{
 "id": "alfred-lord-tennyson/the-passing-of-arthur",
 "title": "The Passing of Arthur",
 "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": 13,
 "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-passing-of-arthur.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": 469,
  "n_stanzas": 42,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 54,
  "max_indent": 0
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "That story which the bold Sir Bedivere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "First made and latest left of all the knights,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Told, when the man was no more than a voice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the white winter of his age, to those",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With whom he dwelt, new faces, other minds.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For on their march to westward, Bedivere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who slowly paced among the slumbering host,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heard in his tent the moanings of the King:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I found Him in the shining of the stars,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I marked Him in the flowering of His fields,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in His ways with men I find Him not.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O me! for why is all around us here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As if some lesser god had made the world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But had not force to shape it as he would,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the High God behold it from beyond,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And enter it, and make it beautiful?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or else as if the world were wholly fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But that these eyes of men are dense and dim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And have not power to see it as it is:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perchance, because we see not to the close;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I, being simple, thought to work His will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And have but stricken with the sword in vain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all whereon I leaned in wife and friend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is traitor to my peace, and all my realm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reels back into the beast, and is no more.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My God, thou hast forgotten me in my death;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nay⁠—God my Christ⁠—I pass but shall not die.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then, ere that last weird battle in the west,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There came on Arthur sleeping, Gawain killed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Lancelot’s war, the ghost of Gawain blown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along a wandering wind, and past his ear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Went shrilling, “Hollow, hollow all delight!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hail, King! tomorrow thou shalt pass away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Farewell! there is an isle of rest for thee.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I am blown along a wandering wind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hollow, hollow, hollow all delight.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fainter onward, like wild birds that change",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their season in the night and wail their way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From cloud to cloud, down the long wind the dream",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shrilled; but in going mingled with dim cries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far in the moonlit haze among the hills,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As of some lonely city sacked by night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When all is lost, and wife and child with wail",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pass to new lords; and Arthur woke and called,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Who spake? A dream. O light upon the wind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine, Gawain, was the voice⁠—are these dim cries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine? or doth all that haunts the waste and wild",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mourn, knowing it will go along with me?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This heard the bold Sir Bedivere and spake:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“O me, my King, let pass whatever will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Elves, and the harmless glamour of the field;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But in their stead thy name and glory cling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To all high places like a golden cloud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forever: but as yet thou shalt not pass.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Light was Gawain in life, and light in death",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is Gawain, for the ghost is as the man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And care not thou for dreams from him, but rise⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I hear the steps of Modred in the west,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with him many of thy people, and knights",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once thine, whom thou hast loved, but grosser grown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than heathen, spitting at their vows and thee.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Right well in heart they know thee for the King.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arise, go forth and conquer as of old.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Far other is this battle in the west",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whereto we move, than when we strove in youth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And brake the petty kings, and fought with Rome,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or thrust the heathen from the Roman wall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shook him through the north. Ill doom is mine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To war against my people and my knights.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The king who fights his people fights himself.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they my knights, who loved me once, the stroke",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That strikes them dead is as my death to me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet let us hence, and find or feel a way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through this blind haze, which ever since I saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One lying in the dust at Almesbury,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath folded in the passes of the world.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then rose the King and moved his host by night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ever pushed Sir Modred, league by league,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back to the sunset bound of Lyonnesse⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A land of old upheaven from the abyss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By fire, to sink into the abyss again;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the long mountains ended in a coast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of ever-shifting sand, and far away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The phantom circle of a moaning sea.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There the pursuer could pursue no more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he that fled no further fly the King;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there, that day when the great light of heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Burned at his lowest in the rolling year,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the waste sand by the waste sea they closed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor ever yet had Arthur fought a fight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like this last, dim, weird battle of the west.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A death-white mist slept over sand and sea:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whereof the chill, to him who breathed it, drew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down with his blood, till all his heart was cold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With formless fear; and even on Arthur fell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Confusion, since he saw not whom he fought.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For friend and foe were shadows in the mist,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And friend slew friend not knowing whom he slew;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And some had visions out of golden youth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And some beheld the faces of old ghosts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Look in upon the battle; and in the mist",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was many a noble deed, many a base,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And chance and craft and strength in single fights,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ever and anon with host to host",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shocks, and the splintering spear, the hard mail hewn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shield-breakings, and the clash of brands, the crash",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of battleaxes on shattered helms, and shrieks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After the Christ, of those who falling down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Looked up for heaven, and only saw the mist;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shouts of heathen and the traitor knights,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oaths, insults, filth, and monstrous blasphemies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweat, writhings, anguish, labouring of the lungs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In that close mist, and cryings for the light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moans of the dying, and voices of the dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Last, as by some one deathbed after wail",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of suffering, silence follows, or through death",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or deathlike swoon, thus over all that shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save for some whisper of the seething seas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A dead hush fell; but when the dolorous day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grew drearier toward twilight falling, came",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A bitter wind, clear from the North, and blew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mist aside, and with that wind the tide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rose, and the pale King glanced across the field",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of battle: but no man was moving there;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor any cry of Christian heard thereon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor yet of heathen; only the wan wave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brake in among dead faces, to and fro",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swaying the helpless hands, and up and down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tumbling the hollow helmets of the fallen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shivered brands that once had fought with Rome,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rolling far along the gloomy shores",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The voice of days of old and days to be.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And whiter than the mist that all day long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had held the field of battle was the King:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Hearest thou this great voice that shakes the world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And wastes the narrow realm whereon we move,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And beats upon the faces of the dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My dead, as though they had not died for me?⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O Bedivere, for on my heart hath fallen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Confusion, till I know not what I am,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor whence I am, nor whether I be King.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behold, I seem but King among the dead.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then spake the bold Sir Bedivere: “My King,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "King everywhere! and so the dead have kings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There also will I worship thee as King.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet still thy life is whole, and still I live",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who love thee; but who hates thee, he that brought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The heathen back among us, yonder stands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Modred, unharmed, the traitor of thine house.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then spake the King: “My house hath been my doom.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But call not thou this traitor of my house",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who hath but dwelt beneath one roof with me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My house are rather they who sware my vows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, even while they brake them, owned me King.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And well for thee, saying in my dark hour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When all the purport of my throne hath failed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That quick or dead thou holdest me for King.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "King am I, whatsoever be their cry;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And one last act of kinghood shalt thou see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet, ere I pass.” And uttering this the King",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made at the man: then Modred smote his liege",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hard on that helm which many a heathen sword",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had beaten thin; while Arthur at one blow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Striking the last stroke with Excalibur,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slew him, and all but slain himself, he fell.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So all day long the noise of battle rolled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the mountains by the winter sea;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until King Arthur’s Table, man by man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had fallen in Lyonnesse about their lord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "King Arthur. Then, because his wound was deep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A broken chancel with a broken cross,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That stood on a dark strait of barren land:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On one side lay the Ocean, and on one",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay a great water, and the moon was full.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The sequel of today unsolders all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The goodliest fellowship of famous knights",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They sleep⁠—the men I loved. I think that we",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall never more, at any future time,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Walking about the gardens and the halls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Camelot, as in the days that were.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I perish by this people which I made⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though Merlin sware that I should come again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To rule once more; but, let what will be, be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I am so deeply smitten through the helm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That without help I cannot last till morn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou therefore take my brand Excalibur,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which was my pride: for thou rememberest how",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In those old days, one summer noon, an arm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Holding the sword⁠—and how I rowed across",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And took it, and have worn it, like a king;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, wheresoever I am sung or told",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In aftertime, this also shall be known:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But now delay not: take Excalibur,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fling him far into the middle mere:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Watch what thou seest, and lightly bring me word.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To him replied the bold Sir Bedivere:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“It is not meet, Sir King, to leave thee thus,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Aidless, alone, and smitten through the helm⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little thing may harm a wounded man;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet I thy hest will all perform at full,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Watch what I see, and lightly bring thee word.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So saying, from the ruined shrine he stept,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the moon athwart the place of tombs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Old knights, and over them the sea-wind sang",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He, stepping down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By zigzag paths, and juts of pointed rock,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came on the shining levels of the lake.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And o’er him, drawing it, the winter moon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth-work",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of subtlest jewellery. He gazed so long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That both his eyes were dazzled as he stood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This way and that dividing the swift mind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In act to throw: but at the last it seemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better to leave Excalibur concealed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There in the many-knotted waterflags,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That whistled stiff and dry about the marge.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So strode he back slow to the wounded King.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Hast thou performed my mission which I gave?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the wild water lapping on the crag.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom replied King Arthur, faint and pale:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Thou hast betrayed thy nature and thy name,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not rendering true answer, as beseemed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy fealty, nor like a noble knight:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For surer sign had followed, either hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or voice, or else a motion of the mere.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is a shameful thing for men to lie.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet now, I charge thee, quickly go again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As thou art lief and dear, and do the thing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I bade thee, watch, and lightly bring me word.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then went Sir Bedivere the second time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Counting the dewy pebbles, fixed in thought;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when he saw the wonder of the hilt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How curiously and strangely chased, he smote",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His palms together, and he cried aloud:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“And if indeed I cast the brand away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surely a precious thing, one worthy note,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should thus be lost forever from the earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which might have pleased the eyes of many men.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What good should follow this, if this were done?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What harm, undone? Deep harm to disobey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seeing obedience is the bond of rule.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were it well to obey then, if a king demand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An act unprofitable, against himself?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The King is sick, and knows not what he does.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What record, or what relic of my lord",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should be to aftertime, but empty breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rumours of a doubt? But were this kept,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stored in some treasure-house of mighty kings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Someone might show it at a joust of arms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saying, ‘King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wrought by the lonely maiden of the Lake.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nine years she wrought it, sitting in the deeps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the hidden bases of the hills.’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So might some old man speak in the aftertime",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To all the people, winning reverence.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But now much honour and much fame were lost.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So spake he, clouded with his own conceit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hid Excalibur the second time,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so strode back slow to the wounded King.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then spoke King Arthur, breathing heavily:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“What is it thou hast seen? or what hast heard?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I heard the water lapping on the crag,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the long ripple washing in the reeds.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom replied King Arthur, much in wrath:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ah, miserable and unkind, untrue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Authority forgets a dying king,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Laid widowed of the power in his eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That bowed the will. I see thee what thou art,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For thou, the latest-left of all my knights,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In whom should meet the offices of all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Either from lust of gold, or like a girl",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Valuing the giddy pleasure of the eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet, for a man may fail in duty twice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the third time may prosper, get thee hence:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I will arise and slay thee with my hands.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the bulrush beds, and clutched the sword,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And strongly wheeled and threw it. The great brand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flashing round and round, and whirled in an arch,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seen where the moving isles of winter shock",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By night, with noises of the Northern Sea.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And caught him by the hilt, and brandished him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Three times, and drew him under in the mere.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lightly went the other to the King.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then spoke King Arthur, drawing thicker breath:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Now see I by thine eyes that this is done.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speak out: what is it thou hast heard, or seen?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And answer made the bold Sir Bedivere:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should blind my purpose, for I never saw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not though I live three lives of mortal men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So great a miracle as yonder hilt.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then with both hands I flung him, wheeling him;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when I looked again, behold an arm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That caught him by the hilt, and brandished him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Three times, and drew him under in the mere.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And answer made King Arthur, breathing hard:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“My end draws nigh; ’tis time that I were gone.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Make broad thy shoulders to receive my weight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bear me to the margin; yet I fear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My wound hath taken cold, and I shall die.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So saying, from the pavement he half rose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slowly, with pain, reclining on his arm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And looking wistfully with wide blue eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As in a picture. Him Sir Bedivere",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Remorsefully regarded through his tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And would have spoken, but he found not words;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then took with care, and kneeling on one knee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er both his shoulders drew the languid hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rising bore him through the place of tombs.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But, as he walked, King Arthur panted hard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like one that feels a nightmare on his bed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When all the house is mute. So sighed the King,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Muttering and murmuring at his ear, “Quick, quick!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I fear it is too late, and I shall die.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But the other swiftly strode from ridge to ridge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clothed with his breath, and looking, as he walked,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Larger than human on the frozen hills.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He heard the deep behind him, and a cry",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before. His own thought drove him like a goad.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dry clashed his harness in the icy caves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And barren chasms, and all to left and right",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bare black cliff clanged round him, as he based",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His feet on juts of slippery crag that rang",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sharp-smitten with the dint of armed heels⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on a sudden, lo! the level lake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the long glories of the winter moon.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then saw they how there hove a dusky barge,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dark as a funeral scarf from stem to stern,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath them; and descending they were ware",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That all the decks were dense with stately forms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Black-stoled, black-hooded, like a dream⁠—by these",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Three Queens with crowns of gold: and from them rose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A cry that shivered to the tingling stars,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, as it were one voice, an agony",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of lamentation, like a wind that shrills",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All night in a waste land, where no one comes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or hath come, since the making of the world.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then murmured Arthur, “Place me in the barge.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So to the barge they came. There those three Queens",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Put forth their hands, and took the King, and wept.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But she, that rose the tallest of them all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fairest, laid his head upon her lap,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And loosed the shattered casque, and chafed his hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And called him by his name, complaining loud,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dropping bitter tears against a brow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Striped with dark blood: for all his face was white",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And colourless, and like the withered moon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smote by the fresh beam of the springing east;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all his greaves and cuisses dashed with drops",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of onset; and the light and lustrous curls⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That made his forehead like a rising sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High from the dais-throne⁠—were parched with dust;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or, clotted into points and hanging loose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mixed with the knightly growth that fringed his lips.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So like a shattered column lay the King;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not like that Arthur who, with lance in rest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From spur to plume a star of tournament,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shot through the lists at Camelot, and charged",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the eyes of ladies and of kings.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For now I see the true old times are dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When every morning brought a noble chance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every chance brought out a noble knight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such times have been not since the light that led",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But now the whole Round Table is dissolved",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which was an image of the mighty world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I, the last, go forth companionless,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the days darken round me, and the years,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among new men, strange faces, other minds.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And slowly answered Arthur from the barge:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The old order changeth, yielding place to new,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And God fulfils himself in many ways,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have lived my life, and that which I have done",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May He within himself make pure! but thou,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If thou shouldst never see my face again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rise like a fountain for me night and day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For what are men better than sheep or goats",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That nourish a blind life within the brain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both for themselves and those who call them friend?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For so the whole round earth is every way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But now farewell. I am going a long way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With these thou seest⁠—if indeed I go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the island-valley of Avilion;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So said he, and the barge with oar and sail",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With swarthy webs. Long stood Sir Bedivere",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Revolving many memories, till the hull",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Looked one black dot against the verge of dawn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on the mere the wailing died away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But when that moan had past for evermore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stillness of the dead world’s winter dawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amazed him, and he groaned, “The King is gone.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And therewithal came on him the weird rhyme,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“From the great deep to the great deep he goes.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Whereat he slowly turned and slowly clomb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The last hard footstep of that iron crag;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thence marked the black hull moving yet, and cried,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“He passes to be King among the dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And after healing of his grievous wound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He comes again; but⁠—if he come no more⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O me, be yon dark Queens in yon black boat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who shrieked and wailed, the three whereat we gazed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On that high day, when, clothed with living light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They stood before his throne in silence, friends",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Arthur, who should help him at his need?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then from the dawn it seemed there came, but faint",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As from beyond the limit of the world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the last echo born of a great cry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sounds, as if some fair city were one voice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Around a king returning from his wars.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thereat once more he moved about, and clomb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even to the highest he could climb, and saw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Straining his eyes beneath an arch of hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or thought he saw, the speck that bare the King,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down that long water opening on the deep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Somewhere far off, pass on and on, and go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From less to less and vanish into light.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the new sun rose bringing the new year.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}