{
 "id": "alfred-lord-tennyson/the-last-tournament",
 "title": "The Last Tournament",
 "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": 11,
 "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": "the-last-tournament.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": 760,
  "n_stanzas": 60,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 57,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Dagonet, the fool, whom Gawain in his mood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had made mock-knight of Arthur’s Table Round,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At Camelot, high above the yellowing woods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Danced like a withered leaf before the hall.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And toward him from the hall, with harp in hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from the crown thereof a carcanet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of ruby swaying to and fro, the prize",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Tristram in the jousts of yesterday,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came Tristram, saying, “Why skip ye so, Sir Fool?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For Arthur and Sir Lancelot riding once",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far down beneath a winding wall of rock",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heard a child wail. A stump of oak half-dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From roots like some black coil of carven snakes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clutched at the crag, and started through mid air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bearing an eagle’s nest: and through the tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rushed ever a rainy wind, and through the wind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pierced ever a child’s cry: and crag and tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Scaling, Sir Lancelot from the perilous nest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This ruby necklace thrice around her neck,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all unscarred from beak or talon, brought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A maiden babe; which Arthur pitying took,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then gave it to his Queen to rear: the Queen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But coldly acquiescing, in her white arms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Received, and after loved it tenderly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And named it Nestling; so forgot herself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A moment, and her cares; till that young life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Being smitten in mid heaven with mortal cold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Past from her; and in time the carcanet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vext her with plaintive memories of the child:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So she, delivering it to Arthur, said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Take thou the jewels of this dead innocence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make them, an thou wilt, a tourney-prize.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom the King, “Peace to thine eagle-borne",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dead nestling, and this honour after death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Following thy will! but, O my Queen, I muse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why ye not wear on arm, or neck, or zone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those diamonds that I rescued from the tarn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Lancelot won, methought, for thee to wear.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Would rather you had let them fall,” she cried,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Plunge and be lost⁠—ill-fated as they were,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A bitterness to me!⁠—ye look amazed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not knowing they were lost as soon as given⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slid from my hands, when I was leaning out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above the river⁠—that unhappy child",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Past in her barge: but rosier luck will go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With these rich jewels, seeing that they came",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not from the skeleton of a brother-slayer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the sweet body of a maiden babe.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perchance⁠—who knows?⁠—the purest of thy knights",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May win them for the purest of my maids.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She ended, and the cry of a great jousts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With trumpet-blowings ran on all the ways",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From Camelot in among the faded fields",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To furthest towers; and everywhere the knights",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Armed for a day of glory before the King.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But on the hither side of that loud morn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the hall staggered, his visage ribbed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From ear to ear with dogwhip-weals, his nose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bridge-broken, one eye out, and one hand off,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one with shattered fingers dangling lame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A churl, to whom indignantly the King,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“My churl, for whom Christ died, what evil beast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath drawn his claws athwart thy face? or fiend?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man was it who marred heaven’s image in thee thus?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then, sputtering through the hedge of splintered teeth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet strangers to the tongue, and with blunt stump",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pitch-blackened sawing the air, said the maimed churl,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“He took them and he drave them to his tower⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some hold he was a table-knight of thine⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A hundred goodly ones⁠—the Red Knight, he⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lord, I was tending swine, and the Red Knight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brake in upon me and drave them to his tower;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when I called upon thy name as one",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That doest right by gentle and by churl,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Maimed me and mauled, and would outright have slain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save that he sware me to a message, saying,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘Tell thou the King and all his liars, that I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have founded my Round Table in the North,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And whatsoever his own knights have sworn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My knights have sworn the counter to it⁠—and say",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My tower is full of harlots, like his court,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But mine are worthier, seeing they profess",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be none other than themselves⁠—and say",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My knights are all adulterers like his own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But mine are truer, seeing they profess",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be none other; and say his hour is come,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The heathen are upon him, his long lance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Broken, and his Excalibur a straw.’ ”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then Arthur turned to Kay the seneschal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Take thou my churl, and tend him curiously",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a king’s heir, till all his hurts be whole.