{ "id": "alfred-lord-tennyson/the-marriage-of-geraint", "title": "The Marriage of Geraint", "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": 4, "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-marriage-of-geraint.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": 849, "n_stanzas": 41, "n_parts": 0, "longest_line_chars": 58, "max_indent": 0 }, "site_ready": true, "parts": [], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "The brave Geraint, a knight of Arthur’s court,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A tributary prince of Devon, one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of that great Order of the Table Round,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had married Enid, Yniol’s only child,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And loved her, as he loved the light of Heaven.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And as the light of Heaven varies, now", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At sunrise, now at sunset, now by night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With moon and trembling stars, so loved Geraint", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make her beauty vary day by day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In crimsons and in purples and in gems.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Enid, but to please her husband’s eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who first had found and loved her in a state", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of broken fortunes, daily fronted him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In some fresh splendour; and the Queen herself,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grateful to Prince Geraint for service done,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Loved her, and often with her own white hands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arrayed and decked her, as the loveliest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Next after her own self, in all the court.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Enid loved the Queen, and with true heart", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Adored her, as the stateliest and the best", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And loveliest of all women upon earth.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seeing them so tender and so close,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Long in their common love rejoiced Geraint.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when a rumour rose about the Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Touching her guilty love for Lancelot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though yet there lived no proof, nor yet was heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The world’s loud whisper breaking into storm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not less Geraint believed it; and there fell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A horror on him, lest his gentle wife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through that great tenderness for Guinevere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had suffered, or should suffer any taint", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In nature: wherefore going to the King,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He made this pretext, that his princedom lay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Close on the borders of a territory,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wherein were bandit earls, and caitiff knights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Assassins, and all flyers from the hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Justice, and whatever loathes a law:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And therefore, till the King himself should please", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To cleanse this common sewer of all his realm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He craved a fair permission to depart,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there defend his marches; and the King", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mused for a little on his plea, but, last,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Allowing it, the Prince and Enid rode,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fifty knights rode with them, to the shores", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Severn, and they past to their own land;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where, thinking, that if ever yet was wife", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "True to her lord, mine shall be so to me,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He compassed her with sweet observances", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And worship, never leaving her, and grew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forgetful of his promise to the King,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forgetful of the falcon and the hunt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forgetful of the tilt and tournament,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forgetful of his glory and his name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forgetful of his princedom and its cares.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And this forgetfulness was hateful to her.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And by and by the people, when they met", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In twos and threes, or fuller companies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Began to scoff and jeer and babble of him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As of a prince whose manhood was all gone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And molten down in mere uxoriousness.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And this she gathered from the people’s eyes:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This too the women who attired her head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To please her, dwelling on his boundless love,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Told Enid, and they saddened her the more:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And day by day she thought to tell Geraint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But could not out of bashful delicacy;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While he that watched her sadden, was the more", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Suspicious that her nature had a taint.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "At last, it chanced that on a summer morn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(They sleeping each by either) the new sun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beat through the blindless casement of the room,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And heated the strong warrior in his dreams;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who, moving, cast the coverlet aside,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bared the knotted column of his throat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The massive square of his heroic breast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And arms on which the standing muscle sloped,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As slopes a wild brook o’er a little stone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Running too vehemently to break upon it.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Enid woke and sat beside the couch,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Admiring him, and thought within herself,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was ever man so grandly made as he?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then, like a shadow, past the people’s talk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And accusation of uxoriousness", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across her mind, and bowing over him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Low to her own heart piteously she said:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“O noble breast and all-puissant arms,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Am I the cause, I the poor cause that men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reproach you, saying all your force is gone?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am the cause, because I dare not speak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tell him what I think and what they say.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet I hate that he should linger here;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I cannot love my lord and not his name.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far liefer had I gird his harness on him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ride with him to battle and stand by,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And watch his mightful hand striking great blows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At caitiffs and at wrongers of the world.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far better were I laid in the dark earth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not hearing any more his noble voice,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not to be folded more in these dear arms,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And darkened from the high light in his eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than that my lord through me should suffer shame.