And interweaving worlds of melody;
In other worlds I loved you, long ago,—
The angelic citoles fainted o'er the sea;
And seraph citerns answered, sweet and low,
From where the sunset and the moonrise blend,—
In other worlds I loved you, long ago;
Love that hath no beginning hath no end;
O Love, Love, Love, the bitter City of Pain
Bidding the golden echoes westward wend,
Chimed in accordant undertone again:
Though every grey old tower rose like a tomb
To mock the glory of the shoreless main
They could but strike such discords as illume
The music with strange gleams of utter light
And hallow all the valley's rosy gloom.
And there, though greyly sinking out of sight
Before the wonders of the sky and sea,
Back through the valley, back into the night,
While mystery melted into mystery,
The City still rebuffed the far sweet West
That dimmed her sorrows with infinity;
Yet sometimes yearning o'er the sea's bright breast
To that remote Avilion would she gaze
Where all lost loves and weary warriors rest.
Then she remembered, through that golden haze,
(Oh faint as flowers the rose-white waves resound)
Her Arthur whom she loved in the dead days,
And how he sailed to heal him of his wound,
And how he lives and reigns eternally
Where now that unknown love is throned and crowned