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And in herself she moaned “Too late, too late!”", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Till in the cold wind that foreruns the morn,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Croaked, and she thought, “He spies a field of death;", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "For now the Heathen of the Northern Sea,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Lured by the crimes and frailties of the court,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Begin to slay the folk, and spoil the land.”", "indent": 0, "align": "right" } ], [ { "text": "And when she came to Almesbury she spake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There to the nuns, and said, “Mine enemies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pursue me, but, O peaceful Sisterhood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Receive, and yield me sanctuary, nor ask", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her name to whom ye yield it, till her time", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To tell you:” and her beauty, grace and power,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wrought as a charm upon them, and they spared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To ask it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So the stately Queen abode", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "For many a week, unknown, among the nuns;", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Nor with them mixed, nor told her name, nor sought,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Wrapt in her grief, for housel or for shrift,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "But communed only with the little maid,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Who pleased her with a babbling heedlessness", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Which often lured her from herself; but now,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "This night, a rumour wildly blown about", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Came, that Sir Modred had usurped the realm,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And leagued him with the heathen, while the King", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Was waging war on Lancelot: then she thought,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "“With what a hate the people and the King", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Must hate me,” and bowed down upon her hands", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Silent, until the little maid, who brooked", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "No silence, brake it, uttering, “Late! so late!", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "What hour, I wonder, now?” and when she drew", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "No answer, by and by began to hum", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "An air the nuns had taught her; “Late, so late!”", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Which when she heard, the Queen looked up, and said,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "“O maiden, if indeed ye list to sing,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Sing, and unbind my heart that I may weep.”", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Whereat full willingly sang the little maid.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" } ], [ { "text": "“Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Late, late, so late! but we can enter still.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“No light had we: for that we do repent;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And learning this, the bridegroom will relent.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“No light: so late! and dark and chill the night!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O let us in, that we may find the light!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too late, too late: ye cannot enter now.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Have we not heard the bridegroom is so sweet?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O let us in, though late, to kiss his feet!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No, no, too late! ye cannot enter now.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So sang the novice, while full passionately,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her head upon her hands, remembering", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her thought when first she came, wept the sad Queen.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then said the little novice prattling to her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“O pray you, noble lady, weep no more;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But let my words, the words of one so small,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who knowing nothing knows but to obey,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And if I do not there is penance given⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Comfort your sorrows; for they do not flow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From evil done; right sure am I of that,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who see your tender grace and stateliness.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But weigh your sorrows with our lord the King’s,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And weighing find them less; for gone is he", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To wage grim war against Sir Lancelot there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Round that strong castle where he holds the Queen;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Modred whom he left in charge of all,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The traitor⁠—Ah sweet lady, the King’s grief", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For his own self, and his own Queen, and realm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must needs be thrice as great as any of ours.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For me, I thank the saints, I am not great.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For if there ever come a grief to me", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I cry my cry in silence, and have done.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "None knows it, and my tears have brought me good:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But even were the griefs of little ones", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As great as those of great ones, yet this grief", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is added to the griefs the great must bear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That howsoever much they may desire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Silence, they cannot weep behind a cloud:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As even here they talk at Almesbury", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the good King and his wicked Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And were I such a King with such a Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Well might I wish to veil her wickedness,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But were I such a King, it could not be.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then to her own sad heart muttered the Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Will the child kill me with her innocent talk?”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But openly she answered, “Must not I,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If this false traitor have displaced his lord,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grieve with the common grief of all the realm?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Yea,” said the maid, “this is all woman’s grief,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That she is woman, whose disloyal life", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hath wrought confusion in the Table Round", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which good King Arthur founded, years ago,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With signs and miracles and wonders, there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At Camelot, ere the coming of the Queen.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then thought the Queen within herself again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Will the child kill me with her foolish prate?”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But openly she spake and said to her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“O little maid, shut in by nunnery walls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What canst thou know of Kings and Tables Round,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or what of signs and wonders, but the signs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And simple miracles of thy nunnery?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To whom the little novice garrulously,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Yea, but I know: the land was full of signs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wonders ere the coming of the Queen.