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Am I so bold, and could I so stand by,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And see my dear lord wounded in the strife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And maybe pierced to death before mine eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet not dare to tell him what I think,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And how men slur him, saying all his force", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is melted into mere effeminacy?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O me, I fear that I am no true wife.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Half inwardly, half audibly she spoke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the strong passion in her made her weep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "True tears upon his broad and naked breast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And these awoke him, and by great mischance", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He heard but fragments of her later words,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that she feared she was not a true wife.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then he thought, “In spite of all my care,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For all my pains, poor man, for all my pains,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She is not faithful to me, and I see her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Weeping for some gay knight in Arthur’s hall.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then though he loved and reverenced her too much", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To dream she could be guilty of foul act,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Right through his manful breast darted the pang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That makes a man, in the sweet face of her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom he loves most, lonely and miserable.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At this he hurled his huge limbs out of bed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shook his drowsy squire awake and cried,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“My charger and her palfrey;” then to her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“I will ride forth into the wilderness;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For though it seems my spurs are yet to win,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I have not fallen so low as some would wish.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thou, put on thy worst and meanest dress", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ride with me.” And Enid asked, amazed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“If Enid errs, let Enid learn her fault.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But he, “I charge thee, ask not, but obey.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then she bethought her of a faded silk,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A faded mantle and a faded veil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And moving toward a cedarn cabinet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wherein she kept them folded reverently", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With sprigs of summer laid between the folds,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She took them, and arrayed herself therein,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remembering when first he came on her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drest in that dress, and how he loved her in it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all her foolish fears about the dress,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all his journey to her, as himself", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had told her, and their coming to the court.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "For Arthur on the Whitsuntide before", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Held court at old Caerleon upon Usk.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There on a day, he sitting high in hall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before him came a forester of Dean,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wet from the woods, with notice of a hart", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Taller than all his fellows, milky-white,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "First seen that day: these things he told the King.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then the good King gave order to let blow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His horns for hunting on the morrow morn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when the King petitioned for his leave", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see the hunt, allowed it easily.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So with the morning all the court were gone.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Guinevere lay late into the morn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lost in sweet dreams, and dreaming of her love", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Lancelot, and forgetful of the hunt;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But rose at last, a single maiden with her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Took horse, and forded Usk, and gained the wood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There, on a little knoll beside it, stayed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Waiting to hear the hounds; but heard instead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sudden sound of hoofs, for Prince Geraint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Late also, wearing neither hunting-dress", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor weapon, save a golden-hilted brand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came quickly flashing through the shallow ford", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind them, and so galloped up the knoll.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A purple scarf, at either end whereof", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There swung an apple of the purest gold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swayed round about him, as he galloped up", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To join them, glancing like a dragon-fly", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In summer suit and silks of holiday.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Low bowed the tributary Prince, and she,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweet and statelily, and with all grace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of womanhood and queenhood, answered him:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Late, late, Sir Prince,” she said, “later than we!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Yea, noble Queen,” he answered, “and so late", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That I but come like you to see the hunt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not join it.” “Therefore wait with me,” she said;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“For on this little knoll, if anywhere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There is good chance that we shall hear the hounds:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here often they break covert at our feet.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And while they listened for the distant hunt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And chiefly for the baying of Cavall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "King Arthur’s hound of deepest mouth, there rode", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Full slowly by a knight, lady, and dwarf;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whereof the dwarf lagged latest, and the knight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had visor up, and showed a youthful face,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Imperious, and of haughtiest lineaments.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Guinevere, not mindful of his face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In the King’s hall, desired his name, and sent", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her maiden to demand it of the dwarf;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who being vicious, old and irritable,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And doubling all his master’s vice of pride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made answer sharply that she should not know.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Then will I ask it of himself,” she said.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Nay, by my faith, thou shalt not,” cried the dwarf;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Thou art not worthy even to speak of him;”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when she put her horse toward the knight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Struck at her with his whip, and she returned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indignant to the Queen; whereat Geraint", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Exclaiming, “Surely I will learn the name,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made sharply to the dwarf, and asked it of him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who answered as before; and when the Prince", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had put his horse in motion toward the knight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Struck at him with his whip, and cut his cheek.