What patient confidence was here!
And there how many bosoms panted!

While drawing toward the car Sir Gawaine, mail'd
For tournament, his beaver vail'd,

And softly touch'd; but to his princely cheer
And high expectancy no sign was granted.

Next, disencumber'd of his harp,

Sir Tristram, dear to thousands as a brother,
Came to the proof, nor grieved that there ensued
No change: the fair Izonda he had woo'd

With love too true, a love with pangs too sharp, From hope too distant, not to dread another.

;·

Not so Sir Launcelot; - from Heaven's grace
A sign he craved, tired slave of vain contrition:
The royal Guinever look'd passing glad

When his touch fail'd. - Next came Sir Galahad;
He paused, and stood entranced by that still face
Whose features he had seen in noontide vision.

For late, as near a murmuring stream
He rested 'mid an arbour green and shady,
Nina, the good Enchantress, shed
A light around his mossy bed;
And, at her call, a waking dream

Prefigured to his sense th' Egyptian Lady.

Now, while his bright-hair'd front he bow'd,

And stood, far-kenn'd by mantle furr'd with ermine,
As o'er th' insensate Body hung

Th' enrapt, the beautiful, the young,

Belief sank deep into the crowd

That he the solemn issue would determine.

Nor deem it strange: the Youth had worn
That very mantle on a day of glory,

The day when he achieved that matchless feat,

The marvel of the PERILOUS SEAT,

Which whosoe'er approach'd of strength was shorn,

Though King or Knight the most renown'd in story.

He touch'd with hesitating hand,

And, lo! those Birds, far-famed through Love's dominions,
The Swans, in triumph clap their wings;

9 That is, drew his beaver down. The beaver was a part of the helmet that covered the face, but hung on hinges at the ears, so that it could at pleasure be set up over the fore head or drawn down over the face.- Vailed is lowered. Both words are often 60 used by Shakespeare.

And their necks play, involved in rings,

Like sinless snakes in Eden's happy land;

[pinions.

"Mine is she," cried the Knight;-again they clapp'd their

"Mine was she, mine she is, though dead,
And to her name my soul shall cleave in sorrow:
Whereat, a tender twilight streak

Of colour dawn'd upon the Damsel's cheek;
And her lips, quickening with uncertain red,
Seem'd from each other a faint warmth to borrow.

Deep was the awe, the rapture high,

Of love embolden'd, hope with dread entwining,
When to the mouth relenting Death
Allow'd a soft and flower-like breath,
Precursor to a timid sigh,

To-lifted eyelids, and a doubtful shining.

In silence did King Arthur gaze
Upon the signs that pass away or tarry;
In silence watch'd the gentle strife
Of Nature leading back to life;

Then eased his soul at length by praise

Of God, and Heaven's pure Queen, the blissful Mary.

Then said he, "Take her to thy heart,

Sir Galahad! a treasure that God giveth,
Bound by indissoluble ties to thee

Through mortal change and immortality;
Be happy and unenvied, thou who art
A goodly knight that hath no peer that liveth!"

Not long the Nuptials were delay'd;
And sage tradition still rehearses
The pomp, the glory of that hour
When toward the altar from her bower
King Arthur led th' Egyptian Maid,

And Angels caroll'd these far-echo'd verses:

Who shrinks not from alliance

Of evil with good Powers,
To God proclaims defiance,
And mocks whom he adores.

A Ship to Christ devoted
From the Land of Nile did go;
Alas! the bright Ship floated,
An Idol at her prow.

By magic domination,-
The Heaven-permitted vent
Of purblind mortal passion,-
Was wrought her punishment.
The Flower, the Form within it,
What served they in her need?
Her port she could not win it,
Nor from mishap be freed.

AFTER ACCOMPANYING HER ON A MOUN-"O mercy!" to myself I cried,

Who would check the happy feeling
That inspires the linnet's song?
Who would stop the swallow, wheeling
On her pinions swift and strong?

Yet, at this impressive season,
Words which tenderness can speak

Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring! From the truths of homely reason,
Even yet thou art to me

No bird, but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery;

Might exalt the loveliest cheek;

And, while shades to shades succeeding
Steal the landscape from the sight,

The same whom in my school-boy days I would urge this moral pleading,

I listen'd to; that Cry

Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still long'd for, never seen.

And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain

And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.

O blessed Bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be

An unsubstantial, faery place;
That is fit home for Thee!

THE LONGEST DAY.

ADDRESSED TO MY DAUGHTER.

LET us quit the leafy arbour,
And the torrent murmuring by;
For the Sun is in his harbour,
Weary of the open sky.

Last forerunner of "Good night!"

SUMMER ebbs;-each day that follows
Is a reflux from on high,

Tending to the darksome hollows
Where the frosts of Winter lie.

He who governs the creation,
In His providence, assign'd
Such a gradual declination
To the life of human kind.

Yet we mark it not; -fruits redden,
Fresh flowers blow, as flowers have

blown;

And the heart is loth to deaden

[1801. Hopes that she so long hath known.

Be thou wiser, youthful Maiden!
And, when thy decline shall come,
Let not flowers, or boughs fruit-laden,
Hide the knowledge of thy doom.

Now, even now, ere wrapp'd in slumber,
Fix thine eyes upon the sea

That absorbs time, space, and number;
Look thou to Eternity!

4 These stanzas are supposed to be ad- Follow thou the flowing river dressed to the author's wife.

On whose breast are thither borne