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The heathen⁠—but that ever-climbing wave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hurled back again so often in empty foam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath lain for years at rest⁠—and renegades,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thieves, bandits, leavings of confusion, whom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wholesome realm is purged of otherwhere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Friends, through your manhood and your fealty⁠—now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Make their last head like Satan in the North.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My younger knights, new-made, in whom your flower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waits to be solid fruit of golden deeds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Move with me toward their quelling, which achieved,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The loneliest ways are safe from shore to shore.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But thou, Sir Lancelot, sitting in my place",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enchaired tomorrow, arbitrate the field;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For wherefore shouldst thou care to mingle with it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only to yield my Queen her own again?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speak, Lancelot, thou art silent: is it well?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thereto Sir Lancelot answered, “It is well:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet better if the King abide, and leave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The leading of his younger knights to me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Else, for the King has willed it, it is well.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then Arthur rose and Lancelot followed him,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And while they stood without the doors, the King",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turned to him saying, “Is it then so well?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or mine the blame that oft I seem as he",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of whom was written, ‘A sound is in his ears’?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The foot that loiters, bidden go⁠—the glance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That only seems half-loyal to command⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A manner somewhat fallen from reverence⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or have I dreamed the bearing of our knights",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tells of a manhood ever less and lower?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or whence the fear lest this my realm, upreared,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By noble deeds at one with noble vows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From flat confusion and brute violences,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reel back into the beast, and be no more?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He spoke, and taking all his younger knights,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down the slope city rode, and sharply turned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "North by the gate. In her high bower the Queen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Working a tapestry, lifted up her head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Watched her lord pass, and knew not that she sighed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then ran across her memory the strange rhyme",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of bygone Merlin, “Where is he who knows?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the great deep to the great deep he goes.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when the morning of a tournament,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By these in earnest those in mockery called",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Tournament of the Dead Innocence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brake with a wet wind blowing, Lancelot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round whose sick head all night, like birds of prey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The words of Arthur flying shrieked, arose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And down a streetway hung with folds of pure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "White samite, and by fountains running wine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where children sat in white with cups of gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moved to the lists, and there, with slow sad steps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ascending, filled his double-dragoned chair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He glanced and saw the stately galleries,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dame, damsel, each through worship of their Queen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "White-robed in honour of the stainless child,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And some with scattered jewels, like a bank",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of maiden snow mingled with sparks of fire.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He looked but once, and vailed his eyes again.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The sudden trumpet sounded as in a dream",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To ears but half-awaked, then one low roll",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Autumn thunder, and the jousts began:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ever the wind blew, and yellowing leaf",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gloom and gleam, and shower and shorn plume",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Went down it. Sighing weariedly, as one",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who sits and gazes on a faded fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When all the goodlier guests are past away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sat their great umpire, looking o’er the lists.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He saw the laws that ruled the tournament",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Broken, but spake not; once, a knight cast down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before his throne of arbitration cursed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dead babe and the follies of the King;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And once the laces of a helmet cracked,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And showed him, like a vermin in its hole,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Modred, a narrow face: anon he heard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The voice that billowed round the barriers roar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An ocean-sounding welcome to one knight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But newly-entered, taller than the rest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And armoured all in forest green, whereon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There tript a hundred tiny silver deer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wearing but a holly-spray for crest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With ever-scattering berries, and on shield",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A spear, a harp, a bugle⁠—Tristram⁠—late",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From overseas in Brittany returned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And marriage with a princess of that realm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Isolt the White⁠—Sir Tristram of the Woods⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom Lancelot knew, had held sometime with pain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His own against him, and now yearned to shake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The burthen off his heart in one full shock",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With Tristram even to death: his strong hands gript",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dinted the gilt dragons right and left,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until he groaned for wrath⁠—so many of those,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That ware their ladies’ colours on the casque,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drew from before Sir Tristram to the bounds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there with gibes and flickering mockeries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood, while he muttered, “Craven crests! O shame!