THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL. PRELUDE TO PART FIRST. OVER his keys the musing organist, And builds a bridge from Dreamland for his lay: Not only around our infancy Doth heaven with all its splendors lie; Over our manhood bend the skies; With our faint hearts the mountain strives, Waits with its benedicite; And to our age's drowsy blood Still shouts the inspiring sea. 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; And what is so rare as a day in June? An instinct within it that reaches and towers, green, The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice, 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, In the nice ear of Nature which song is the 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; 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 How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell; We may shut our eyes but we cannot help knowing That skies are clear and grass is growing; The breeze comes whispering in our ear, That maize has sprouted, that streams That the river is bluer than the sky, That the robin is plastering his house hard by; We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,- Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how; Every thing is upward striving; are Who knows whither the clouds have fled? In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, The heart forgets its sorrow and ache; The soul partakes the season's youth, And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth, Like burnt-out craters healed with snow. What wonder if Sir Launfal now Remembered the keeping of his vow? PART FIRST. I. "My golden spurs now bring to me, Here on the rushes will I sleep, And perchance there may come a vision true Slowly Sir Launfal's eyes grew dim, And into his soul the vision flew. II. The crows flapped over by twos and threes, The one day of summer in all the year, And the very leaves seemed to sing on the trees The castle alone in the landscape lay But the churlish stone her assaults defied; Though round it for leagues her pavilions tall Over the hills and out of sight; Green and broad was every tent, And out of each a murmur went Till the breeze fell off at night. III. The drawbridge dropped with a surly clang, Sir Launfal flashed forth in his unscarred mail, IV. It was morning on hill and stream and tree, Rebuffed the gifts of the sunshine free, The season brimmed all other things up |