An old, bent man, worn out and frail, He came back from seeking the Holy Grail; No more on his surcoat was blazoned the cross, III Sir Launfal's raiment thin and spare O'er the edge of the desert, black and small, As over the red-hot sands they pass To where, in its slender necklace of grass, IV "For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms;" That cowers beside him, a thing as lone And white as the ice-isles of Northern seas V And Sir Launfal said, "I behold in thee Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns, Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns, And to thy life were not denied The wounds in the hands and feet and side: Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me; Behold, through him, I give to Thee!" VI Then the soul of the leper stood up in his eyes He had flung an alms to leprosie, When he girt his young life up in gilded mail He parted in twain his single crust, "Twas water out of a wooden bowl, Yet with fine wheaten bread was the leper fed, And 'twas red wine he drank with his thirsty soul. VII As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face, The leper no longer crouched at his side, Shining and tall and fair and straight As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate,- Enter the temple of God in Man. VIII His words were shed softer than leaves from the pine, And they fell on Sir Launfal as snows on the brine, That mingle their softness and quiet in one With the shaggy unrest they float down upon; And the voice that was calmer than silence said, "Lo, it is I, be not afraid! In many climes, without avail, Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail; In whatso we share with another's need: Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,— IX Sir Launfal awoke as from a swound:- He must be fenced with stronger mail X The castle gate stands open now, And the wanderer is welcome to the hall The Summer's long siege at last is o'er; And mastered the fortress by surprise; There is no spot she loves so well on ground, She lingers and smiles there the whole year round; The meanest serf on Sir Launfal's land Has hall and bower at his command; And there's no poor man in the North Countree Notes Sinais: Sinai was the mountain in the wilderness where Moses went for his personal talks with God. Druid: member of an old Celtic order of religion, which in its earliest form was a kind of tree worship. The rites were usually performed in woods or groves. Here Lowell would seem to imply that the trees themselves take the place of the priests in their power to bless. Holy Grail: the following note accompanied the first publication of The Vision of Sir Launfal in 1848: : 'According to the mythology of the Romancers, the San Greal, or Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus Christ partook of the last supper with his disciples. It was brought into England by Joseph of Arimathea, and remained there, an object of pilgrimage and adoration, for many years in the keeping of his lineal descendants. It was incumbent upon those who had charge of it to be chaste in thought, word, and deed; but, one of the keepers having broken this condition, the Holy Grail disappeared. From that time it was a favorite enterprise of the Knights of Arthur's court to go in search of it. Sir Galahad was at last successful in finding it, as may be read in the seventeenth book of the Romance of King Arthur. Tennyson has made Sir Galahad the subject of one of the most exquisite of his poems. "The plot (if I may give that name to anything so slight) of the following poem is my own, and, to serve its purposes, I have enlarged the circle of competition in search of the miraculous cup in such a manner as to include not only other persons than the heroes of the Round Table, but also a period of time subsequent to the date of King Arthur's reign." Questions for Study 1. How does Lowell, like a "musing organist," lead up to his theme in Part First? Show the steps that he takes in his Prelude to Part First. What would the story lose if it began on page 179? Show similarly the uses made of the Prelude to Part Second or what the story would lose if that were omitted. 2. At what point in the poem does the vision begin? At what point does it end? Is the second Prelude included in it? |