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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ARTHURIAN SONGS: 1. AVALON, by RACHEL ANNAND TAYLOR Poet's Biography
First Line: King arthur lies alone
Last Line: Is loyal quite?
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Solitude; Loneliness
First Line: King arthur lies alone
Last Line: Is loyal quite?
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Solitude; Loneliness
King Arthur lies alone
Deep down in Avalon.
Alone! For what fair knight
Is loyal quite?
Could golden Pelleas be lain
To drowse between delight and pain?
Could Tristram's musique here be borne,
Or the great blast of Gawain's horn?
It is no land for Galahad
Where none are good and none are bad.
It is no land for Lancelot
Where sweet and bitter are forgot.
For that proud soul of Guenevere's,
And her long ransom of bright tears
It is no land,—where none may weep,
Between reveillé and faint sleep.
Swung soft 'tween heaven and hell, it seems
A crystal in a cloud of dreams.
Yet doth some one pass that way.
Is it, is it Morgan la Faye?—
Saying: "Was it love or hate?"
Saying: "But the wound is great."
So, amid the poppies white,
Long rests Arthur, King and Knight.
King Arthur lies alone,
Deep down in Avalon.
Alone! For what fair knight
Is loyal quite?
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