22 October 2026
(13 May 2016) Another poem of Tennyson’s that influenced my own writing is “Morte D’Arthur,” in which he recounts the death of Arthur. Here are the first pair of stanzas, one short to set the scene, one long to initiate the action:
So all day long the noise of battle roll’d
Among the mountains by the winter sea;
Until King Arthur’s table, man by man,
Had fallen in Lyonnesse about their Lord,
King Arthur: then, because his wound was deep,
The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,
And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land.
On one side lay the ocean, and on one
Lay a great water, and the moon was full.
The scene is the final battle, which is not recounted here, only the results; it is interesting that not even the nearby church escapes the destruction, where both chancel (the place of the altar) and cross are broken, on a barren strip of land between the ocean and “a great water”–the water surrounding Avalon, the lake where Arthur received Excaliber.
Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
“The sequel of to-day unsolders all
The goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep
They sleep–the men I loved. I think that we
Shall never more, at any future time,
Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,
Walking about the gardens and the halls
Of Camelot, as in the days that were.
I perish by this people which I made,–
Tho’ Merlin sware that I should come again
To rule once more–but let what will be, be,
I am so deeply smitten thro’ the helm
That without help I cannot last till morn.
Thou therefore take my brand Excalibur,
Which was my pride: for thou rememberest how
In those old days, one summer noon, an arm
Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
Holding the sword–and how I row’d across
And took it, and have worn it, like a king:
And, wheresoever I am sung or told
In aftertime, this also shall be known:
But now delay not: take Excalibur,
And fling him far into the middle mere:
Watch what thou seëst, and lightly bring me word.”
Here we see, according to the poet, Arthur’s lament for what they have lost, followed by a recounting of how he received Excaliber. Now, he asks Bedivere to return the sword to the place from which it came, commanding his only remaining, loyal knight to return and report what happens. As we will see next time, Sir Bedivere fails in his first attempt to return Excaliber to the Lady of the Lake. Until then, good reading!
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