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 109
…te the glamoured knight? Yea! the song takes a sea-wild swell ; The dance moves in a mystic web; Strange lights abound and terrible; The life that flowed is out at ebb. The lights are gone; the night is come; The lads and lasses sink, awaiting Some climax—oh, how tense and dumb The expectant hush intoxicating! Hush! the heart’s beat! Across the moor Some dreadful god rides fast, be sure ! The listening Palamede bites through His thin white lips—what hoofs are those? Are they the Quest? How still and blue The sky is! Hush—God knows—God knows ! T…
1912 · PDF PAGE 22
…plains—how feebly now! His eyes are blank ; he looks at her; The cold sweat gathers on his brow. To save the world—three days away|! His life in knighthood’s life is furled, And knighthood’s life in his—to-day |— His darling staked against the world | Will he die there, his task undone? Or dare he live, at such a cost? He cries against the impassive sun : The world is dim, is all but lost. Then, with the bitterness of death Cutting his soul, his fingers clench The piteous passage of her breath. The dews of horror rise and drench Sir Palamede th…
1912 · PDF PAGE 42
… it falls. Triumph! Gape wide, ye golden walls! Lift up your everlasting doors, O gates of Camelot! See, he swoops Down on the prey! The life-blood pours: The poison works : the breath implores Its livelong debt from heart and brain. Alas! poor stag, thy day is done! 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 …
1912 · PDF PAGE 30
24 His nails, and made his penance end, Clothing himself in steel and gold, Arming himself, his life to spend In vigil cold and wandering bold, Disdaining song and dalliance soft, Seeking one purpose to behold, And holding ever that aloft, Nor fearing God, nor heeding men. So thus his hermit habit doffed Sir Palamede the Saracen.
1912 · PDF PAGE 17
…of his knightly oath, And careless of his kingly name. Befooled and cuckolded, the king Is yet the king, the king most high ; And on his life the hinges swing That close the door of chivalry. *Sblood! shall it sink, and rise no more, That blaze of Time, when men were men? That is thy question, warrior Sir Palamede the Saracen ! II
1912 · PDF PAGE 28
…s hermitage may hold. At last he cometh to a den Perched high upon the savage scaur, Remote from every haunt of men, From every haunt of life afar. There doth he find Sir Palamede Sitting as steadfast as a star. Scarcely he knew the knight indeed, For he was compassed in a beard White as the streams of snow that feed The lake of Gods and men revered That sitteth upon Caucasus. So muttered he a darkling weird,
1912 · PDF PAGE 77
…es of the earth, Its towers and temples derelict, The ready ruin of its mirth, The flowers, the fruits, the leaves that fall, The joy of life, its growing girth— And nothing as the end of all. Yea, even as the Yang-tze rolled Its rapids past him, so the wall Of things brake down; his eyes behold The mighty Beast serenely couched Upon its breast of burnished gold. “ Ah! by Christ's blood!” (his soul avouched), “ Nothing but change (but change!) abides. Death lurks, a leopard curled and crouched,
1912 · PDF PAGE 18
12 IV Now, with two score of men in life And one fair babe, Sir Palamede Resolves one last heroic strife, Attempts forlorn a desperate deed. At dead of night, a moonless night, A night of winter storm, they sail In dancing dragons to the fight With man and sea, with ghoul and gale. Whom God shall spare, ride, ride! (so springs The iron order). Let him fly On honour’s steed with honour’s wings To warn the king, lest honour die! Then to the fury of the blast Their fury adds a dreadful sting : The fatal die is surely cast. To save the king—to save…
1912 · PDF PAGE 44
… “Priest, for the dove on Ararat T could not, nor I will not, stay!” “T know thy quest. Seek on in vain A golden hart with silver horns! Life springeth out of divers pains. What crown the King of Kings adorns? A crown of gems? A crown of thorns! The Questing Beast is like a king In face, and hath a pigeon’s wing And claw; its body is one fleece Of bloody white, a lamb’s in spring. Enough. Sir Knight, I give thee peace.”
1912 · PDF PAGE 88
…ne saith) The unknown may lurk within the vile. So he who sought the Beauteous Breath, Desired the Goodly Gift of Grace, Went equal into life and death, But oh! the foulness of his face! Not here was anything of worth ; He turned his back upon the place, Sought the blue sky and the green earth, Ay! and the lustral sea to cleanse That filth that stank about his girth,
1912 · PDF PAGE 20
…; 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 from his den Whom hunger hunts) the man at need, Sir Palamede the Saracen.
1912 · PDF PAGE 113
…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? What star unsmutched By being? His poor fingers fumble, And all the Naught their ardour clutched, Like…
1912 · PDF PAGE 7
… vision of Pan, Thereby he regaineth all that he had expended of strength and youth; is gladdened thereat, for he now devoteth again his life to the quest; yet more utterly cast down than ever, for that this supreme vision is not the Beast. xl. Upon the loftiest summit of a great mountain he perceiveth Naught. Even this is, however, not the Beast. xii. Returning to Camelot to announce his failure, he maketh entrance into the King’s hall, whence he started out upon the quest. The Beast cometh nestling to him, All the knights attain the quest. Th…
1912 · PDF PAGE 6
… sunlit wood, this is discovered to be a certain hunchback, who doubteth whether there be at all any Beast or any quest, or if the whole life of Sir Palamede be not a vain illusion. Him, without seeking to conquer with words, he slayeth incontinent. xxxvii. In a cave by the sea, feeding on limpets and roots, Sir Palamede abideth, sick unto death. Himseemeth the Beast questeth within his own bowels: he is the vii