FOLLOW A WORD THROUGH THE COLLECTION
Search the corpus.
Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.
14 matching pages
Page 1 of 11912 · PDF PAGE 85
The broad stair winds; he follows it; Dark is the way; the air is blind; Black, black the blackness of the pit, The light long blotted out behind! His sword sweeps out; his keen glance peers For some shape glimmering through the gloom: Naught, naught in all that void appears ; More still, more silent than the tomb! Yet now the good knight is aware Of some black force, of some dread throne, Waiting beneath that awful stair, Beneath that pit of slippery stone. Yea! though he sees not anything, Nor hears, his subtle sense is ’ware That, lackeyed b…
1912 · PDF PAGE 14
She knows him, and black fears bedim Those eyes ; she offers to his gaze The blue-veined breasts that suckled him In childhood’s sweet and solemn days. Weeping she bares the holy womb! Shrieks out the mother’s last appeal : And reads irrevocable doom In those dread eyes of ice and steel. He winds his horn: his warriors pour In thousands on the fenceless foe; The sunset stains their hideous war With crimson bars of after-glow. He winds his horn : the night-stars leap To light ; upspring the sisters seven ; While answering flames illume the deep,…
1912 · PDF PAGE 80
74 With firm red lips and square black beard, Osiris in his strength appeared. He made the sign that saveth men On Palamede the Saracen. ’Hath hushed his conjuration grim: The curse comes back to sleep with him. Hath fallen himself to that profane Whence none might ever rise again. Dread torture racks him; all his bones Get voice to utter forth his groans. The very poison of his blood Joins in that cry’s soul-shaking flood. For many a chiliad counted well His soul stayed in its proper Hell. Then, when Sir Palamedes came Back to himself, the shr…
1912 · PDF PAGE 20
…t by a wizard banned, A soulless wilderness of stone. Nor grass, nor corn, delight the vales ; Nor beast, nor bird, span space. Immense, Black rain, grey mist, white wrath of gales, Fill the dread armoury of sense. Nor shines the sun; nor moon, nor star Their subtle light at all display ; Nor day, nor night, dispute the scaur: All’s one intolerable grey. Black Ilyns, grey rocks, white hills of snow! No flower, no colour: life is not. This is no way for men to go From Severn-mouth to Camelot. Despair, the world upon his speed, Drive (like a lion…
1912 · PDF PAGE 13
…d. And in the centre is a sight Of hateful love and shameless shame: A recreant Abyssinian knight Sports grossly with a wanton dame. How black and swinish is the knave! His hellish grunt, his bestial grin; Her trilling laugh, her gesture suave, The cool sweat swimming on her skin ! She looks and laughs upon the knight, Then turns to buss the blubber mouth, Draining the dregs of that black blight Of wine to ease their double drouth! God! what a glance! Sir Palamede Is stricken by the sword of fate : His mother it is in very deed That gleeful goe…
1912 · PDF PAGE 72
… goes all a-swim, Paced by that maddening minstrelsy, Those dog-like demons hunting him. The last bar breaks; the steel will snaps ; The black hordes riot in his brain ; A thousand threatening thunder-claps Smite him—insane—insane—insane |! His muscles roar with senseless rage; The pale knight staggers, deathly sick; Reels to the light that sorry sage, Sir Palamede the Lunatick.
1912 · PDF PAGE 36
…appointed man, Already broken by his fate. Here were the brazen towers, and here The sculptured rocks, the marble shrine Where to a tall black stone they rear The altars due to the divine. The God they deem in sensual joy Absorbed, and silken dalliance: To please his leisure hours a boy Compels an elephant to dance. So majesty to ridicule Is turned. To other climes and men Makes off that strong, persistent fool Sir Palamede the Saracen.
1912 · PDF PAGE 69
… with him eloquently in. Sir Palamede his vizor drops; He lays his loyal lance in rest; He drives the rowels home—he stops! Faugh! but a black-mouthed money-chest! 63
1912 · PDF PAGE 21
…MEDE the Saracen Hath cast his sword and arms aside. To save the world of goodly men, He sets his teeth to ride—to ride! Three days: the black horse drops and dies. The trappings furnish them a fire, The beast a meal. With dreadful eyes Stare into death the child, the sire. Six days : the gaunt and gallant knight Sees hateful visions in the day. Where are the antient speed and might Were wont to animate that clay? Nine days; they stumble on; no more His strength avails to bear the child. Still hangs the mist, and still before Yawns the immeasur…
1912 · PDF PAGE 76
70 For all these Paynim knights may rest In the black bliss they struggle to.” But from the earth’s full-flowered breast Brake the blind roar of earthquake through, Tearing the belly of its mother, Engulphing all that heathen crew, That cried and cursed on one another. Aghast he standeth, Palamede ! For twinned with Earthquake laughs her brother The Questing Beast. As Goddes reed Sweats blood for sin, so now the heart Of the good knight begins to bleed. Of all the ruinous shafts that dart Within his liver, this hath plied The most intolerable s…
1912 · PDF PAGE 79
… the authentic bones and blood Of curst Osiris even now To the dark Nile’s upsurging flood! I cast thee down, oh crowned and throned! To black Amennti’s void profane. Until mine anger be atoned Thou shalt not ever rise again.” 73
1912 · PDF PAGE 42
…The gallant lungs gasp loud in vain: Thy life is spilt upon the plain. Sir Palamede is stricken numb As one who, gazing on the sun, Sees blackness gather. Blank and dumb, The good knight sees a thin breath come Out of his proper mouth, and dart Over the plain : he seeth it Sure by some black magician art Shape ever closer like an hart:
1912 · PDF PAGE 19
…earliest light. Falls thy last comrade at thy feet, O lordly-souled Sir Palamede? Tearing the savage from his seat, He leaps upon a coal-black steed. He gallops raging through the press : The affrighted heathen fear his eye. There madness gleams, there masterless The whirling sword shrieks shrill and high, They shrink, he gallops. Closely clings The child slung at his waist; and he Heeds nought, but gallops wide, and sings Wild war-songs, chants of gramarye! 13
1912 · PDF PAGE 113
Treads the impending glacier. Now, now he strikes the steep black ice That leads to the last neck. By Her That bore the Lord, by what device May he pass there? Yet still he moves, Ardent and steady, as if the price Of death were less than life approves, As if on eagles’ wings he mounted, Or as on angels’ wings—or love’s! So, all the journey he discounted, Holding the goal. Supreme he stood. Upon the summit; dreams uncounted, Worlds of sublime beatitude ! He passed beyond. The All he hath touched, And dropped to vile desuetude. What lay beyond? …