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Prince’s blood spirted upon the scarf,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dyeing it; and his quick, instinctive hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Caught at the hilt, as to abolish him:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But he, from his exceeding manfulness", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pure nobility of temperament,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wroth to be wroth at such a worm, refrained", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From even a word, and so returning said:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“I will avenge this insult, noble Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Done in your maiden’s person to yourself:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I will track this vermin to their earths:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For though I ride unarmed, I do not doubt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To find, at some place I shall come at, arms", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On loan, or else for pledge; and, being found,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then will I fight him, and will break his pride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And on the third day will again be here,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So that I be not fallen in fight. Farewell.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Farewell, fair Prince,” answered the stately Queen.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Be prosperous in this journey, as in all;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And may you light on all things that you love,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And live to wed with her whom first you love:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But ere you wed with any, bring your bride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I, were she the daughter of a king,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yea, though she were a beggar from the hedge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Will clothe her for her bridals like the sun.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Prince Geraint, now thinking that he heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The noble hart at bay, now the far horn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little vext at losing of the hunt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little at the vile occasion, rode,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By ups and downs, through many a grassy glade", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And valley, with fixt eye following the three.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At last they issued from the world of wood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And climbed upon a fair and even ridge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And showed themselves against the sky, and sank.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thither there came Geraint, and underneath", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld the long street of a little town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In a long valley, on one side whereof,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "White from the mason’s hand, a fortress rose;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And on one side a castle in decay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond a bridge that spanned a dry ravine:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And out of town and valley came a noise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As of a broad brook o’er a shingly bed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brawling, or like a clamour of the rooks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At distance, ere they settle for the night.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And onward to the fortress rode the three,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And entered, and were lost behind the walls.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“So,” thought Geraint, “I have tracked him to his earth.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And down the long street riding wearily,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Found every hostel full, and everywhere", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was hammer laid to hoof, and the hot hiss", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bustling whistle of the youth who scoured", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His master’s armour; and of such a one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He asked, “What means the tumult in the town?”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who told him, scouring still, “The sparrow-hawk!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then riding close behind an ancient churl,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who, smitten by the dusty sloping beam,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went sweating underneath a sack of corn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Asked yet once more what meant the hubbub here?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who answered gruffly, “Ugh! the sparrow-hawk.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then riding further past an armourer’s,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who, with back turned, and bowed above his work,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sat riveting a helmet on his knee,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He put the selfsame query, but the man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not turning round, nor looking at him, said:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Friend, he that labours for the sparrow-hawk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has little time for idle questioners.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whereat Geraint flashed into sudden spleen:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“A thousand pips eat up your sparrow-hawk!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tits, wrens, and all winged nothings peck him dead!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ye think the rustic cackle of your bourg", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The murmur of the world! What is it to me?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O wretched set of sparrows, one and all,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who pipe of nothing but of sparrow-hawks!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Speak, if ye be not like the rest, hawk-mad,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where can I get me harbourage for the night?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And arms, arms, arms to fight my enemy? Speak!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whereat the armourer turning all amazed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seeing one so gay in purple silks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came forward with the helmet yet in hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And answered, “Pardon me, O stranger knight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We hold a tourney here tomorrow morn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there is scantly time for half the work.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arms? truth! I know not: all are wanted here.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Harbourage? truth, good truth, I know not, save,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It may be, at Earl Yniol’s, o’er the bridge", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yonder.” He spoke and fell to work again.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then rode Geraint, a little spleenful yet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the bridge that spanned the dry ravine.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There musing sat the hoary-headed Earl,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(His dress a suit of frayed magnificence,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Once fit for feasts of ceremony) and said:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Whither, fair son?” to whom Geraint replied,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“O friend, I seek a harbourage for the night.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then Yniol, “Enter therefore and partake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The slender entertainment of a house", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Once rich, now poor, but ever open-doored.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Thanks, venerable friend,” replied Geraint;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“So that ye do not serve me sparrow-hawks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For supper, I will enter, I will eat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With all the passion of a twelve hours’ fast.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then sighed and smiled the hoary-headed Earl,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And answered, “Graver cause than yours is mine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To curse this hedgerow thief, the sparrow-hawk:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But in, go in; for save yourself desire it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We will not touch upon him even in jest.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then rode Geraint into the castle court,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His charger trampling many a prickly star", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of sprouted thistle on the broken stones.