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So said my father, and himself was knight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of the great Table⁠—at the founding of it;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rode thereto from Lyonnesse, and he said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That as he rode, an hour or maybe twain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "After the sunset, down the coast, he heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strange music, and he paused, and turning⁠—there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All down the lonely coast of Lyonnesse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each with a beacon-star upon his head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And with a wild sea-light about his feet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He saw them⁠—headland after headland flame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far on into the rich heart of the west:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the light the white mermaiden swam,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And strong man-breasted things stood from the sea,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sent a deep sea-voice through all the land,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To which the little elves of chasm and cleft", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made answer, sounding like a distant horn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So said my father⁠—yea, and furthermore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Next morning, while he past the dim-lit woods,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Himself beheld three spirits mad with joy", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Come dashing down on a tall wayside flower,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That shook beneath them, as the thistle shakes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When three gray linnets wrangle for the seed:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And still at evenings on before his horse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The flickering fairy-circle wheeled and broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flying, and linked again, and wheeled and broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flying, for all the land was full of life.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when at last he came to Camelot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A wreath of airy dancers hand-in-hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swung round the lighted lantern of the hall;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the hall itself was such a feast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As never man had dreamed; for every knight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had whatsoever meat he longed for served", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By hands unseen; and even as he said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Down in the cellars merry bloated things", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shouldered the spigot, straddling on the butts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While the wine ran: so glad were spirits and men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the coming of the sinful Queen.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then spake the Queen and somewhat bitterly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Were they so glad? ill prophets were they all,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spirits and men: could none of them foresee,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not even thy wise father with his signs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wonders, what has fallen upon the realm?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To whom the novice garrulously again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Yea, one, a bard; of whom my father said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Full many a noble war-song had he sung,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even in the presence of an enemy’s fleet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between the steep cliff and the coming wave;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many a mystic lay of life and death", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had chanted on the smoky mountaintops,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When round him bent the spirits of the hills", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With all their dewy hair blown back like flame:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So said my father⁠—and that night the bard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sang Arthur’s glorious wars, and sang the King", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As wellnigh more than man, and railed at those", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who called him the false son of Gorlois:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For there was no man knew from whence he came;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But after tempest, when the long wave broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All down the thundering shores of Bude and Bos,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There came a day as still as heaven, and then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They found a naked child upon the sands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of dark Tintagil by the Cornish sea;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that was Arthur; and they fostered him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till he by miracle was approven King:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that his grave should be a mystery", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From all men, like his birth; and could he find", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A woman in her womanhood as great", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As he was in his manhood, then, he sang,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The twain together well might change the world.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But even in the middle of his song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He faltered, and his hand fell from the harp,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pale he turned, and reeled, and would have fallen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But that they stayed him up; nor would he tell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His vision; but what doubt that he foresaw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This evil work of Lancelot and the Queen?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then thought the Queen, “Lo! they have set her on,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our simple-seeming Abbess and her nuns,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To play upon me,” and bowed her head nor spake.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whereat the novice crying, with clasped hands,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shame on her own garrulity garrulously,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Said the good nuns would check her gadding tongue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Full often, “and, sweet lady, if I seem", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To vex an ear too sad to listen to me,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unmannerly, with prattling and the tales", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which my good father told me, check me too", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor let me shame my father’s memory, one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of noblest manners, though himself would say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sir Lancelot had the noblest; and he died,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Killed in a tilt, come next, five summers back,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And left me; but of others who remain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And of the two first-famed for courtesy⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pray you check me if I ask amiss⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But pray you, which had noblest, while you moved", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among them, Lancelot or our lord the King?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then the pale Queen looked up and answered her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Sir Lancelot, as became a noble knight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was gracious to all ladies, and the same", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In open battle or the tilting-field", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forbore his own advantage, and the King", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In open battle or the tilting-field", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forbore his own advantage, and these two", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were the most nobly-mannered men of all;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For manners are not idle, but the fruit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of loyal nature, and of noble mind.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Yea,” said the maid, “be manners such fair fruit?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then Lancelot’s needs must be a thousand-fold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Less noble, being, as all rumour runs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The most disloyal friend in all the world.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To which a mournful answer made the Queen:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“O closed about by narrowing nunnery-walls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What knowest thou of the world, and all its lights", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shadows, all the wealth and all the woe?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If ever Lancelot, that most noble knight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were for one hour less noble than himself,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pray for him that he scape the doom of fire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And weep for her that drew him to his doom.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Yea,” said the little novice, “I pray for both;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But I should all as soon believe that his,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sir Lancelot’s, were as noble as the King’s,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As I could think, sweet lady, yours would be", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such as they are, were you the sinful Queen.