Six Centuries of English Poetry Part 2

And at the closing of the day She loosed the chain, and down she lay; The broad stream bore her far away, The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white That loosely flew to left and right-- The leaves upon her falling light-- Through the noises of the night She floated down to Camelot: And as the boat-head wound along The willowy hills and fields among, They heard her singing her last song, The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy, Chanted loudly, chanted lowly, Till her blood was frozen slowly, And her eyes were darkened wholly, Turned to towered Camelot; For ere she reached upon the tide The first house by the water-side, Singing in her song she died, The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony, By garden-wall and gallery, A gleaming shape she floated by, A corse between the houses high, Silent into Camelot.

Out upon the wharfs they came, Knight and burgher, lord and dame, And round the prow they read her name, _The Lady of Shalott_.

Who is this? and what is here?

And in the lighted palace near Died the sound of royal cheer; And they crossed themselves for fear, All the knights at Camelot; But Lancelot mused a little s.p.a.ce; He said, "She has a lovely face; G.o.d in his mercy lend her grace, The Lady of Shalott."

NOTES.

This poem was written in 1832. Considered as a picture, or as a series of pictures, its beauty is unsurpa.s.sed. The story which is here so briefly told is founded upon a touching legend connected with the romance of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Tennyson afterwards (in 1859) expanded it into the _Idyll_ called "Elaine,"

wherein he followed more closely the original narrative as related by Sir Thomas Malory.

Sir Lancelot was the strongest and bravest of the Knights of the Round Table, and for him Elaine, "the fair maid of Astolat," conceived a hopeless pa.s.sion. "Her love was platonic and pure as that of a child, but it was masterful in its strength." Having learned that Lancelot was pledged to celibacy, she pined away and died. But before her death she called her brother, and having dictated a letter which he was to write, she spake thus:

"'While my body is whole, let this letter be put into my right hand, and my hand bound fast with the letter until I be cold, and let me be put in a fair bed with all my richest clothes that I have about me, and so let my bed and all my rich clothes be laid with me in a chariot to the next place whereas the Thames is, and there let me be put in a barge, and but one man with me, such as ye trust to steer me thither, and that my barge be covered with black samite over and over.' . . . So when she was dead, the corpse and the bed and all was led the next way unto the Thames, and there all were put in a barge on the Thames, and so the man steered the barge to Westminster, and there he rowed a great while to and fro, or any man espied."[23:A] At length the King and his Knights, coming down to the waterside, and seeing the boat and the lily maid of Astolat, they uplifted the hapless body of Elaine, and bore it to the hall.

"But Arthur spied the letter in her hand, Stoopt, took, brake seal, and read it; this was all: 'Most n.o.ble Lord, Sir Lancelot of the Lake, I, sometime called the maid of Astolat, Come, for you left me taking no farewell, Hither, to take my last farewell of you.

I loved you, and my love had no return, And therefore my true love has been my death. . . .

Pray for my soul and yield me burial.

Pray for my soul thou too Sir Lancelot, As thou art a knight peerless.'"[24:A]

And so the maid was buried, "not as one unknown, nor meanly, but with gorgeous obsequies, and ma.s.s and rolling music, like a queen. And the story of her dolorous voyage was blazoned on her tomb in letters gold and azure."

1. =wold.= An open tract of hilly country, where but few trees are left.

This word is more frequently used, however, to designate a forest or thick wood.

2. =Camelot.= It is supposed that this Camelot was Winchester. It was the seat of King Arthur's court, and visitors are still shown the remains of what appear to have been certain kinds of intrenchments, which the inhabitants call "King Arthur's Palace." Sir Thomas Malory says: "Sir Ballin's sword was put into marble stone, standing it upright as a great millstone, and it swam down the stream to the city of Camelot, that is, in English, Wincheste." There was another Camelot, also King Arthur's capital, on the river Camel, in Cornwall, to which Shakespeare makes reference in _King Lear_, II, ii. Tennyson, in "Gareth and Lynette,"

describes the appearance of the city when approached in the early morning:

"Far off they saw the silver-misty morn Rolling her smoke about the Royal mount, That rose between the forest and the field.

At times the summit of the high city flash'd; At times the spires and turrets half-way down p.r.i.c.k'd thro' the mist; at times the great gate shone Only, that open'd on the field below: Anon, the whole fair city had disappear'd."

3. =dusk.= Produce a ruffled surface. A very rare use of this word. The river referred to is probably the Thames.

4. =trailed.= Lat. _traho_, to draw; Dutch _treilen_, to tow. What picture is presented to the imagination in the first five lines of this stanza?

How do the barges differ in appearance and movement from the shallop mentioned two lines below?

5. =web.= Anything woven. =stay.= Stop.

6. =pad.= An easy-going saddle-horse; a palfrey. Describe the picture which is presented in this stanza.

7. Explain the meaning of the Lady's exclamation.

8. =red-cross knight.= A Knight wearing a red cross. One of King Arthur's Knights. The red-cross Knight in Spenser's _Faerie Queene_ symbolizes holiness.

"And on his brest a bloodie crosse he bore, The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore, And dead, as living ever, him ador'd; Upon his shield the like was also scor'd, For soveraine hope, which in his helpe he had.

Right, faithfull, true he was in deede and word; But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad; Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad."

9. =Galaxy.= The milky-way. Gr. _gala_, _galaktos_, milk.

10. =baldric.= A belt thrown over the shoulder. From Lat. _balteus_.

11. =bearded meteor.= A shooting-star emitting rays of light in the direction in which it moves. The beard of a comet is the light which it throws out in front of it, in distinction from the tail or rays behind.

12. =He flashed.= His image was thrown upon and reflected from.

13. "=Tirra lirra.=" French _tire lire_. Probably intended to imitate the note of the lark.

FOOTNOTES:

[23:A] Malory's King Arthur, Part III.

[24:A] Tennyson's Elaine.

THE BROOK.

I come from haunts of coot{1} and hern,{2} I make a sudden sally, And sparkle out among the fern, To bicker{3} down a valley.

By thirty hills I hurry down, Or slip between the ridges, By twenty thorps,{4} a little town, And half a hundred bridges.

Till last by Philip's farm I flow To join the br.i.m.m.i.n.g river, For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever.

I chatter over stony ways, In little sharps and trebles, I bubble into eddying bays, I babble on the pebbles.

With many a curve my banks I fret By many a field and fallow, And many a fairy foreland{5} set With willow-weed and mallow.

I chatter, chatter, as I flow To join the br.i.m.m.i.n.g river, For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever.

I wind about, and in and out, With here a blossom sailing, And here and there a l.u.s.ty trout, And here and there a grayling,

And here and there a foamy flake Upon me, as I travel, With many a silvery waterbreak Above the golden gravel,

And draw them all along, and flow To join the br.i.m.m.i.n.g river, For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever.

I steal by lawns and gra.s.sy plots, I slide by hazel{6} covers; I move the sweet forget-me-nots That grow for happy lovers.

I slip, I slide, I gloom,{7} I glance, Among my skimming swallows; I make the netted sunbeams dance Against my shady shallows.