Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to ChaucerBaldwin, James
General
Six Centuries of English Poetry: Tennyson to Chaucer
Baldwin, James
English poetry
"But Arthur spied the letter in her hand,
Stoopt, took, brake seal, and read it; this was all:
'Most noble 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 mass 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
Prick'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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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