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What faith have these in whom they sware to love?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The glory of our Round Table is no more.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So Tristram won, and Lancelot gave, the gems,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not speaking other word than “Hast thou won?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Art thou the purest, brother? See, the hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherewith thou takest this, is red!” to whom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tristram, half plagued by Lancelot’s languorous mood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made answer, “Ay, but wherefore toss me this",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a dry bone cast to some hungry hound?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest be thy fair Queen’s fantasy. Strength of heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And might of limb, but mainly use and skill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are winners in this pastime of our King.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My hand⁠—belike the lance hath dript upon it⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No blood of mine, I trow; but O chief knight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Right arm of Arthur in the battle-field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Great brother, thou nor I have made the world;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be happy in thy fair Queen as I in mine.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Tristram round the gallery made his horse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Caracole; then bowed his homage, bluntly saying,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Fair damsels, each to him who worships each",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sole Queen of Beauty and of love, behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This day my Queen of Beauty is not here.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And most of these were mute, some angered, one",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Murmuring, “All courtesy is dead,” and one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The glory of our Round Table is no more.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then fell thick rain, plume droopt and mantle clung,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And pettish cries awoke, and the wan day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Went glooming down in wet and weariness:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But under her black brows a swarthy one",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Laughed shrilly, crying, “Praise the patient saints,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our one white day of Innocence hath past,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though somewhat draggled at the skirt. So be it.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The snowdrop only, flowering through the year,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would make the world as blank as Winter-tide.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come⁠—let us gladden their sad eyes, our Queen’s",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Lancelot’s, at this night’s solemnity",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all the kindlier colours of the field.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So dame and damsel glittered at the feast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Variously gay: for he that tells the tale",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Likened them, saying, as when an hour of cold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Falls on the mountain in midsummer snows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the purple slopes of mountain flowers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pass under white, till the warm hour returns",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With veer of wind, and all are flowers again;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So dame and damsel cast the simple white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And glowing in all colours, the live grass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rose-campion, bluebell, kingcup, poppy, glanced",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About the revels, and with mirth so loud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beyond all use, that, half-amazed, the Queen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wroth at Tristram and the lawless jousts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brake up their sports, then slowly to her bower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Parted, and in her bosom pain was lord.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And little Dagonet on the morrow morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High over all the yellowing Autumn-tide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Danced like a withered leaf before the hall.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then Tristram saying, “Why skip ye so, Sir Fool?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wheeled round on either heel, Dagonet replied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Belike for lack of wiser company;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or being fool, and seeing too much wit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Makes the world rotten, why, belike I skip",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To know myself the wisest knight of all.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ay, fool,” said Tristram, “but ’tis eating dry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To dance without a catch, a roundelay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To dance to.” Then he twangled on his harp,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And while he twangled little Dagonet stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Quiet as any water-sodden log",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stayed in the wandering warble of a brook;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when the twangling ended, skipt again;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And being asked, “Why skipt ye not, Sir Fool?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made answer, “I had liefer twenty years",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Skip to the broken music of my brains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than any broken music thou canst make.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then Tristram, waiting for the quip to come,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Good now, what music have I broken, fool?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And little Dagonet, skipping, “Arthur, the King’s;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For when thou playest that air with Queen Isolt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou makest broken music with thy bride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her daintier namesake down in Brittany⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so thou breakest Arthur’s music too.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Save for that broken music in thy brains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sir Fool,” said Tristram, “I would break thy head.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fool, I came too late, the heathen wars were o’er,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The life had flown, we sware but by the shell⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I am but a fool to reason with a fool⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come, thou art crabbed and sour: but lean me down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sir Dagonet, one of thy long asses’ ears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And harken if my music be not true.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ‘Free love⁠—free field⁠—we love but while we may:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The woods are hushed, their music is no more:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The leaf is dead, the yearning past away:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New leaf, new life⁠—the days of frost are o’er:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New life, new love, to suit the newer day:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New loves are sweet as those that went before:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Free love⁠—free field⁠—we love but while we may.’",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Ye might have moved slow-measure to my tune,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not stood stockstill. I made it in the woods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And heard it ring as true as tested gold.