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So she, like many another babbler, hurt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom she would soothe, and harmed where she would heal;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For here a sudden flush of wrathful heat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fired all the pale face of the Queen, who cried,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Such as thou art be never maiden more", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forever! thou their tool, set on to plague", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And play upon, and harry me, petty spy", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And traitress.” When that storm of anger brake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Guinevere, aghast the maiden rose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "White as her veil, and stood before the Queen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As tremulously as foam upon the beach", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stands in a wind, ready to break and fly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when the Queen had added “Get thee hence,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fled frighted. Then that other left alone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sighed, and began to gather heart again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saying in herself, “The simple, fearful child", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Meant nothing, but my own too-fearful guilt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Simpler than any child, betrays itself.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But help me, heaven, for surely I repent.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For what is true repentance but in thought⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not even in inmost thought to think again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sins that made the past so pleasant to us:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I have sworn never to see him more,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see him more.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And even in saying this,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Her memory from old habit of the mind", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Went slipping back upon the golden days", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "In which she saw him first, when Lancelot came,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Reputed the best knight and goodliest man,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Ambassador, to lead her to his lord", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Arthur, and led her forth, and far ahead", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Of his and her retinue moving, they,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Rapt in sweet talk or lively, all on love", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And sport and tilts and pleasure, (for the time", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Was maytime, and as yet no sin was dreamed),", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Rode under groves that looked a paradise", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Of blossom, over sheets of hyacinth", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "That seemed the heavens upbreaking through the earth,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And on from hill to hill, and every day", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Beheld at noon in some delicious dale", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "The silk pavilions of King Arthur raised", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "For brief repast or afternoon repose", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "By couriers gone before; and on again,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Till yet once more ere set of sun they saw", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "The Dragon of the great Pendragonship,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "That crowned the state pavilion of the King,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Blaze by the rushing brook or silent well.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" } ], [ { "text": "But when the Queen immersed in such a trance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And moving through the past unconsciously,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came to that point where first she saw the King", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ride toward her from the city, sighed to find", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her journey done, glanced at him, thought him cold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High, self-contained, and passionless, not like him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Not like my Lancelot”⁠—while she brooded thus", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And grew half-guilty in her thoughts again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There rode an armed warrior to the doors.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A murmuring whisper through the nunnery ran,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then on a sudden a cry, “The King.” She sat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stiff-stricken, listening; but when armed feet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through the long gallery from the outer doors", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rang coming, prone from off her seat she fell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And grovelled with her face against the floor:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There with her milk-white arms and shadowy hair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She made her face a darkness from the King:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the darkness heard his armed feet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pause by her; then came silence, then a voice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Monotonous and hollow like a Ghost’s", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Denouncing judgment, but though changed, the King’s:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Liest thou here so low, the child of one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I honoured, happy, dead before thy shame?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Well is it that no child is born of thee.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The children born of thee are sword and fire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Red ruin, and the breaking up of laws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The craft of kindred and the Godless hosts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of heathen swarming o’er the Northern Sea;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom I, while yet Sir Lancelot, my right arm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mightiest of my knights, abode with me,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have everywhere about this land of Christ", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In twelve great battles ruining overthrown.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And knowest thou now from whence I come⁠—from him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From waging bitter war with him: and he,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That did not shun to smite me in worse way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had yet that grace of courtesy in him left,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He spared to lift his hand against the King", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who made him knight: but many a knight was slain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many more, and all his kith and kin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Clave to him, and abode in his own land.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many more when Modred raised revolt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forgetful of their troth and fealty, clave", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Modred, and a remnant stays with me.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And of this remnant will I leave a part,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "True men who love me still, for whom I live,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To guard thee in the wild hour coming on,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lest but a hair of this low head be harmed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fear not: thou shalt be guarded till my death.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Howbeit I know, if ancient prophecies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have erred not, that I march to meet my doom.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thou hast not made my life so sweet to me,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That I the King should greatly care to live;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For thou hast spoilt the purpose of my life.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bear with me for the last time while I show,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even for thy sake, the sin which thou hast sinned.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For when the Roman left us, and their law", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Relaxed its hold upon us, and the ways", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were filled with rapine, here and there a deed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of prowess done redressed a random wrong.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But I was first of all the kings who drew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The knighthood-errant of this realm and all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The realms together under me, their Head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In that fair Order of my Table Round,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A glorious company, the flower of men,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To serve as model for the mighty world,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And be the fair beginning of a time.