Journeys Through Bookland Volume X Part 25

"found Him in the shining of the stars, Mark'd Him in the flowering of His fields."

2. He is now discouraged. He has not found Him in His ways with men, and now it seems to him,

"As if some lesser G.o.d had made the world, But had not force to shape it as he would."

"My G.o.d, thou hast forgotten me in my death."

3. Yet he is hopeful, and he feels that perchance the world is wholly fair, and that his doubts come because he has not the power to see it as it is, and may not see it to the close.

4. He desires to be just, and feels that in the coming battle in the west he may not have the right on his side:

"Ill doom is mine To war against my people and my knights.

The king who fights his people fights himself."

5. Yet courage and confidence are not all gone:

"Yet let us hence, and find or feel a way Thro' this blind haze."

6. After the battle, he grows more confused:

"I know not what I am, Nor whence I am, nor whether I be King.

Behold, I seem but King among the dead."

7. He must be n.o.ble, kingly, to have inspired such devotion as Bedivere shows. Hear what the latter says:

"My King, King everywhere! and so the dead have kings, There also will I worship thee as King."

8. He is a warrior to the last. Listen to his reply to Bedivere:

"King am I, whatsoever be their cry; And one last act of kinghood shalt thou see Yet, ere I pa.s.s."

9. He is resigned: "Let what will be, be."

10. He is faithful to the trust imposed upon him when he acquired Excalibur. Three times he sends Bedivere to cast the sword into the mere. The last time he says:

"But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur, I will arise and slay thee with my hands."

11. He loves truth and reveres it:

"This is a shameful thing for men to lie."

12. Though he appears to fear death, rather is his fear that he shall die before he reaches the water where he expects something.

13. At the last his philosophy bears him up, though still he calls for devotion from his faithful knight. The whole speech is matchless. Note these fine pa.s.sages:

"The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And G.o.d fulfils himself in many ways."

"And that which I have done May He within himself make pure!"

"More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day."

"The whole round earth is everyway Bound by gold chains about the feet of G.o.d."

14. His faith rises triumphant:

"I am going a long way ...

Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea, Where I will heal me of my grievous wound."

_f. Beauty._ All the elements of poetic beauty join to make _The Pa.s.sing of Arthur_ a masterpiece. Sublime sentiment thrills through the stanzas.

A stately meter gives a solemn, rhythmic swing to the n.o.ble lines.

Sonorous words add to the grandeur. Apt phrases and beautiful figures of speech seize the imagination and enchain the fancy. Rare and choice diction gives artistic finish to every sentence.

Most beautiful are such phrases as the following:

"The phantom circle of a moaning sea."

"Some whisper of the seething sea."

"Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful."

"Let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day."

"And looking wistfully with wide blue eyes As in a picture."

"Clothed with his breath."

"A cry that shiver'd to the tingling stars."

Note how the following phrases give color to the poem:

"that day when the great light of heaven Burn'd at his lowest in the rolling year."

"Among the mountains by the winter sea."

"The winter moon, Brightening the skirts of a long cloud."

Observe the pictorial power of these quotations:

"Make broad thy shoulders to receive my weight."

"Straining his eyes beneath an arch of hand."

"One black dot against the verge of dawn."

Most forceful are the following phrases:

"And the days darken round me, and the years, Among new men, strange faces, other minds."

"From the great deep to the great deep he goes."