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He looked and saw that all was ruinous.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here stood a shattered archway plumed with fern;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And here had fallen a great part of a tower,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whole, like a crag that tumbles from the cliff,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And like a crag was gay with wilding flowers:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And high above a piece of turret stair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Worn by the feet that now were silent, wound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bare to the sun, and monstrous ivy-stems", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Claspt the gray walls with hairy-fibred arms,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sucked the joining of the stones, and looked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A knot, beneath, of snakes, aloft, a grove.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And while he waited in the castle court,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The voice of Enid, Yniol’s daughter, rang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Clear through the open casement of the hall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Singing; and as the sweet voice of a bird,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Heard by the lander in a lonely isle,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Moves him to think what kind of bird it is", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That sings so delicately clear, and make", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Conjecture of the plumage and the form;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So the sweet voice of Enid moved Geraint;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And made him like a man abroad at morn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When first the liquid note beloved of men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Comes flying over many a windy wave", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Britain, and in April suddenly", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Breaks from a coppice gemmed with green and red,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And he suspends his converse with a friend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or it may be the labour of his hands,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To think or say, “There is the nightingale;”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So fared it with Geraint, who thought and said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Here, by God’s grace, is the one voice for me.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It chanced the song that Enid sang was one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Fortune and her wheel, and Enid sang:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Turn thy wild wheel through sunshine, storm, and cloud;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With that wild wheel we go not up or down;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Smile and we smile, the lords of many lands;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Frown and we smile, the lords of our own hands;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For man is man and master of his fate.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Turn, turn thy wheel above the staring crowd;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy wheel and thou are shadows in the cloud;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Hark, by the bird’s song ye may learn the nest,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Said Yniol; “enter quickly.” Entering then,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Right o’er a mount of newly-fallen stones,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dusky-raftered many-cobwebbed hall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He found an ancient dame in dim brocade;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And near her, like a blossom vermeil-white,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That lightly breaks a faded flower-sheath,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Moved the fair Enid, all in faded silk,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her daughter. In a moment thought Geraint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Here by God’s rood is the one maid for me.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But none spake word except the hoary Earl:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Enid, the good knight’s horse stands in the court;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Take him to stall, and give him corn, and then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Go to the town and buy us flesh and wine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And we will make us merry as we may.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He spake: the Prince, as Enid past him, fain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To follow, strode a stride, but Yniol caught", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His purple scarf, and held, and said, “Forbear!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rest! the good house, though ruined, O my son,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Endures not that her guest should serve himself.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And reverencing the custom of the house", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Geraint, from utter courtesy, forbore.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So Enid took his charger to the stall;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And after went her way across the bridge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And reached the town, and while the Prince and Earl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet spoke together, came again with one,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A youth, that following with a costrel bore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The means of goodly welcome, flesh and wine.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Enid brought sweet cakes to make them cheer,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in her veil enfolded, manchet bread.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then, because their hall must also serve", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For kitchen, boiled the flesh, and spread the board,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And stood behind, and waited on the three.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seeing her so sweet and serviceable,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Geraint had longing in him evermore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To stoop and kiss the tender little thumb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That crost the trencher as she laid it down:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But after all had eaten, then Geraint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For now the wine made summer in his veins,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let his eye rove in following, or rest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Enid at her lowly handmaid-work,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now here, now there, about the dusky hall;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then suddenly addrest the hoary Earl:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Fair Host and Earl, I pray your courtesy;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This sparrow-hawk, what is he? tell me of him.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His name? but no, good faith, I will not have it:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For if he be the knight whom late I saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ride into that new fortress by your town,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "White from the mason’s hand, then have I sworn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From his own lips to have it⁠—I am Geraint", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Devon⁠—for this morning when the Queen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sent her own maiden to demand the name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His dwarf, a vicious under-shapen thing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Struck at her with his whip, and she returned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indignant to the Queen; and then I swore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That I would track this caitiff to his hold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fight and break his pride, and have it of him.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all unarmed I rode, and thought to find", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arms in your town, where all the men are mad;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They take the rustic murmur of their bourg", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For the great wave that echoes round the world;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They would not hear me speak: but if ye know", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where I can light on arms, or if yourself", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should have them, tell me, seeing I have sworn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That I will break his pride and learn his name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Avenging this great insult done the Queen.