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I made them lay their hands in mine and swear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To reverence the King, as if he were", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their conscience, and their conscience as their King,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To honour his own word as if his God’s,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To love one maiden only, cleave to her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And worship her by years of noble deeds,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until they won her; for indeed I knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of no more subtle master under heaven", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than is the maiden passion for a maid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not only to keep down the base in man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But teach high thought, and amiable words", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And courtliness, and the desire of fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And love of truth, and all that makes a man.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all this throve before I wedded thee,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Believing, ‘lo mine helpmate, one to feel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My purpose and rejoicing in my joy.’", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then came thy shameful sin with Lancelot;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then came the sin of Tristram and Isolt;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then others, following these my mightiest knights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drawing foul ensample from fair names,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sinned also, till the loathsome opposite", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of all my heart had destined did obtain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all through thee! so that this life of mine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I guard as God’s high gift from scathe and wrong,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not greatly care to lose; but rather think", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How sad it were for Arthur, should he live,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To sit once more within his lonely hall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And miss the wonted number of my knights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And miss to hear high talk of noble deeds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As in the golden days before thy sin.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For which of us, who might be left, could speak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of the pure heart, nor seem to glance at thee?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in thy bowers of Camelot or of Usk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy shadow still would glide from room to room,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I should evermore be vext with thee", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In hanging robe or vacant ornament,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or ghostly footfall echoing on the stair.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For think not, though thou wouldst not love thy lord,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy lord hast wholly lost his love for thee.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am not made of so slight elements.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet must I leave thee, woman, to thy shame.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I hold that man the worst of public foes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who either for his own or children’s sake,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To save his blood from scandal, lets the wife", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom he knows false, abide and rule the house:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For being through his cowardice allowed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her station, taken everywhere for pure,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She like a new disease, unknown to men,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Creeps, no precaution used, among the crowd,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Makes wicked lightnings of her eyes, and saps", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fealty of our friends, and stirs the pulse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With devil’s leaps, and poisons half the young.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Worst of the worst were that man he that reigns!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Better the King’s waste hearth and aching heart", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than thou reseated in thy place of light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mockery of my people, and their bane.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He paused, and in the pause she crept an inch", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nearer, and laid her hands about his feet.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far off a solitary trumpet blew.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then waiting by the doors the warhorse neighed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At a friend’s voice, and he spake again:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Yet think not that I come to urge thy crimes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I did not come to curse thee, Guinevere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I, whose vast pity almost makes me die", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see thee, laying there thy golden head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My pride in happier summers, at my feet.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wrath which forced my thoughts on that fierce law,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The doom of treason and the flaming death,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(When first I learnt thee hidden here) is past.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pang⁠—which while I weighed thy heart with one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too wholly true to dream untruth in thee,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made my tears burn⁠—is also past⁠—in part.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all is past, the sin is sinned, and I,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lo! I forgive thee, as Eternal God", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forgives: do thou for thine own soul the rest.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But how to take last leave of all I loved?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O golden hair, with which I used to play", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not knowing! O imperial-moulded form,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And beauty such as never woman wore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until it became a kingdom’s curse with thee⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I cannot touch thy lips, they are not mine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Lancelot’s: nay, they never were the King’s.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I cannot take thy hand: that too is flesh,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the flesh thou hast sinned; and mine own flesh,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here looking down on thine polluted, cries", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "‘I loathe thee:’ yet not less, O Guinevere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For I was ever virgin save for thee,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My love through flesh hath wrought into my life", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So far, that my doom is, I love thee still.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let no man dream but that I love thee still.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perchance, and so thou purify thy soul,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so thou lean on our fair father Christ,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hereafter in that world where all are pure", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We two may meet before high God, and thou", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wilt spring to me, and claim me thine, and know", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am thine husband⁠—not a smaller soul,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor Lancelot, nor another. Leave me that,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I charge thee, my last hope. Now must I hence.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through the thick night I hear the trumpet blow:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They summon me their King to lead mine hosts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far down to that great battle in the west,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where I must strike against the man they call", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My sister’s son⁠—no kin of mine, who leagues", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Lords of the White Horse, heathen, and knights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Traitors⁠—and strike him dead, and meet myself", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Death, or I know not what mysterious doom.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thou remaining here wilt learn the event;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But hither shall I never come again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Never lie by thy side; see thee no more⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Farewell!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And while she grovelled at his feet,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "She felt the King’s breath wander o’er her neck,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And in the darkness o’er her fallen head,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Perceived the waving of his hands that blest.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" } ], [ { "text": "Then, listening till those armed steps were gone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rose the pale Queen, and in her anguish found", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The casement: “peradventure,” so she thought,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“If I might see his face, and not be seen.