{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/arthur/art201.htm","path":"neu/arthur/art201.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/arthur/art201.htm","text":"Sacred Texts\u00a0\n Legends/Sagas\u00a0\n England\u00a0\n Index\u00a0\n Previous\u00a0\n Next\u00a0\n \n \n An Arthurian Miscellany\n THE DEATH OF GUINEVERE\n by\n JOHN GROSVENOR WILSON\n \n At Almesbury the lights are low -- \n With muffled step the Sisters go, \n And come, and go, in tears, for lo. \n \n With crucifix held o'er her head, \n The Abbess-Queen lies on her bed, \n Soon to be gathered with the dead. \n \n They deem her holy; she hath taught \n How hope may come and faith be bought, \n But now she thinks -- and this the thought: \n \n \"To die. O God! what breadth of doom \n Awaits me in the ghostly gloom \n That stretcheth out beyond the tomb? \n \n \"To die -- to die -- to go where I \n May meet with Arthur passing by? \n I cannot die -- I cannot die! \n \n \"I whisper to myself his name, \n I count the years, I count the shame, \n And feel the torture of the flame. \n \n \"I loved him not, yet well I know \n I took his life -- and deep and slow \n I wrought the wound, I dealt the blow. \n \n \"I know not where his body lies -- \n I dare not meet his clear, large eyes, \n Bright with the light of Paradise. \n \n \"Why, they would cut me thro' and thro' \n Like yonder star, that from the blue \n Dissevers this clear drop of dew. \n \n \"O Christ! a little time, I pray, \n Yet let me live -- perchance some day \n I may not fear to tread the way. \n \n \"Cease, cease, vain prayer -- I am grown old. \n The thin white hair that once was gold, \n The sunken cheeks, half-gray, half-cold, \n \n \"The shrivelled breast, the sightless eye, \n All wan and worn -- they mutely cry, -- \n ''Tis time to die! 'tis time to die!' \n \n \"O, I am old and changed! and what \n If I should meet with Launcelot \n And he should pass and know me not? \n \n \"Methinks my heart would throb and swell \n Until it broke again -- ah well, \n 'Twould make of heaven a twofold hell. \n \n \"To think that we two souls had met \n And he passed, with quiet face set \n Away from me, so old -- and yet \n \n \"It was not love for him I felt; \n No love in me hath ever dwelt \n Save love of self. Why, I have knelt \n \n \"And prayed to God for grace for me , \n Have moaned and prayed for strength to see \n Some hope in gray eternity. \n \n \"And in my prayer no name has mixt \n With mine, lest it should come betwixt \n My thoughts and God's, and leave unfixt \n \n \"The grace for which I prayed; and now \n The death-damp gathers on my brow, \n But to God's will I cannot bow. \n \n \"O, I would live! I dread this death, \n This sudden sinking of the breath, \n With all the mystery beneath; \n \n \"With all the fear beyond the pain, \n With all the mist beyond the rain -- \n O God! O Christ! I would remain!\" \n \n She lieth dead -- the church-bells toll -- \n Fair Father Christ, receive her soul \n And make the broken image whole. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Next: The Egyptian Maid or the Romance of the Water-Lily, by William Wordsworth [1835]","title":"Arthurian Miscellany: The Death of Guinevere, by John Grosvenor Wilson [1886]","type":"page"}