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then cried Earl Yniol, “Art thou he indeed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Geraint, a name far-sounded among men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For noble deeds? and truly I, when first", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I saw you moving by me on the bridge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Felt ye were somewhat, yea, and by your state", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And presence might have guessed you one of those", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That eat in Arthur’s hall in Camelot.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor speak I now from foolish flattery;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For this dear child hath often heard me praise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your feats of arms, and often when I paused", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hath asked again, and ever loved to hear;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So grateful is the noise of noble deeds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To noble hearts who see but acts of wrong:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O never yet had woman such a pair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of suitors as this maiden: first Limours,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A creature wholly given to brawls and wine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drunk even when he wooed; and be he dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I know not, but he past to the wild land.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The second was your foe, the sparrow-hawk,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My curse, my nephew⁠—I will not let his name", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slip from my lips if I can help it⁠—he,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When that I knew him fierce and turbulent", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Refused her to him, then his pride awoke;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And since the proud man often is the mean,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He sowed a slander in the common ear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Affirming that his father left him gold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in my charge, which was not rendered to him;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bribed with large promises the men who served", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About my person, the more easily", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because my means were somewhat broken into", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through open doors and hospitality;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Raised my own town against me in the night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before my Enid’s birthday, sacked my house;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From mine own earldom foully ousted me;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Built that new fort to overawe my friends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For truly there are those who love me yet;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And keeps me in this ruinous castle here,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where doubtless he would put me soon to death,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But that his pride too much despises me:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I myself sometimes despise myself;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For I have let men be, and have their way;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Am much too gentle, have not used my power:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor know I whether I be very base", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or very manful, whether very wise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or very foolish; only this I know,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That whatsoever evil happen to me,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I seem to suffer nothing heart or limb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But can endure it all most patiently.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Well said, true heart,” replied Geraint, “but arms,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That if the sparrow-hawk, this nephew, fight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In next day’s tourney I may break his pride.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Yniol answered, “Arms, indeed, but old", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rusty, old and rusty, Prince Geraint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are mine, and therefore at thy asking, thine.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But in this tournament can no man tilt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Except the lady he loves best be there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two forks are fixt into the meadow ground,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And over these is placed a silver wand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And over that a golden sparrow-hawk,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The prize of beauty for the fairest there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And this, what knight soever be in field", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lays claim to for the lady at his side,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tilts with my good nephew thereupon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who being apt at arms and big of bone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has ever won it for the lady with him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And toppling over all antagonism", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has earned himself the name of ‘sparrow-hawk.’", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But thou, that hast no lady, canst not fight.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To whom Geraint with eyes all bright replied,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Leaning a little toward him, “Thy leave!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let me lay lance in rest, O noble host,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For this dear child, because I never saw,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though having seen all beauties of our time,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor can see elsewhere, anything so fair.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And if I fall her name will yet remain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Untarnished as before; but if I live,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So aid me Heaven when at mine uttermost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As I will make her truly my true wife.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then, howsoever patient, Yniol’s heart", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Danced in his bosom, seeing better days,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And looking round he saw not Enid there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Who hearing her own name had stolen away)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But that old dame, to whom full tenderly", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And folding all her hand in his he said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Mother, a maiden is a tender thing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And best by her that bore her understood.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Go thou to rest, but ere thou go to rest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tell her, and prove her heart toward the Prince.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So spake the kindly-hearted Earl, and she", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With frequent smile and nod departing found,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Half disarrayed as to her rest, the girl;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom first she kissed on either cheek, and then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On either shining shoulder laid a hand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And kept her off and gazed upon her face,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And told them all their converse in the hall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Proving her heart: but never light and shade", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Coursed one another more on open ground", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath a troubled heaven, than red and pale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the face of Enid hearing her;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While slowly falling as a scale that falls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When weight is added only grain by grain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sank her sweet head upon her gentle breast;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor did she lift an eye nor speak a word,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rapt in the fear and in the wonder of it;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So moving without answer to her rest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She found no rest, and ever failed to draw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The quiet night into her blood, but lay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Contemplating her own unworthiness;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when the pale and bloodless east began", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To quicken to the sun, arose, and raised", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her mother too, and hand in hand they moved", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Down to the meadow where the jousts were held,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And waited there for Yniol and Geraint.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And thither came the twain, and when Geraint", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld her first in field, awaiting him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He felt, were she the prize of bodily force,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Himself beyond the rest pushing could move", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The chair of Idris. Yniol’s rusted arms", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were on his princely person, but through these", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Princelike his bearing shone; and errant knights", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ladies came, and by and by the town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flowed in, and settling circled all the lists.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there they fixt the forks into the ground,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And over these they placed the silver wand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And over that the golden sparrow-hawk.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then Yniol’s nephew, after trumpet blown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spake to the lady with him and proclaimed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Advance and take, as fairest of the fair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What I these two years past have won for thee,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The prize of beauty.” Loudly spake the Prince,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Forbear: there is a worthier,” and the knight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With some surprise and thrice as much disdain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Turned, and beheld the four, and all his face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Glowed like the heart of a great fire at Yule,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So burnt he was with passion, crying out,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Do battle for it then,” no more; and thrice", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They clashed together, and thrice they brake their spears.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then each, dishorsed and drawing, lashed at each", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So often and with such blows, that all the crowd", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wondered, and now and then from distant walls", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There came a clapping as of phantom hands.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So twice they fought, and twice they breathed, and still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dew of their great labour, and the blood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of their strong bodies, flowing, drained their force.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But either’s force was matched till Yniol’s cry,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Remember that great insult done the Queen,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Increased Geraint’s, who heaved his blade aloft,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And cracked the helmet through, and bit the bone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And felled him, and set foot upon his breast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And said, “Thy name?” To whom the fallen man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made answer, groaning, “Edyrn, son of Nudd!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ashamed am I that I should tell it thee.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My pride is broken: men have seen my fall.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Then, Edyrn, son of Nudd,” replied Geraint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“These two things shalt thou do, or else thou diest.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "First, thou thyself, with damsel and with dwarf,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shalt ride to Arthur’s court, and coming there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Crave pardon for that insult done the Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shalt abide her judgment on it; next,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thou shalt give back their earldom to thy kin.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These two things shalt thou do, or thou shalt die.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Edyrn answered, “These things will I do,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For I have never yet been overthrown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thou hast overthrown me, and my pride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is broken down, for Enid sees my fall!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rising up, he rode to Arthur’s court,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there the Queen forgave him easily.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And being young, he changed and came to loathe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His crime of traitor, slowly drew himself", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bright from his old dark life, and fell at last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In the great battle fighting for the King.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But when the third day from the hunting-morn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made a low splendour in the world, and wings", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Moved in her ivy, Enid, for she lay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With her fair head in the dim-yellow light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the dancing shadows of the birds,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Woke and bethought her of her promise given", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No later than last eve to Prince Geraint⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So bent he seemed on going the third day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He would not leave her, till her promise given⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To ride with him this morning to the court,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there be made known to the stately Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there be wedded with all ceremony.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At this she cast her eyes upon her dress,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thought it never yet had looked so mean.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For as a leaf in mid-November is", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To what it is in mid-October, seemed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dress that now she looked on to the dress", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She looked on ere the coming of Geraint.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And still she looked, and still the terror grew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of that strange bright and dreadful thing, a court,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All staring at her in her faded silk:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And softly to her own sweet heart she said:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“This noble prince who won our earldom back,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So splendid in his acts and his attire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweet heaven, how much I shall discredit him!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would he could tarry with us here awhile,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But being so beholden to the Prince,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It were but little grace in any of us,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bent as he seemed on going this third day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To seek a second favour at his hands.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet if he could but tarry a day or two,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Myself would work eye dim, and finger lame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far liefer than so much discredit him.