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The Vision of Sir Launfal: And Other Poems
The Vision of Sir Launfal And Other Poems Author:James Russell Lowell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: As the hangbird is to the elm-tree bough; No longer scowl the turrets tall, The Summer's long siege at last is o'er; When the first poor outcast went in at th... more »e door, She entered with him in disguise, 340 And mastered the fortress by surprise; There is no spot she loves so well on ground, She lingers and smiles there the whole year round; The meanest serf on Sir Launfal's land Has hall and bower at his command; 345 And there's no poor man in the North Countree But is lord of the earldom as much as he. POEMS HAVING A SPECIAL EELATION TO THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL. GROUP A1 THE SEARCH I Went to seek for Christ, And Nature seemed so fair That first the woods and fields my youth enticed, And I was sure to find him there: The temple I forsook, 5 And to the solitude Allegiance paid; but Winter came and shook The crown and purple from my wood ; His snows, like desert sands, with scornful drift, Besieged the columned aisle and palace-gate; 10 My Thebes, cut deep with many a solemn rift, But epitaphed her own sepulchred state: Then I remembered whom I went to seek, And blessed blunt Winter for his counsel bleak- 1 See The Study of The Vision of Sir Launfal, p. 91. Back to the world I turned, 15 For Christ, I said, is King; So the cramped alley and the hut I spurned, As far beneath his sojourning: Mid power and wealth I sought, But found no trace of him, 20 And all the costly offerings I had brought With sudden rust and mould grew dim : I found his tomb, indeed, where, by their laws, All must on stated days themselves imprison, Mocking with bread a dead creed's grinning jaws, 25 Witless how long the life had thence arisen; Due sacrifice to this they set apart, Prizing it more than Christ's own living heart. So from my feet the dust O...« less