114. Like an outpost of winter: The cold, gloomy castle stands in strong contrast to the surrounding landscape filled with the joyous sunshine of summer. So the proud knight's heart is still inaccessible to true charity and warm human sympathy. So aristocracy in its power and pride stands aloof from democracy with its humility and aspiration for human brotherhood. This stanza is especially figurative. The poet is unfolding the main theme, the underlying moral purpose, of the whole poem, but it is still kept in vague, dreamy symbolism. 116. North Countree: The north of England, the home of the border ballads. This form of the word "countree," with accent on the last syllable, is common in the old ballads. Here it gives a flavor of antiquity in keeping with the story. 122. Pavilions tall: The trees, as in line 125, the broad green tents. Note how the military figure, beginning with "outposts," in line 115, is continued and developed throughout the stanza, and reverted to in the word "siege" in the next stanza. 130. Maiden knight: A young, untried, unpracticed knight. The expression occurs in Tennyson's _Sir Galahad_. So "maiden mail" below. 137. As a locust-leaf: The small delicate leaflets of the compound locust-leaf seem always in a "lightsome" movement. 138. The original edition has "unscarred mail." 138-139. Compare the last lines of Tennyson's _Sir Galahad_: "By bridge and ford, by park and pale, All-armed I ride, whate'er betide, Until I find the Holy Grail." 147. Made morn: Let in the morning, or came into the full morning light as the huge gate opened. 148. Leper: Why did the poet make the crouching beggar a leper? 152. For "gan shrink" the original has "did shrink." 155. Bent of stature: Criticise this phrase. 158. So he tossed ... in scorn: This is the turning-point of the moral movement of the story. Sir Launfal at the very beginning makes his fatal mistake; his noble spirit and lofty purposes break down with the first test. He refuses to see a brother in the loathsome leper; the light and warmth of human brotherhood had not yet entered his soul, just as the summer sunshine had not entered the frowning castle. The regeneration of his soul must be worked out through wandering and suffering. Compare the similar plot of the _Ancient Mariner_. 163. No true alms: The alms must also be in the heart. 164. Originally "He gives nothing but worthless gold." 166. Slender mite: An allusion to the widow's "two mites." (_Luke_ xxi, 1-4.) 168. The all-sustaining Beauty: The all-pervading spirit of God that unites all things in one sympathetic whole. This divinity in humanity is its highest beauty. In _The Oak_ Lowell says: "Lord! all thy works are lessons; each contains Some emblem of man's all-containing soul."