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The Death Of Guinevere

*

An Arthurian Miscellany

At Almesbury the lights are low --

With muffled step the Sisters go,

And come, and go, in tears, for lo.

With crucifix held o'er her head,

The Abbess-Queen lies on her bed,

Soon to be gathered with the dead.

They deem her holy; she hath taught

How hope may come and faith be bought,

But now she thinks -- and this the thought:

"To die. O God! what breadth of doom

Awaits me in the ghostly gloom

That stretcheth out beyond the tomb?

"To die -- to die -- to go where I

May meet with Arthur passing by?

I cannot die -- I cannot die!

"I whisper to myself his name,

I count the years, I count the shame,

And feel the torture of the flame.

"I loved him not, yet well I know

I took his life -- and deep and slow

I wrought the wound, I dealt the blow.

"I know not where his body lies --

I
dare not meet his clear, large eyes,

Bright with the light of Paradise.

"Why, they would cut me thro' and thro'

Like yonder star, that from the blue

Dissevers this clear drop of dew.

"O Christ! a little time, I pray,

Yet let me live -- perchance some day

I may not fear to tread the way.

"Cease, cease, vain prayer -- I am grown old.

The thin white hair that once was gold,

The sunken cheeks, half-gray, half-cold,

"The shrivelled breast, the sightless eye,

All wan and worn -- they mutely cry, --

'Tis time to die! 'tis time to die!'

"O, I am old and changed! and what

If I should meet with Launcelot

And he should pass and know me not?

"Methinks my heart would throb and swell

Until it broke again -- ah well,

'Twould make of heaven a twofold hell.

"To think that we two souls had met

And he passed, with quiet face set

Away from me, so old -- and yet

"It was not love for him I felt;

No love in me hath ever dwelt

Save love of self. Why, I have knelt

"And prayed to God for grace for " me" ,

Have moaned and prayed for strength to see

Some hope in gray eternity.

"And in my prayer no name has mixt

With mine, lest it should come betwixt

My thoughts and God's, and leave unfixt

"The grace for which I prayed; and now

The death-damp gathers on my brow,

But to God's will I cannot bow.

"O, I would live! I dread this death,

This sudden sinking of the breath,

With all the mystery beneath;

"With all the fear beyond the pain,

With all the mist beyond the rain --

O
God! O Christ! I would remain!
"

She lieth dead -- the church-bells toll --

Fair Father Christ, receive her soul

And make the broken image whole.
quran sura 5| quran sura 4
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