Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-01-04
THE BATTLE OF LYoNNEssE.

In the " Passing of Arthur" the last OF
the four new iSyls of Tennvson, the fol-
lowing magnificent passage almost imme-
diately precedes the introduction of the
Morte d Arthur, which is given exactly as
II is familiar TO Us in his miscellaneous
poems. The reader will see that the new
and the old verse is of the same golden
warp and woof:
Then rose the king and moved LIS host by
night
And ever push'd Sir NIodred. league by league,
Back 70 the sunset bound Of Lyonnesse-
a land OF old upheaven from the abyss
5y ure, 70 sink into the abyss agalni
Where fragments OF forgotten peoples dwelt,
And the long mountain ended in coast
0f ever-shifting sand, and far away
The phantom circle Cf moaning sea
There the pursuer could pursue no more,
And he that fed no farther fly the king;
And there, that day when the great light OF
Burn'd at his lowest in the rolling year.
On the waste sand by the waste sea they
Nor ever yet had Arthur fought nght
Like this last, dim. weird battle Of the West,
A deafh-white mist slept over sand and sea;
Whereof Ihe chill, 10 him who breathed It,
Down win his blood, tin all his heart was
With forniess fear, and even on Arthur fell
Confusion, since he saw not whom he fought,
For friend aud foe were shadows in the mist.
And friend slew friend, not Knowing whom
he slew;
And some had visions out Of golden youth,
And some beheld the faces Of old ghosts
LOOK in upon the battle: aud in the mist
Was many loDl1 decd, many a base,
And chance end craft snd strength IN single
And ever aud anon with host TO host
shocks, and the splintering spear the hard
shieid-uraasIngs, and the clash OF brands,
the crash
Ofbattie-axes on shattered helms, and shrielEs
After the Christ, = those who falling down
Looked mp Tor heaven, and only saw ne mist;
Ard shouts OF heather and the traitor knights,
Oaths, insult, hlth, and monstrous blasphe-
mics,
Sweat. writings, anguish, laboring Of the
In that clo.e mist. and cryings for the Hight,
A0sns OF the dying aJ-d voices Of the dead.
LAST IS by some one death bed, after wall
OF suffering, silence follows, or thfo' death
Oi. deathIIke sgroon. thus over all that shore,
sslve Tor some whisper OF the seething seas,
\ dead hush fell; but when the dOlorous day
Grew crearier toward twilight falling, came
T. bitIcr wind, clear from The North, and blew
The mist aside. ana wiIn that wind the tide
hose, aad the pale king glanced across the
field
or battle; but no man was moving there:
hoF any cry Of Christian heard thereon,
Noryet Of heather; only the wan wave
Brake IN among dead faces, 20 and no
sEaying the helpless hands, and up and
.Tumbiing the hollow helmets OF the fallen,
And shtvered brands that once had fought
with Rome
And rclifDg far along the gloomy shores
The voice OF days Of old and days 70 be.
Then spale King Arthur to Sir Bedivere,
And winter tnan tie mist that al day long
II al held the Held % battle was the king:
q" Hes. est thou this great voice that shakes
the world,
And wastes the narrow realm whereon we
And beats upon the faces OF the dead.
Ny dead, as tho they had not died lor me7
. Bedivere. fer on my heart hath fallen
Confusion. til kuOw not what AKA,
: or whence I am, Lor whether be king.
behold, seem but king amo0g the dead"
Then spske the bold Sir Bedivere: " Ny !
king.
King every where and so the dead have kings, Z
There also viii ] worship thee a. king.
-et Still Jhy life is whole, and Still 1--we
MhO love thee; but who hateS thee, he that I
brought
The heather back among US. yOnder stands, Z
MOdred, unharm q, the traitor Ofthiue house" I