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But Dagonet with one foot poised in his hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Friend, did ye mark that fountain yesterday",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made to run wine?⁠—but this had run itself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All out like a long life to a sour end⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And them that round it sat with golden cups",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hand the wine to whosoever came⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The twelve small damosels white as Innocence,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In honour of poor Innocence the babe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who left the gems which Innocence the Queen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lent to the King, and Innocence the King",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gave for a prize⁠—and one of those white slips",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Handed her cup and piped, the pretty one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘Drink, drink, Sir Fool,’ and thereupon I drank,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spat⁠—pish⁠—the cup was gold, the draught was mud.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Tristram, “Was it muddier than thy gibes?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is all the laughter gone dead out of thee?⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not marking how the knighthood mock thee, fool⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘Fear God: honour the King⁠—his one true knight⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sole follower of the vows’⁠—for here be they",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who knew thee swine enow before I came,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smuttier than blasted grain: but when the King",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had made thee fool, thy vanity so shot up",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It frighted all free fool from out thy heart;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which left thee less than fool, and less than swine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A naked aught⁠—yet swine I hold thee still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I have flung thee pearls and find thee swine.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And little Dagonet mincing with his feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Knight, an ye fling those rubies round my neck",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In lieu of hers, I’ll hold thou hast some touch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of music, since I care not for thy pearls.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swine? I have wallowed, I have washed⁠—the world",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is flesh and shadow⁠—I have had my day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dirty nurse, Experience, in her kind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath fouled me⁠—an I wallowed, then I washed⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have had my day and my philosophies⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thank the Lord I am King Arthur’s fool.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swine, say ye? swine, goats, asses, rams and geese",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trooped round a Paynim harper once, who thrummed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On such a wire as musically as thou",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some such fine song⁠—but never a king’s fool.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Tristram, “Then were swine, goats, asses, geese",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wiser fools, seeing thy Paynim bard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had such a mastery of his mystery",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That he could harp his wife up out of hell.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then Dagonet, turning on the ball of his foot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And whither harp’st thou thine? down! and thyself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down! and two more: a helpful harper thou,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That harpest downward! Dost thou know the star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We call the harp of Arthur up in heaven?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Tristram, “Ay, Sir Fool, for when our King",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was victor wellnigh day by day, the knights,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glorying in each new glory, set his name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High on all hills, and in the signs of heaven.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Dagonet answered, “Ay, and when the land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was freed, and the Queen false, ye set yourself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To babble about him, all to show your wit⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And whether he were King by courtesy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or King by right⁠—and so went harping down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The black king’s highway, got so far, and grew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So witty that ye played at ducks and drakes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With Arthur’s vows on the great lake of fire.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tuwhoo! do ye see it? do ye see the star?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Nay, fool,” said Tristram, “not in open day.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Dagonet, “Nay, nor will: I see it and hear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It makes a silent music up in heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I, and Arthur and the angels hear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then we skip.” “Lo, fool,” he said, “ye talk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fool’s treason: is the King thy brother fool?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then little Dagonet clapt his hands and shrilled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ay, ay, my brother fool, the king of fools!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Conceits himself as God that he can make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Figs out of thistles, silk from bristles, milk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From burning spurge, honey from hornet-combs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And men from beasts⁠—Long live the king of fools!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And down the city Dagonet danced away;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But through the slowly-mellowing avenues",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And solitary passes of the wood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rode Tristram toward Lyonnesse and the west.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before him fled the face of Queen Isolt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With ruby-circled neck, but evermore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Past, as a rustle or twitter in the wood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made dull his inner, keen his outer eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all that walked, or crept, or perched, or flew.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Anon the face, as, when a gust hath blown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unruffling waters re-collect the shape",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of one that in them sees himself, returned;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But at the slot or fewmets of a deer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or even a fallen feather, vanished again.