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lo, he sat on horseback at the door!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And near him the sad nuns with each a light", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stood, and he gave them charge about the Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To guard and foster her for evermore.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And while he spake to these his helm was lowered,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To which for crest the golden dragon clung", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Britain; so she did not see the face,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which then was as an angel’s, but she saw,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wet with the mists and smitten by the lights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Dragon of the great Pendragonship", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blaze, making all the night a steam of fire.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And even then he turned; and more and more", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The moony vapour rolling round the King,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who seemed the phantom of a Giant in it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enwound him fold by fold, and made him gray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And grayer, till himself became as mist", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before her, moving ghost-like to his doom.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then she stretched out her arms and cried aloud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Oh Arthur!” there her voice brake suddenly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then⁠—as a stream that spouting from a cliff", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fails in mid air, but gathering at the base", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Re-makes itself, and flashes down the vale⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went on in passionate utterance:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Gone⁠—my lord!", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Gone through my sin to slay and to be slain!", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And he forgave me, and I could not speak.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Farewell? I should have answered his farewell.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "His mercy choked me. Gone, my lord the King,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "My own true lord! how dare I call him mine?", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "The shadow of another cleaves to me,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And makes me one pollution: he, the King,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Called me polluted: shall I kill myself?", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "What help in that? I cannot kill my sin,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "If soul be soul; nor can I kill my shame;", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "No, nor by living can I live it down.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "The days will grow to weeks, the weeks to months", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "The months will add themselves and make the years,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "The years will roll into the centuries,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And mine will ever be a name of scorn.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "I must not dwell on that defeat of fame.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Let the world be; that is but of the world.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "What else? what hope? I think there was a hope,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Except he mocked me when he spake of hope;", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "His hope he called it; but he never mocks,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "For mockery is the fume of little hearts.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And blessed be the King, who hath forgiven", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "My wickedness to him, and left me hope", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "That in mine own heart I can live down sin", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "And be his mate hereafter in the heavens", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Before high God. Ah great and gentle lord,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Who wast, as is the conscience of a saint", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Among his warring senses, to thy knights⁠—", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "To whom my false voluptuous pride, that took", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Full easily all impressions from below,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Would not look up, or half-despised the height", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "To which I would not or I could not climb⁠—", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "I thought I could not breathe in that fine air", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "That pure severity of perfect light⁠—", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "I yearned for warmth and colour which I found", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "In Lancelot⁠—now I see thee what thou art,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Thou art the highest and most human too,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Not Lancelot, nor another. Is there none", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Will tell the King I love him though so late?", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Now⁠—ere he goes to the great Battle? none:", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Myself must tell him in that purer life,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "But now it were too daring. Ah my God,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "What might I not have made of thy fair world,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Had I but loved thy highest creature here?", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "It was my duty to have loved the highest:", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "It surely was my profit had I known:", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "It would have been my pleasure had I seen.", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "We needs must love the highest when we see it,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Not Lancelot, nor another.”", "indent": 0, "align": "right" } ], [ { "text": "Here her hand", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Grasped, made her vail her eyes: she looked and saw", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "The novice, weeping, suppliant, and said to her,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "“Yea, little maid, for am I not forgiven?”", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Then glancing up beheld the holy nuns", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "All round her, weeping; and her heart was loosed", "indent": 0, "align": "right" }, { "text": "Within her, and she wept with these and said,", "indent": 0, "align": "right" } ], [ { "text": "“Ye know me then, that wicked one, who broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The vast design and purpose of the King.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O shut me round with narrowing nunnery-walls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Meek maidens, from the voices crying ‘shame.’", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I must not scorn myself: he loves me still.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let no one dream but that he loves me still.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So let me, if you do not shudder at me,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor shun to call me sister, dwell with you;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wear black and white, and be a nun like you,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fast with your fasts, not feasting with your feasts;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grieve with your griefs, not grieving at your joys,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But not rejoicing; mingle with your rites;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pray and be prayed for; lie before your shrines;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Do each low office of your holy house;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Walk your dim cloister, and distribute dole", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To poor sick people, richer in His eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who ransomed us, and haler too than I;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And treat their loathsome hurts and heal mine own;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so wear out in almsdeed and in prayer", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sombre close of that voluptuous day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which wrought the ruin of my lord the King.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "She said: they took her to themselves; and she", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still hoping, fearing “is it yet too late?”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dwelt with them, till in time their Abbess died.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then she, for her good deeds and her pure life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for the power of ministration in her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And likewise for the high rank she had borne,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was chosen Abbess, there, an Abbess, lived", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For three brief years, and there, an Abbess, past", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where beyond these voices there is peace.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }