Forever; and whatever tempests lower Forever silent; even if they broke In thunder, silent; yet remember all He spoke among you, and the man who spoke; Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, Nor paltered with Eternal God for power; Who let the turbid streams of rumor flow Through either babbling world of high and low; Whose life was work, whose language rife With rugged maxims hewn from life; Who never spoke against a foe;
Whose eighty winters freeze with one rebuke All great self-seekers trampling on the right: Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named; Truth-lover was our English Duke; Whatever record leap to light He never shall be shamed.
Lo, the leader in these glorious wars Now to glorious burial slowly borne, Followed by the brave of other lands, He, on whom from both her open hands Lavish Honor showered all her stars, And affluent Fortune emptied all her horn. Yea, let all good things await Him who cares not to be great,
But as he saves or serves the state.
Not once or twice in our rough island-story, The path of duty was the way to glory: He that walks it, only thirsting For the right, and learns to deaden Love of self, before his journey closes, He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting Into glossy purples, which outredden All voluptuous garden-roses.
Not once or twice in our fair island-story, The path of duty was the way to glory: He, that ever following her commands, On with toil of heart and knees and hands, Through the long gorge to the far light has won His path upward, and prevailed,
Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled Are close upon the shining table-lands
To which our God himself is moon and sun. Such was he: his work is done.
But while the races of mankind endure, Let his great example stand Colossal, seen of every land,
And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure; Till in all lands and through all human story The path of duty be the way to glory:
And let the land whose hearths he saved from shame
For many and many an age proclaim At civic revel and pomp and game, And when the long-illumined cities flame, Their ever-loyal iron leader's fame, With honor, honor, honor, honor to him, Eternal honor to his name.
Once the weight and fate of Europe hung. Ours the pain, be his the gain! More than is of man's degree Must be with us, watching here At this, our great solemnity. Whom we see not we revere. We revere, and we refrain From talk of battles loud and vain, And brawling memories all too free For such a wise humility
As befits a solemn fane: We revere, and while we hear The tides of Music's golden sea Setting toward eternity,
Uplifted high in heart and hope are we, Until we doubt not that for one so true There must be other nobler work to do Than when he fought at Waterloo, And Victor he must ever be.
OH, well for him whose will is strong! He suffers, but he will not suffer long; He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong; For him nor moves the loud world's random mock,
Nor all Calamity's hugest waves confound, Who seems a promontory of rock,
That, compassed round with turbulent sound, In middle ocean meets the surging shock, Tempest-buffeted, citadel-crowned.
But ill for him who, bettering not with time, Corrupts the strength of heaven-descended Will, And ever weaker grows through acted crime, Or seeming-genial venial fault, Recurring and suggesting still!
He seems as one whose footsteps halt, Toiling in immeasurable sand, And o'er a weary, sultry land,
Far beneath a blazing vault,
Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill,
The city sparkles like a grain of salt.
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.
HALF a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred. "Forward, the Light Brigade! "Charge for the guns!" he said: Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!" Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew Some one had blundered: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flashed all their sabres bare, Flashed as they turned in air, Sabring the gunners there, Charging an army, while
All the world wondered; Plunged in the battery-smoke, Right through the line they broke; Cossack and Russian Reeled from the sabre-stroke
Shattered and sundered. Then they rode back, but notNot the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell, They that bad fought so well Came through the jaws of Death Back from the mouth of Hell, All that was left of them, Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade? Oh, the wild charge they made! All the world wondered. Honor the charge they made! Honor the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred !
THESE to His Memory-since he held them dear, Perchance as finding there unconsciously Some image of himself-I dedicate,
I dedicate, I consecrate with tears- These Idyls.
And indeed He seems to me Scarce other than my own ideal knight, "Who reverenced his conscience as his king; Whose glory was, redressing human wrong; Who spake no slander, no, nor listened to it; Who loved one only and who clave to her-" Her-over all whose realms to their last isle, Commingled with the gloom of imminent war, The shadow of His loss moved like eclipse, Darkening the world. We have lost him he is gone:
We know him now: all narrow jealousies Are silent; and we see him as he moved, How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise, With what sublime repression of himself, And in what limits, and how tenderly; Not swaying to this faction or to that: Not making his high place the lawless perch Of winged ambitions, nor a vantage-ground For pleasure; but through all this tract of years Wearing the white flower of a blameless life, Before a thousand peering littlenesses,
In that fierce light which beats upon a throne, And blackens every blot: for where is he, Who dares foreshadow for an only son A lovelier life, a more unstained, than his ? Or how should England dreaming of his sons Hope more for these than some inheritance Of such a life, a heart, a mind as thine, Thou noble Father of her Kings to be, Laborious for her people and her poor- Voice in the rich dawn of an ampler day- Far-sighted summoner of War and Waste To fruitful strifes and rivalries of peace- Sweet nature gilded by the gracious gleam. Of letters, dear to Science, dear to Art, Dear to thy land and ours, a Prince indeed, Beyond all titles, and a household name, Hereafter, through all times, Albert the Good!
