Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

From the bank and from the river He flash'd into the crystal mirror, "Tirra lirra," by the river

Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces thro' the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,

She saw the helmet and the plume,

She look'd down to Camelot. Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror crack'd from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott.

PART IV

103

117

In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining,
Heavily the low sky raining

Over tower'd Camelot;

Down she came and found a boat

Beneath a willow left afloat,

And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seër in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance-
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.

126

And at the closing of the day

She loosed the chain, and down she lay; The broad stream bore her far away,

The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white

That loosely flew to left and right-
The leaves upon her falling light-
Thro' the noises of the night

She floated down to Camelot :
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly
And her eyes were darken'd wholly
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,

A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.

135

144

153

Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and burgher, lord and dame,

And round the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they cross'd themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot :
But Lancelot mused a little space;
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."

1833. 1842.

162

Lord Tennyson.

171

THE ROMANCE OF THE

SWAN'S NEST

"So the dreams depart,

So the fading phantoms flee,

And the sharp reality

Now must act its part."

WESTWOOD'S Beads from a Rosary.

LITTLE Ellie sits alone

'Mid the beeches of a meadow,
By a stream-side on the grass,
And the trees are showering down
Doubles of their leaves in shadow
On her shining hair and face.

She has thrown her bonnet by,

And her feet she has been dipping In the shallow water's flow:

Now she holds them nakedly

In her hands, all sleek and dripping,

While she rocketh to and fro.

Little Ellie sits alone,

And the smile she softly uses

Fills the silence like a speech,

While she thinks what shall be done,

And the sweetest pleasure chooses For her future within reach.

Little Ellie in her smile

Chooses "I will have a lover
Riding on a steed of steeds:
He shall love me without guile,

And to him I will discover
The swan's nest among the reeds.

"And the steed shall be red-roan,
And the lover shall be noble,
With an eye that takes the breath:
And the lute he plays upon

10

15

20

25

Shall strike ladies into trouble,

As his sword strikes men to death.

30

"And the steed it shall be shod

All in silver, housed in azure,

And the mane shall swim the wind;
And the hoofs along the sod

Shall flash onward and keep measure, 35
Till the shepherds look behind.

"But my lover will not prize

All the glory that he rides in,
When he gazes in my face:
He will say, 'O Love, thine eyes
Build the shrine my soul abides in,
And I kneel here for thy grace!!

"Then, ay, then he shall kneel low,
With the red-roan steed anear him
Which shall seem to understand,
Till I answer, Rise and go!

[ocr errors]

For the world must love and fear him Whom I gift with heart and hand.'

"Then he will arise so pale,

I shall feel my own lips tremble

With a

a yes I must not say,
Nathless maiden-brave, 'Farewell,'
I will utter, and dissemble-
'Light to-morrow with to-day!'

"Then he 'Il ride among the hills
To the wide world past the river,
There to put away all wrong;
To make straight distorted wills,
And to empty the broad quiver
Which the wicked bear along.

[ocr errors]

40

45

50

55

60

« AnteriorContinuar »