Tennyson's Idylls of the King Author:Alfred Tennyson Tennyson 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: THE ORDER OF THE IDYLLS OF THE KING I. THE COMING OF ARTHUR II. GARETH AND LYNETTE III. THE MARRIAGE OF GERAINT IV. GERAINT AND ENID V. BALIN AND ... more »BALAN VI. MERLIN AND VIVIEN VII. LANCELOT AND ELAINE VIII. THE HOLY GRAIL IX. PELLEAS AND ETTARRE X. THE LAST TOURNAMENT XI. GUINEVERE XII. THE PASSING OF ARTHUR IDYLLS OF THE KING GARETH AND LYNETTE The last tall son of Lot and Bellicent, And tallest, Gareth, in a showerful spring Stared at the spate.1 A slender-shafted Pine Lost footing, fell, and so was whirl'd away. ' How he went down,' said Gareth, ' as a false knight Or evil king before my lance if lance Were mine to use O senseless cataract, Bearing all down in thy precipitancy And yet thou art but swollen with cold snows And mine is living blood : thou dost His will, The Maker's, and not knowest, and I that know, Have strength and wit, in my good mother's hall Linger with vacillating obedience, Prison'd, and kept and coax'd and whistled to Since the good mother holds me still a child ! Good mother is bad mother unto me ! A worse were better; yet no worse would I. Heaven yield 2 her for it, but in me put force To weary her ears with one continuous prayer, 1 River in flood. 2 Reward. Until she let me fly discaged to sweep 20 In ever-highering eagle-circles up To the great Sun of Glory, and thence swoop Down upon all things base, and dash them dead, A knight of Arthur, working out his will, To cleanse the world. Why, Gawain, when he came 25 With Modred hither in the summertime, Ask'd me to tilt1 with him, the proven knight. Modred for want of worthier was the judge. Then I so shook him in the saddle, he said, " Thou hast half prevail'd against me," said so he 30 Tho' Modred biting his thin lips was mute, For h...« less