Break not, O woman's-heart, but still endure; Break not, for thou art Royal, but endure, Remembering all the beauty of that star Which shone so close beside Thee, that ye made
One light together, but has passed and left The Crown of lonely splendor.
May all love, His love, unseen but felt, o'ershadow Thee. The love of all Thy sons encompass Thee, The love of all Thy daughters cherish Thee, The love of all Thy people comfort Thee, Till God's love set Thee at his side again!
THE brave Geraint, a knight of Arthur's court, A tributary prince of Devon, one Of that great order of the Table Round, Had married Enid, Yniol's only child,
And loved her, as he loved the light of heaven. And as the light of heaven varies, now At sunrise, now at sunset, now by night With moon and trembling stars, so loved Geraint To make her beauty vary day by day, In crimsons and in purples and in gems. And Enid, but to please her husband's eye, Who first had found and loved her in a state Of broken fortunes, daily fronted him
In some fresh splendor; and the Queen herself,
Grateful to Prince Geraint for service done, hoved her, and often with her own white hands Arrayed and decked her, as the loveliest, Next after her own self, in all the court. And Enid loved the Queen, and with true heart Adored her, as the stateliest and the best And loveliest of all women upon earth. And seeing them so tender and so close, Long in their common love rejoiced Geraint. But when a rumor rose about the Queen, Touching her guilty love for Lancelot, Though yet there lived no proof, nor yet was heard
The world's loud whisper breaking into storm, Not less Geraint beleived it; and there fell A horror on him, lest his gentle wife, Through that great tenderness to Guinevere, Had suffered, or should suffer any taint In nature wherefore going to the king, He made this pretext, that his princedom lay Close on the borders of a territory, Wherein were bandit earls, and caitiff knights, Assassins, and all flyers from the hand Of Justice, and whatever loathes a law; And therefore, till the king himself should please To cleanse this common sewer of all his realm, He craved a fair permission to depart, And there defend his marches; and the king Mused for a little on his plea, but, last, Allowing it, the Prince and Enid rode, And fifty knights rode with them, to the shores Of Severn, and they passed to their own land; Where, thinking, that if ever yet was wife True to her lord, mine shall be so to me, He compassed her with sweet observances And worship, never leaving her, and grew Forgetful of his promise to the king, Forgetful of the falcon and the hunt, Forgetful of the tilt and tournament, Forgetful of his glory and his name, Forgetful of his princedom and its cares. And this forgetfulness was hateful to her. And by and by the people, when they met In twos and threes, or fuller companies, Began to scoff and jeer and babble of him As of a prince whose manhood was all gone, And molten down in mere uxoriousness. And this she gathered from the people's eyes: This too the women who attired her head, To please her, dwelling on his boundless love, Told Enid, and they saddened her the more;
And day by day she thought to tell Geraint, But could not out of bashful delicacy; While he that watched her sadden, was the more Suspicious that her nature had a taint.
At last, it chanced that on a summer morn (They sleeping each by other) the new sun Beat through the blindless casement of the room,
And heated the strong warrior in his dreams; Who, moving, cast the coverlet aside, And bared the knotted column of his throat, The massive square of his heroic breast, And arms on which the standing muscle sloped, As slopes a wild brook o'er a little stone, Running too vehemently to break upon it. And Enid woke and sat beside the couch, Admiring him, and thought within herself, Was ever man so grandly made as he? Then, like a shadow, passed the people's talk And accusation of uxoriousness Across her mind, and bowing over him, Low to her own heart piteously she said:
"O noble breast and all-puissant arms, Am I the cause, I the poor cause that men Reproach you, saying all your force is gone? I am the cause because I dare not speak And tell him what I think and what they say. And yet I hate that he should linger here; I cannot love my lord and not his name. Far liever had I gird his harness on him, And ride with him to battle and stand by, And watch his mightful hand striking great
At caitiffs and at wrongers of the world. Far better were I laid in the dark earth, Not hearing any more his noble voice, Not to be folded more in these dear arms, And darkened from the high light in his eyes, Than that my lord through me should suffer shame.
Am I so bold, and could I so stand by, And see my dear lord wounded in the strife, Or may be pierced to death before mine eyes, And yet not dare to tell him what I think, And how men slur him, saying all his force Is melted into mere effeminacy? me,
I fear that I am no true wife."
