"But let me tell thee now another tale : r For Bleys, our Merlin's master, as they say, Descending thro' the dismal night - a night In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost Beheld, so high upon the dreary deeps It seem'd in heaven - a ship, the shape thereof Wave after wave, each mightier than the last, A naked babe, and rode to Merlin's feet, Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried, 'The King! Of that great breaker, sweeping up the strand, Save on the further side; but when I met Merlin, and ask'd him if these things were truth, The shining dragon and the naked child ""Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow in the sky! A young man will be wiser by and by: An old man's wit may wander ere he die. Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow on the lea! And truth is this to me, and that to thee; And truth or clothed or naked let it be. Rain, sun, and rain! and the free blossom blows: Sun, rain, and sun! and where is he who knows? From the great deep to the great deep he goes.' "So Merlin, riddling, anger'd me; but thou Fear not to give this king thine only child, Ranging and ringing thro' the minds of men, And echo'd by old folk beside their fires Utterly smite the heathen underfoot, Till these and all men hail him for their king.” She spake and King Leodogran rejoiced, But musing "Shall I answer yea or nay?" Doubted and drowsed, nodded and slept, and saw, Dreaming, a slope of land that ever grew, Field after field, up to a height, the peak Haze-hidden, and thereon a phantom king, Now looming, and now lost; and on the slope The sword rose, the hind fell, the herd was driven, Fire glimpsed; and all the land from roof and rick In drifts of smoke before a rolling wind Stream'd to the peak, and mingled with the haze And made it thicker; while the phantom king Sent out at times a voice; and here or there Stood one who pointed toward the voice, the rest Slew on and burnt, crying, "No king of ours, No son of Uther, and no king of ours ; Till with a wink his dream was changed, the haze Descended, and the solid earth became As nothing, and the king stood out in heaven, Crown'd; and Leodogran awoke, and sent Ulfius, and Brastias, and Bedivere Back to the court of Arthur answering yea. Then Arthur charged his warrior whom he loved And honor'd most, Sir Lancelot, to ride forth And bring the Queen; - and watch'd him from the gates: And Lancelot past away among the flowers, Among the flowers, in May, with Guinevere. |