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So on for all that day from lawn to lawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through many a league-long bower he rode. At length",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A lodge of intertwisted beechen-boughs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Furze-crammed, and bracken-rooft, the which himself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Built for a summer day with Queen Isolt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Against a shower, dark in the golden grove",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Appearing, sent his fancy back to where",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She lived a moon in that low lodge with him:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till Mark her lord had past, the Cornish King,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With six or seven, when Tristram was away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And snatched her thence; yet dreading worse than shame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her warrior Tristram, spake not any word,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But bode his hour, devising wretchedness.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And now that desert lodge to Tristram lookt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So sweet, that halting, in he past, and sank",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down on a drift of foliage random-blown;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But could not rest for musing how to smoothe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sleek his marriage over to the Queen.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perchance in lone Tintagil far from all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The tonguesters of the court she had not heard.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But then what folly had sent him overseas",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After she left him lonely here? a name?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was it the name of one in Brittany,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Isolt, the daughter of the King? “Isolt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the white hands” they called her: the sweet name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Allured him first, and then the maid herself,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who served him well with those white hands of hers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And loved him well, until himself had thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He loved her also, wedded easily,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But left her all as easily, and returned.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The black-blue Irish hair and Irish eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had drawn him home⁠—what marvel? then he laid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His brows upon the drifted leaf and dreamed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He seemed to pace the strand of Brittany",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between Isolt of Britain and his bride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And showed them both the ruby-chain, and both",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Began to struggle for it, till his Queen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Graspt it so hard, that all her hand was red.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then cried the Breton, “Look, her hand is red!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These be no rubies, this is frozen blood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And melts within her hand⁠—her hand is hot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With ill desires, but this I gave thee, look,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is all as cool and white as any flower.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Followed a rush of eagle’s wings, and then",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A whimpering of the spirit of the child,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because the twain had spoiled her carcanet.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He dreamed; but Arthur with a hundred spears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rode far, till o’er the illimitable reed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And many a glancing plash and sallowy isle,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wide-winged sunset of the misty marsh",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glared on a huge machicolated tower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That stood with open doors, whereout was rolled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A roar of riot, as from men secure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amid their marshes, ruffians at their ease",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among their harlot-brides, an evil song.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Lo there,” said one of Arthur’s youth, for there,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High on a grim dead tree before the tower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A goodly brother of the Table Round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swung by the neck: and on the boughs a shield",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Showing a shower of blood in a field noir,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And therebeside a horn, inflamed the knights",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At that dishonour done the gilded spur,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till each would clash the shield, and blow the horn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But Arthur waved them back. Alone he rode.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then at the dry harsh roar of the great horn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That sent the face of all the marsh aloft",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An ever upward-rushing storm and cloud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of shriek and plume, the Red Knight heard, and all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even to tipmost lance and topmost helm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In blood-red armour sallying, howled to the King,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The teeth of Hell flay bare and gnash thee flat!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo! art thou not that eunuch-hearted King",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who fain had clipt free manhood from the world⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The woman-worshipper? Yea, God’s curse, and I!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slain was the brother of my paramour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By a knight of thine, and I that heard her whine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And snivel, being eunuch-hearted too,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sware by the scorpion-worm that twists in hell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And stings itself to everlasting death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hang whatever knight of thine I fought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tumbled. Art thou King?⁠—Look to thy life!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He ended: Arthur knew the voice; the face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wellnigh was helmet-hidden, and the name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Went wandering somewhere darkling in his mind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Arthur deigned not use of word or sword,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But let the drunkard, as he stretched from horse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To strike him, overbalancing his bulk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down from the causeway heavily to the swamp",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fall, as the crest of some slow-arching wave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heard in dead night along that table-shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drops flat, and after the great waters break",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whitening for half a league, and thin themselves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far over sands marbled with moon and cloud,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From less and less to nothing; thus he fell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Head-heavy; then the knights, who watched him, roared",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shouted and leapt down upon the fallen;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There trampled out his face from being known,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sank his head in mire, and slimed themselves:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor heard the King for their own cries, but sprang",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through open doors, and swording right and left",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Men, women, on their sodden faces, hurled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The tables over and the wines, and slew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till all the rafters rang with woman-yells,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the pavement streamed with massacre:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, echoing yell with yell, they fired the tower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which half that autumn night, like the live North,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Red-pulsing up through Alioth and Alcor,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made all above it, and a hundred meres",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About it, as the water Moab saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came round by the East, and out beyond them flushed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The long low dune, and lazy-plunging sea.