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I. TWO LEGENDS
GLASTONBURY
Thither through moaning woods came Bedivere,
At gloomy breaking of a winter's day,
Weary and travel-stained and sick at heart,
With a great wound gotten in that last fray
Ere he stood by, and watched the King depart
Down the long, silent reaches of the mere:
And all the earth was sad, and skies were drear,
And the wind cried, and chased the relict leaves
Like ships,that the storm-tossed ocean batters and heaves,
And they fly before the gale, and the mariners fear.
At gloomy breaking of a winter's day,
Weary and travel-stained and sick at heart,
With a great wound gotten in that last fray
Ere he stood by, and watched the King depart
Down the long, silent reaches of the mere:
And all the earth was sad, and skies were drear,
And the wind cried, and chased the relict leaves
Like ships,that the storm-tossed ocean batters and heaves,
And they fly before the gale, and the mariners fear.
So he found at the last an hermitage
Hard by a little hill, and sheltering trees
That bent gaunt branches in the winter's breeze;
And he drew rein, and leant, and struck the door:
Then presently came forth an hermit sage
And helped him to dismount with labour sore:
Straight went they in, but Bedivere being lame
Stumbled against the open door, and swooned,
And would have fallen, but the hermit caught
And laid him gently down; then hurrying brought
From a great chest a cordial, and came
That he might drink, and so beheld his wound.
Hard by a little hill, and sheltering trees
That bent gaunt branches in the winter's breeze;
And he drew rein, and leant, and struck the door:
Then presently came forth an hermit sage
And helped him to dismount with labour sore:
Straight went they in, but Bedivere being lame
Stumbled against the open door, and swooned,
And would have fallen, but the hermit caught
And laid him gently down; then hurrying brought
From a great chest a cordial, and came
That he might drink, and so beheld his wound.
Long time lay Bedivere betwixt life and death,
Like a torn traveller on a stormy height
'Twixt one wind and another: till his breath
Came easier, and he prospered. Then did sleep
Bathe him in soothing waters, soft and deep,
And left him whole, at breaking of the light,
So he beheld the old man, and desired
That he would tell of whom he was, and whence.
Like a torn traveller on a stormy height
'Twixt one wind and another: till his breath
Came easier, and he prospered. Then did sleep
Bathe him in soothing waters, soft and deep,
And left him whole, at breaking of the light,
So he beheld the old man, and desired
That he would tell of whom he was, and whence.
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