Half inwardly, half audibly she spoke, And the strong passion in her made her weep True tears upon his broad and naked breast, And these awoke him, and by great mischance He heard but fragments of her later words, And that she feared she was not a true wife. And then he thought, "In spite of all my care, For all my pains, poor man, for all my pains, She is not faithful to me, and I see her, Weeping for some gay knight in Arthur's hall." Then though he loved and reverenced her too much
To dream she could be guilty of foul act, Right through his manful breast darted the pang That makes a man, in the sweet face of her Whom he loves most, lonely and miserable. At this he burled his huge limbs out of bed, And shook his drowsy squire awake and cried,
My charger and her palfrey," then to her, "I will ride forth into the wilderness:
For though it seems my spurs are yet to win, I have not fallen so low as some would wish. And you, put on your worst and meanest dress And ride with me." And Enid asked, amazed, "If Enid errs, let Enid learn her fault." But he, "I charge you, ask not, but obey." Then she bethought her of a faded silk,
A faded mantle and a faded veil,
And moving toward a cedarn cabinet, Wherein she kept them folded reverently
With sprigs of summer laid between the folds, She took them, and arrayed herself therein, Remembering when first he came on her
Imperious, and of haughtiest lineaments. And Guinevere, not mindful of his face In the King's hall, desired his name, and sent Her maiden to demand it of the dwarf; Who, being vicious, old, and irritable, And doubling all his master's vice of pride, Made answer sharply that she should not know. "Then will I ask it of himself," she said.
"Nay, by my faith, thou shalt not," cried the
"Thou art not worthy even to speak of him;' And when she put her horse toward the knight Struck at her with his whip, and she returned
Dressed in that dress, and how he loved her in it, Indignant to the Queen; at which Geraint And all her foolish fears about the dress, And all his journey to her, as himself Had told her, and their coming to the court.
For Arthur on the Whitsuntide before Held court at old Caerleon upon Usk. There on a day, he sitting high in hall, Before him came a forester of Dean, Wet from the woods, with notice of a hart Taller than all his fellows, milky-white,
First seen that day: these things he told the king.
Then the good King gave order to let blow His horns for hunting on the morrow morn. And when the Queen petitioned for his leave To see the hunt, allowed it easily.
So with the morning all the court were gone. But Guinevere lay late into the morn, Lost in sweet dreams, and dreaming of her love For Lancelot, and forgetful of the hunt; But rose at last, a single maiden with her,
Exclaiming, "Surely I will learn the name," Made sharply to the dwarf, and asked it of him, Who answered as before; and when the Prince Had put his horse in motion toward the knight, Struck at him with his whip, and cut his cheek. The Prince's blood spurted upon the scarf, Dyeing it and his quick instinctive hand Caught at the hilt, as to abolish him : But he, from his exceeding manfulness And pure nobility of temperament, Wroth to be wroth at such a worm, refrained From even a word, and so returning said:
"I will avenge this insult, noble Queen, Done in your maiden's person to yourself: And I will track this vermin to their earths: For though I ride unarmed, I do not doubt To find, at some place I shall come at, arms On loan, or else for pledge; and, being found, Then will I fight him, and will break his pride, And on the third day will again be here,
Took horse, and forded Usk, and gained the So that I be not fall'n in fight. Farewell.”
There, on a little knoll beside it, stayed
Waiting to hear the hounds; but heard instead A sudden sound of hoofs, for Prince Geraint, Late also, wearing neither hunting-dress Nor weapon, save a golden-hilted brand, Came quickly flashing through the shallow ford Behind them, and so galloped up the knoll. A purple scarf, at either end whereof There swung an apple of the purest gold, Swayed round about him, as he galloped up To join them, glancing like a dragon-fly In summer suit and silks of holiday. Low bowed the tributary Prince, and she, Sweetly and statelily, and with all grace Of womanhood and queenhood, answered him: "Late, late, Sir Prince," she said, "later than we!"
"Yea, noble Queen," he answered, "and so late That I but come like you to see the hunt, Not join it." "Therefore wait with me," she said;
"For on this little knoll, if anywhere,
"Farewell, fair Prince," answered the stately Queen.
"Be prosperous in this journey, as in all; And may you light on all things that you love, And live to wed with her whom first you love: But ere you wed with any, bring your bride, And I, were she the daughter of a king, Yea, though she were a beggar from the hedge, Will clothe her for her bridals like the sun."