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So all the ways were safe from shore to shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in the heart of Arthur pain was lord.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then, out of Tristram waking, the red dream",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fled with a shout, and that low lodge returned,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mid-forest, and the wind among the boughs.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He whistled his good warhorse left to graze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the forest greens, vaulted upon him,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rode beneath an ever-showering leaf,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till one lone woman, weeping near a cross,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stayed him. “Why weep ye?” “Lord,” she said, “my man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath left me or is dead;” whereon he thought⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“What, if she hate me now? I would not this.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What, if she love me still? I would not that.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know not what I would”⁠—but said to her,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Yet weep not thou, lest, if thy mate return,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He find thy favour changed and love thee not”⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then pressing day by day through Lyonnesse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Last in a roky hollow, belling, heard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hounds of Mark, and felt the goodly hounds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yelp at his heart, but turning, past and gained",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tintagil, half in sea, and high on land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A crown of towers.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Down in a casement sat,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "A low sea-sunset glorying round her hair",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "And glossy-throated grace, Isolt the Queen.",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "And when she heard the feet of Tristram grind",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "The spiring stone that scaled about her tower,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Flushed, started, met him at the doors, and there",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Belted his body with her white embrace,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Crying aloud, “Not Mark⁠—not Mark, my soul!",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "The footstep fluttered me at first: not he:",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Catlike through his own castle steals my Mark,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "But warrior-wise thou stridest through his halls",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Who hates thee, as I him⁠—even to the death.",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "My soul, I felt my hatred for my Mark",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Quicken within me, and knew that thou wert nigh.”",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "To whom Sir Tristram smiling, “I am here.",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Let be thy Mark, seeing he is not thine.”",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And drawing somewhat backward she replied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Can he be wronged who is not even his own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But save for dread of thee had beaten me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Scratched, bitten, blinded, marred me somehow⁠—Mark?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What rights are his that dare not strike for them?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not lift a hand⁠—not, though he found me thus!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But harken! have ye met him? hence he went",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Today for three days’ hunting⁠—as he said⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so returns belike within an hour.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mark’s way, my soul!⁠—but eat not thou with Mark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because he hates thee even more than fears;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor drink: and when thou passest any wood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Close visor, lest an arrow from the bush",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should leave me all alone with Mark and hell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My God, the measure of my hate for Mark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is as the measure of my love for thee.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So, plucked one way by hate and one by love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drained of her force, again she sat, and spake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Tristram, as he knelt before her, saying,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“O hunter, and O blower of the horn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Harper, and thou hast been a rover too,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For, ere I mated with my shambling king,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye twain had fallen out about the bride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of one⁠—his name is out of me⁠—the prize,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If prize she were⁠—(what marvel⁠—she could see)⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine, friend; and ever since my craven seeks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wreck thee villainously: but, O Sir Knight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What dame or damsel have ye kneeled to last?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Tristram, “Last to my Queen Paramount,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here now to my Queen Paramount of love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And loveliness⁠—ay, lovelier than when first",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her light feet fell on our rough Lyonnesse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sailing from Ireland.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Softly laughed Isolt;",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "“Flatter me not, for hath not our great Queen",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "My dole of beauty trebled?” and he said,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "“Her beauty is her beauty, and thine thine,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "And thine is more to me⁠—soft, gracious, kind⁠—",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Save when thy Mark is kindled on thy lips",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Most gracious; but she, haughty, even to him,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Lancelot; for I have seen him wan enow",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "To make one doubt if ever the great Queen",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Have yielded him her love.”",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom Isolt,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ah then, false hunter and false harper, thou",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Who brakest through the scruple of my bond,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Calling me thy white hind, and saying to me",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "That Guinevere had sinned against the highest,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "And I⁠—misyoked with such a want of man⁠—",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "That I could hardly sin against the lowest.”",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He answered, “O my soul, be comforted!