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Enid fell in longing for a dress", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All branched and flowered with gold, a costly gift", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of her good mother, given her on the night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before her birthday, three sad years ago,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That night of fire, when Edyrn sacked their house,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And scattered all they had to all the winds:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For while the mother showed it, and the two", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were turning and admiring it, the work", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To both appeared so costly, rose a cry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That Edyrn’s men were on them, and they fled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With little save the jewels they had on,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which being sold and sold had bought them bread:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Edyrn’s men had caught them in their flight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And placed them in this ruin; and she wished", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Prince had found her in her ancient home;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then let her fancy flit across the past,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And roam the goodly places that she knew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And last bethought her how she used to watch,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Near that old home, a pool of golden carp;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And one was patched and blurred and lustreless", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among his burnished brethren of the pool;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And half asleep she made comparison", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of that and these to her own faded self", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the gay court, and fell asleep again;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And dreamt herself was such a faded form", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among her burnished sisters of the pool;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But this was in the garden of a king;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And though she lay dark in the pool, she knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That all was bright; that all about were birds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of sunny plume in gilded trellis-work;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That all the turf was rich in plots that looked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each like a garnet or a turkis in it;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lords and ladies of the high court went", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In silver tissue talking things of state;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And children of the King in cloth of gold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Glanced at the doors or gamboled down the walks;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And while she thought “They will not see me,” came", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A stately queen whose name was Guinevere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the children in their cloth of gold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ran to her, crying, “If we have fish at all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let them be gold; and charge the gardeners now", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To pick the faded creature from the pool,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And cast it on the mixen that it die.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And therewithal one came and seized on her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Enid started waking, with her heart", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All overshadowed by the foolish dream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lo! it was her mother grasping her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To get her well awake; and in her hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A suit of bright apparel, which she laid", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flat on the couch, and spoke exultingly:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“See here, my child, how fresh the colours look,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How fast they hold like colours of a shell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That keeps the wear and polish of the wave.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Why not? It never yet was worn, I trow:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look on it, child, and tell me if ye know it.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Enid looked, but all confused at first,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could scarce divide it from her foolish dream:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then suddenly she knew it and rejoiced,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And answered, “Yea, I know it; your good gift,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So sadly lost on that unhappy night;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your own good gift!” “Yea, surely,” said the dame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“And gladly given again this happy morn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For when the jousts were ended yesterday,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went Yniol through the town, and everywhere", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He found the sack and plunder of our house", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All scattered through the houses of the town;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gave command that all which once was ours", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should now be ours again: and yester-eve,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While ye were talking sweetly with your Prince,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came one with this and laid it in my hand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For love or fear, or seeking favour of us,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because we have our earldom back again.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yester-eve I would not tell you of it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But kept it for a sweet surprise at morn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yea, truly is it not a sweet surprise?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For I myself unwillingly have worn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My faded suit, as you, my child, have yours,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And howsoever patient, Yniol his.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ah, dear, he took me from a goodly house,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With store of rich apparel, sumptuous fare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And page, and maid, and squire, and seneschal,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pastime both of hawk and hound, and all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That appertains to noble maintenance.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yea, and he brought me to a goodly house;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But since our fortune swerved from sun to shade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all through that young traitor, cruel need", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Constrained us, but a better time has come;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So clothe yourself in this, that better fits", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our mended fortunes and a Prince’s bride:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For though ye won the prize of fairest fair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And though I heard him call you fairest fair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let never maiden think, however fair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She is not fairer in new clothes than old.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And should some great court-lady say, the Prince", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hath picked a ragged-robin from the hedge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And like a madman brought her to the court,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then were ye shamed, and, worse, might shame the Prince", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To whom we are beholden; but I know,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That when my dear child is set forth at her best,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That neither court nor country, though they sought", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through all the provinces like those of old", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That lighted on Queen Esther, has her match.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here ceased the kindly mother out of breath;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Enid listened brightening as she lay;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then, as the white and glittering star of morn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Parts from a bank of snow, and by and by", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slips into golden cloud, the maiden rose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And left her maiden couch, and robed herself,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Helped by the mother’s careful hand and eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without a mirror, in the gorgeous gown;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who, after, turned her daughter round, and said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She never yet had seen her half so fair;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And called her like that maiden in the tale,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom Gwydion made by glamour out of flowers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sweeter than the bride of Cassivelaun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flur, for whose love the Roman Caesar first", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Invaded Britain, “But we beat him back,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As this great Prince invaded us, and we,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not beat him back, but welcomed him with joy", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I can scarcely ride with you to court,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For old am I, and rough the ways and wild;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Yniol goes, and I full oft shall dream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I see my princess as I see her now,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Clothed with my gift, and gay among the gay.