And Prince Geraint, now thinking that he heard
The noble hart at bay, now the far horn, A little vexed at losing of the hunt, A little at the vile occasion, rode, By ups and downs, through many a grassy glade And valley, with fixed eye following the three At last they issued from the world of wood, And climbed upon a fair and even ridge, And showed themselves against the sky, and sank. And thither came Geraint, and underneath Beheld the long street of a little town
There is good chance that we shall hear the In a long valley, on one side of which,
Here often they break covert at our feet."
And while they listened for the distant hunt, And chiefly for the baying of Cavall, King Arthur's hound of deepest mouth, there rode
Full slowly by a knight, lady, and dwarf; Whereof the dwarf lagged latest, and the knight Had visor up, and showed a youthful face,
White from the mason's hand, a fortress rose; And on one side a castle in decay, Beyond a bridge that spanned a dry ravine: And out of town and valley came a noise As of a broad brook o'er a shingly bed Brawling, or like a clamor of the rooks At distance, ere they settle for the night.
And onward to the fortress rode the three, And entered, and were lost behind its walls.
"So," thought Geraint, "I have tracked him to his earth."
And down the long street riding wearily, Found every hostel full, and everywhere Was hammer laid to hoof, and the hot hiss And bustling whistle of the youth who scoured His master's armor; and of such a one
He asked, "What means the tumult in the town?"
Who told him, scouring still, "The sparrowhawk!"
Then riding close behind an ancient churl, Who, smitten by the dusty sloping beam, Went sweating underneath a sack of corn, Asked yet once more what meant the hubbub here?
Who answered gruffly, "Ugh! the sparrowhawk."
Then riding further past an armorer's,
Then rode Geraint into the castle court, His charger trampling many a prickly star Of spouted thistle on the broken stones. He looked and saw that all was ruinous. Here stood a shattered archway plumed with fern;
And here had fallen a great part of a tower, Whole, like a crag that tumbles from the cliff, And like a crag was gay with wilding flowers; And high above a piece of turret-stair, Worn by the feet that now were silent, wound Bare to the sun, and monstrous ivy-stems Clasped the gray walls with hairy-fibred arms, And sucked the joining of the stones, and looked A knot, beneath, of snakes, aloft, a grove.
And while he waited in the castle court, The voice of Enid, Yniol's daughter, rang Clear through the open casement of the hall,
Who, with back turned, and bowed above his Singing; and as the sweet voice of a bird,
Sat riveting a helmet on his knee,
He put the selfsame query, but the man Not turning round, nor looking at him, said: Friend, he that labors for the sparrow-hawk Has little time for idle questioners." Whereat Geraint flashed into sudden spleen : "A thousand pips eat up your sparrow-hawk! Tits, wrens, and all winged nothings, peck him dead!
Ye think the rustic cackle of your bourg The murmur of the world! What is it to me? O wretched set of sparrows, one and all,
Who pipe of nothing but of sparrow-hawks! Speak, if you be not like the rest, hawk-mad, Where can I get me harborage for the night? And arms, arms, arms to fight my enemy? Speak!"
At this the armorer turning all amazed And seeing one so gay in purple silks, Came forward with the helmet yet in hand And answered, "Pardon me, O stranger knight; We hold a tourney here to-morrow morn, And there is scantly time for half the work. Arms? truth! I know not all are wanted here, Harborage? truth, good truth, I know not, save, It may be, at Earl Yniol's, o'er the bridge Yonder." He spoke and fell to work again.
Then rode Geraint, a little spleenful yet, Across the bridge that spanned the dry ravine. There musing sat the hoary-headed Earl, (His dress a suit of frayed magnificence,
Once fit for feasts of ceremony) and said: Whither, fair son?" to whom Geraint replied,
"O friend, I seek a harborage for the night." Then Yniol, "Enter therefore and partake The slender entertainment of a house Once rich, now poor, but ever open-doored." "Thanks, venerable friend," replied Geraint; "So that you do not serve me sparrow-hawks For supper, I will enter, I will eat
With all the passion of a twelve hours' fast." Then sighed and smiled the hoary-headed Earl, And answered: "Graver cause than yours is mine
To curse this hedgerow thief, the sparrow-hawk: But in, go in; for, save yourself desire it, We will not touch upon him ev'n in jest."
Heard by the lander in a lonely isle, Moves him to think what kind of bird it is That sings so delicately clear, and make Conjecture of the plumage and the form: So the sweet voice of Enid moved Geraint: And made him like a man abroad at morn When first the liquid note beloved of men Comes flying over many a windy wave To Britain, and in April suddenly Breaks from a coppice gemmed with green and red,
And he suspends his converse with a friend, Or it may be the labor of his hands,
To think or say, "There is the nightingale;" So fared it with Geraint, who thought and said, "Here, by God's grace, is the one voice for me."
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