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If this be sweet, to sin in leading-strings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If here be comfort, and if ours be sin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crowned warrant had we for the crowning sin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That made us happy: but how ye greet me⁠—fear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fault and doubt⁠—no word of that fond tale⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy deep heart-yearnings, thy sweet memories",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Tristram in that year he was away.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And, saddening on the sudden, spake Isolt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I had forgotten all in my strong joy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see thee⁠—yearnings?⁠—ay! for, hour by hour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here in the never-ended afternoon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O sweeter than all memories of thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deeper than any yearnings after thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seemed those far-rolling, westward-smiling seas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Watched from this tower. Isolt of Britain dashed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before Isolt of Brittany on the strand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would that have chilled her bride-kiss? Wedded her?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fought in her father’s battles? wounded there?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The King was all fulfilled with gratefulness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she, my namesake of the hands, that healed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy hurt and heart with unguent and caress⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well⁠—can I wish her any huger wrong",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than having known thee? her too hast thou left",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To pine and waste in those sweet memories.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O were I not my Mark’s, by whom all men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are noble, I should hate thee more than love.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Tristram, fondling her light hands, replied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Grace, Queen, for being loved: she loved me well.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did I love her? the name at least I loved.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Isolt?⁠—I fought his battles, for Isolt!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The night was dark; the true star set. Isolt!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The name was ruler of the dark⁠—Isolt?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Care not for her! patient, and prayerful, meek,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pale-blooded, she will yield herself to God.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And Isolt answered, “Yea, and why not I?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mine is the larger need, who am not meek,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pale-blooded, prayerful. Let me tell thee now.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here one black, mute midsummer night I sat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lonely, but musing on thee, wondering where,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Murmuring a light song I had heard thee sing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And once or twice I spake thy name aloud.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then flashed a levin-brand; and near me stood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In fuming sulphur blue and green, a fiend⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mark’s way to steal behind one in the dark⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For there was Mark: ‘He has wedded her,’ he said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not said, but hissed it: then this crown of towers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So shook to such a roar of all the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That here in utter dark I swooned away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And woke again in utter dark, and cried,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘I will flee hence and give myself to God’⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou wert lying in thy new leman’s arms.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then Tristram, ever dallying with her hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“May God be with thee, sweet, when old and gray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And past desire!” a saying that angered her.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“ ‘May God be with thee, sweet, when thou art old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sweet no more to me!’ I need Him now.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For when had Lancelot uttered aught so gross",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even to the swineherd’s malkin in the mast?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The greater man, the greater courtesy.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far other was the Tristram, Arthur’s knight!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But thou, through ever harrying thy wild beasts⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save that to touch a harp, tilt with a lance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Becomes thee well⁠—art grown wild beast thyself.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How darest thou, if lover, push me even",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In fancy from thy side, and set me far",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the gray distance, half a life away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her to be loved no more? Unsay it, unswear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flatter me rather, seeing me so weak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Broken with Mark and hate and solitude,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy marriage and mine own, that I should suck",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lies like sweet wines: lie to me: I believe.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will ye not lie? not swear, as there ye kneel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And solemnly as when ye sware to him,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The man of men, our King⁠—My God, the power",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was once in vows when men believed the King!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They lied not then, who sware, and through their vows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The King prevailing made his realm:⁠—I say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swear to me thou wilt love me even when old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gray-haired, and past desire, and in despair.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then Tristram, pacing moodily up and down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Vows! did you keep the vow you made to Mark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More than I mine? Lied, say ye? Nay, but learnt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The vow that binds too strictly snaps itself⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My knighthood taught me this⁠—ay, being snapt⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We run more counter to the soul thereof",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than had we never sworn. I swear no more.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I swore to the great King, and am forsworn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For once⁠—even to the height⁠—I honoured him.