The Vision of Sir Launfal | Page 7

Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur. The following is the note which accompanied The Vision when first published in 1848, and retained by Lowell in all subsequent editions:--
"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."
PRELUDE TO PART FIRST.
Over his keys the musing organist,?Beginning doubtfully and far away,?First lets his fingers wander as they list,?And builds a Bridge from Dreamland for his lay:?Then, as the touch of his loved instrument 5 Gives hope and fervor, nearer draws his theme,?First guessed by faint auroral flushes sent?Along the wavering vista of his dream.
Not only around our infancy[1]?Doth heaven with all its splendors lie; 10 Daily, with souls that cringe and plot,?We Sinais climb and know it not.
Over our manhood bend the skies;?Against our fallen and traitor lives?The great winds utter prophecies: 15 With our faint hearts the mountain strives;?Its arms outstretched, the druid wood?Waits with its benedicite;?And to our age's drowsy blood?Still shouts the inspiring sea. 20
Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;?The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,?The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,?We bargain for the graves we lie in;
[Footnote 1: In allusion to Wordsworth's "Heaven lies about us in our infancy," in his ode, _Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood_.]
At the Devil's booth are all things sold, 25 Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;?For a cap and bells our lives we pay,[2]?Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking:?'T is heaven alone that is given away,?'T is only God may be had for the asking; 30 No price is set on the lavish summer;?June may be had by the poorest comer.
And what is so rare as a day in June??Then, if ever, come perfect days;?Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, 35 And over it softly her warm ear lays:?Whether we look, or whether we listen,?We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;?Every clod feels a stir of might,?An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 40 And, groping blindly above it for light,?Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;?The flush of life may well be seen?Thrilling back over hills and valleys;?The cowslip startles in meadows green, 45 The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,?And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean?To be some happy creature's palace;?The little bird sits at his door in the sun,?Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, 50 And lets his illumined being o'errun?With the deluge of summer it receives;?His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,?And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;?He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,-- 55 In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?
[Footnote 2: In the Middle Ages kings and noblemen had in their courts jesters to make sport for the company; as every one then wore a dress indicating his rank or occupation, so the jester wore a cap hung with bells. The fool of Shakespeare's plays is the king's jester at his best.]
Now is the high-tide of the year,?And whatever of life hath ebbed away?Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer,?Into every bare inlet and creek and bay; 60 Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,?We are happy now because God wills it;?No matter how barren the past may have been,?'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green;?We sit in the warm shade and feel right well 65 How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell;?We may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing?That skies