Narrative and Lyric Poems (Second Series) for Use in the Lower School

English poetry

Yet if we could scorn
                        Hate and pride and fear;
                      If we were things born
                        Not to shed a tear,
  I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.          95

                      Better than all measures
                        Of delightful sound,
                      Better than all treasures
                        That in books are found,
  Thy skill to poets were, thou scorner of the ground!          100

                      Teach me half the gladness
                        That thy brain must know,
                      Such harmonious madness
                        From my lips would flow,
  The world should listen then, as I am listening now!          105

                 *        *        *        *        *




                                =ENID.=


  The brave Geraint, a knight of Arthur’s court,
  A tributary prince of Devon, one
  Of that great Order of the Table Round,
  Had wedded Enid, Yniol’s only child,
  And loved her, as he loved the light of Heaven.          5
  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.          10
  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 splendour; and the Queen herself,
  Grateful to Prince Geraint for service done,          15
  Lov’d her, and often with her own white hands
  Array’d and deck’d 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          20
  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 rumour rose about the Queen,
  Touching her guilty love for Lancelot,          25
  Though yet there lived no proof, nor yet was heard
  The world’s loud whisper breaking into storm,
  Not less Geraint believed it; and there fell
  A horror on him, lest his gentle wife,
  Through that great tenderness for Guinevere,          30
  Had suffer’d, 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,          35
  Assassins, and all fliers 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,          40
  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 pass’d to their own land;          45

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Narrative and Lyric Poems (Second Series) for Use in the Lower School

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