BRIDAL INVOCATION
| Jesu, from
to-day Guide us on our way, So shall we, no moment wasting, Follow Thee with holy hasting, Led by Thy dear Hand To the Blessed land. Through despondence dread, Still support our tread; Though our heavy burdens bow us, How to bear them bravely, show us! Such adversity Is but the path to Thee. When our bosom's grief Clamours for relief, When we share another's sorrow, May we Thy sweet patience borrow, That to our Heavenly Father's Will We may trust each issue still. Thus our onward way, Order day by day, Though upon rough roads Thou set us, Thy fond care shall ne'er forget us, Till "underneath Death's darkening door; We see the glimmering of Heaven's floor." |
THE COMING OF SIR GALAHAD AND A VISION OF THE GRAIL
| At the solemn
Feast of Pentecost Arthur the King and his chosen
Knights Sat, as we sit, in the Court of Camelot side by side at The Table Round. None made music, none held converse, none knew hunger, none were athirst, Each possessed with the same strange longing, each fulfilled with one awful hope; Each of us fearing even to whisper what he felt to his bosom friend, Lest the spell should be snapped in sunder. Thus we sat awaiting a sign! When, on a sudden, out of the distance blared the bugle that hangs at the gate; Loud the barbican leaped on its hinges; and the hollow porch and the vacant hall And the roof of the long resounding corridor echoed the advent of unknown feet, The feet of a stranger approaching the threshold step by step irresistibly: Till opened yonder door and through it strode to this Table the Virgin Knight— Strode and stood with uplifted vizor. Fear fell on all, save only the King! Uprose Arthur, unbarred his helmet; shone confessed the countenance chaste. Then, for so the Spirit inspired him, set the youth on the Perilous Seat; Brake as he pressed it a Peal of thunder and paled the firelight, paled the lamps, Such a sudden stream of splendour flooded the Feast with miraculous light; [175] Whilst, O Wonder! round the Table swathed in samite, dazzling bright, Passed the Presence, mystical, shadowy, ghostly gliding—the Holy Grail, Passed, though none could its shape discover, nay, not even the Virgin Knight, Passed, passed with strains seraphic, incense odours, rainbow hues— Passed, passed, and where it entered, suddenly melted out of sight. |