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "‘Man, is he man at all?’ methought, when first",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I rode from our rough Lyonnesse, and beheld",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That victor of the Pagan throned in hall⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His hair, a sun that rayed from off a brow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like hillsnow high in heaven, the steel-blue eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The golden beard that clothed his lips with light⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moreover, that weird legend of his birth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With Merlin’s mystic babble about his end",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amazed me; then, his foot was on a stool",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shaped as a dragon; he seemed to me no man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But Michael trampling Satan; so I sware,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Being amazed: but this went by⁠—The vows!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O ay⁠—the wholesome madness of an hour⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They served their use, their time; for every knight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Believed himself a greater than himself,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every follower eyed him as a God;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till he, being lifted up beyond himself,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Did mightier deeds than elsewise he had done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so the realm was made; but then their vows⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "First mainly through that sullying of our Queen⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Began to gall the knighthood, asking whence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had Arthur right to bind them to himself?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dropt down from heaven? washed up from out the deep?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They failed to trace him through the flesh and blood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of our old kings: whence then? a doubtful lord",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bind them by inviolable vows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which flesh and blood perforce would violate:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For feel this arm of mine⁠—the tide within",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Red with free chase and heather-scented air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pulsing full man; can Arthur make me pure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As any maiden child? lock up my tongue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From uttering freely what I freely hear?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bind me to one? The wide world laughs at it.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And worldling of the world am I, and know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ptarmigan that whitens ere his hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Woos his own end; we are not angels here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor shall be: vows⁠—I am woodman of the woods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hear the garnet-headed yaffingale",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mock them: my soul, we love but while we may;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And therefore is my love so large for thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seeing it is not bounded save by love.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here ending, he moved toward her, and she said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Good: an I turned away my love for thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To someone thrice as courteous as thyself⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For courtesy wins woman all as well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As valour may, but he that closes both",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is perfect, he is Lancelot⁠—taller indeed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rosier and comelier, thou⁠—but say I loved",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This knightliest of all knights, and cast thee back",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine own small saw, ‘We love but while we may,’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well then, what answer?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He that while she spake,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Mindful of what he brought to adorn her with,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "The jewels, had let one finger lightly touch",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "The warm white apple of her throat, replied,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "“Press this a little closer, sweet, until⁠—",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Come, I am hungered and half-angered⁠—meat,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "Wine, wine⁠—and I will love thee to the death,",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   },
   {
    "text": "And out beyond into the dream to come.”",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So then, when both were brought to full accord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She rose, and set before him all he willed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And after these had comforted the blood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With meats and wines, and satiated their hearts⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now talking of their woodland paradise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The deer, the dews, the fern, the founts, the lawns;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now mocking at the much ungainliness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And craven shifts, and long crane legs of Mark⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then Tristram laughing caught the harp, and sang:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Ay, ay, O ay⁠—the winds that bend the brier!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A star in heaven, a star within the mere!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ay, ay, O ay⁠—a star was my desire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one was far apart, and one was near:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ay, ay, O ay⁠—the winds that bow the grass!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one was water and one star was fire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one will ever shine and one will pass.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ay, ay, O ay⁠—the winds that move the mere.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then in the light’s last glimmer Tristram showed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And swung the ruby carcanet. She cried,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The collar of some Order, which our King",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath newly founded, all for thee, my soul,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For thee, to yield thee grace beyond thy peers.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Not so, my Queen,” he said, “but the red fruit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grown on a magic oak-tree in mid-heaven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And won by Tristram as a tourney-prize,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hither brought by Tristram for his last",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love-offering and peace-offering unto thee.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He spoke, he turned, then, flinging round her neck,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Claspt it, and cried, “Thine Order, O my Queen!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, while he bowed to kiss the jewelled throat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the dark, just as the lips had touched,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behind him rose a shadow and a shriek⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Mark’s way,” said Mark, and clove him through the brain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That night came Arthur home, and while he climbed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All in a death-dumb autumn-dripping gloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stairway to the hall, and looked and saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The great Queen’s bower was dark⁠—about his feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A voice clung sobbing till he questioned it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“What art thou?” and the voice about his feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sent up an answer, sobbing, “I am thy fool,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I shall never make thee smile again.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}