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But while the women thus rejoiced, Geraint", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Woke where he slept in the high hall, and called", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Enid, and when Yniol made report", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of that good mother making Enid gay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In such apparel as might well beseem", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His princess, or indeed the stately Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He answered: “Earl, entreat her by my love,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Albeit I give no reason but my wish,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That she ride with me in her faded silk.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yniol with that hard message went; it fell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Enid, all abashed she knew not why,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dared not to glance at her good mother’s face,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But silently, in all obedience,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her mother silent too, nor helping her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Laid from her limbs the costly-broidered gift,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And robed them in her ancient suit again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so descended. Never man rejoiced", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More than Geraint to greet her thus attired;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And glancing all at once as keenly at her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As careful robins eye the delver’s toil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made her cheek burn and either eyelid fall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But rested with her sweet face satisfied;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then seeing cloud upon the mother’s brow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her by both hands she caught, and sweetly said,", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“O my new mother, be not wroth or grieved", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At thy new son, for my petition to her.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When late I left Caerleon, our great Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In words whose echo lasts, they were so sweet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made promise, that whatever bride I brought,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Herself would clothe her like the sun in Heaven.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thereafter, when I reached this ruined hall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beholding one so bright in dark estate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I vowed that could I gain her, our fair Queen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No hand but hers, should make your Enid burst", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sunlike from cloud⁠—and likewise thought perhaps,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That service done so graciously would bind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The two together; fain I would the two", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should love each other: how can Enid find", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A nobler friend? Another thought was mine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I came among you here so suddenly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That though her gentle presence at the lists", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might well have served for proof that I was loved,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I doubted whether daughter’s tenderness,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or easy nature, might not let itself", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Be moulded by your wishes for her weal;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or whether some false sense in her own self", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of my contrasting brightness, overbore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her fancy dwelling in this dusky hall;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And such a sense might make her long for court", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all its perilous glories: and I thought,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That could I someway prove such force in her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Linked with such love for me, that at a word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(No reason given her) she could cast aside", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A splendour dear to women, new to her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And therefore dearer; or if not so new,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet therefore tenfold dearer by the power", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of intermitted usage; then I felt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That I could rest, a rock in ebbs and flows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fixt on her faith. Now, therefore, I do rest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A prophet certain of my prophecy,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That never shadow of mistrust can cross", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between us. Grant me pardon for my thoughts:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for my strange petition I will make", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amends hereafter by some gaudy-day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When your fair child shall wear your costly gift", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beside your own warm hearth, with, on her knees,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who knows? another gift of the high God,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which, maybe, shall have learned to lisp you thanks.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He spoke: the mother smiled, but half in tears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then brought a mantle down and wrapt her in it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And claspt and kissed her, and they rode away.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now thrice that morning Guinevere had climbed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The giant tower, from whose high crest, they say,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men saw the goodly hills of Somerset,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And white sails flying on the yellow sea;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But not to goodly hill or yellow sea", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Looked the fair Queen, but up the vale of Usk,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By the flat meadow, till she saw them come;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then descending met them at the gates,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Embraced her with all welcome as a friend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And did her honour as the Prince’s bride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And clothed her for her bridals like the sun;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all that week was old Caerleon gay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For by the hands of Dubric, the high saint,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They twain were wedded with all ceremony.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And this was on the last year’s Whitsuntide.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Enid ever kept the faded silk,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remembering how first he came on her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drest in that dress, and how he loved her in it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all her foolish fears about the dress,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all his journey toward her, as himself", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had told her, and their coming to the court.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And now this morning when he said to her,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Put on your worst and meanest dress,” she found", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And took it, and arrayed herself therein.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }