The name of Britain trebly greatThough every channel of the State Each little sound and sight. With what Should fill and choke with golden sand dull pain Compassed, how eagerly I sought to strike Into that wondrous track of dreams Yet waft me from the harbor-mouth, 25 And I will see before I die MORTE D'ARTHUR So all day long the noise of battle rolled Among the mountains by the winter sea; Until King Arthur's table, man by man, Had fallen in Lyonnesse about their Lord, 121 "Ah, miserable and unkind, untrue, Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me! Authority forgets a dying king, Laid widowed of the power in his eye That bowed the will. I see thee what thou art, For thou, the latest-left of all my knights, Either from lust of gold, or like a girl 130 Then spoke King Arthur, breathing Speak out; what is it thou hast heard, or heavily: I loved. "Sir King, I closed mine eyelids, lest the gems Should blind my purpose, for I never saw, Nor shall see, here or elsewhere, till I die, Not though I live three lives of mortal men, So great a miracle as yonder hilt. 155 Before. His own thought drove him, like a goad. 185 Dry clashed his harness in the icy caves And barren chasms, and all to left and right The bare black cliff clanged round him, as he based Then with both hands I flung him, wheel- His feet on juts of slippery crag that rang ing him; Sharp-smitten with the dint of armèd But when I looked again, behold an arm, Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonder Three times, and drew him under in the Dark as a funeral scarf from stem to stern, mere." Beneath them; and descending they were And rising bore him through the place of And fairest, laid his head upon her lap, tombs. 175 And loosed the shattered casque, and chafed his hands, And called him by his name, complaining loud, 210 But now farewell. I am going a long way And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea, Where I will heal me of my grievous wound." So said he, and the barge with oar and sail 265 Such times have been not since the light Moved from the brink, like some fullthat led breasted swan |