Part 3.
SHE bore her burden all that day
Half-faint; the unconverted clay
O miserie!
A burden grew, beneath the sun,
In many a manner more than one.
O miserie!
Half-faint the whitening road along
She bore it, singing (in her song)—
O miserie!
"The locks you loved, Gauwaine, Gauwaine,
Will never know the comb again! . . .
The man you slew, Gauwaine, Gauwaine,
Will never come to life again!
So when they do, Gauwaine, Gauwaine,
Then take me back to town again!" . . .
The shepherds gazed, but marvelled not;
They knew the ways of Camelot!
O miserie!
She heeded neither man nor beast:
Her shadow lengthened toward the east.
O miserie!
A little castle she drew nigh,
With seven towers twelve inches high. . . .
O miserie!
A baby castle, all a-flame
With many a flower that hath no name.
O miserie!
It had a little moat all round:
A little drawbridge too she found,
O miserie!
On which there stood a stately maid,
Like her in radiant locks arrayed . . .
O miserie!
Save that her locks grew rank and wild,
By weaver's shuttle undefiled! . . .
O miserie!
Who held her brush and comb, as if
Her faltering hands had waxèd stiff
O miserie!
With baulkt endeavour! whence she sung
A chant, the burden whereof rung:
O miserie!
"These hands have striven in vain
To part
These locks that won Gauwaine
His heart!"
All breathless, Braunighrindas stopt
To listen, and her load she dropt,
O miserie!
And rolled in wonder wild and blear
The whites of her eyes grown green with fear:
O miserie!
—"What is your name, young person, pray?"
—"Knights call me Fidele-strynges-le-Fay."
O miserie!
—"You wear a wedding-ring, I see!"
—"I do . . . Gauwaine he gave it me" . . .
O miserie!
—"Are you Gauwaine his wedded spouse?
Is this Gauwaine his . . . country-house?"
O miserie!
—"I am . . . it is . . . we are . . . oh who,
That you should greet me thus, are you?"
O miserie!
—"I am ANOTHER! . . . since the morn
The fourth month of the year was born!" . . .
O miserie!
—"What! that which followed when the last
Bleak night of bitter March had past?" . . .
O miserie!
—"The same."—"That day for both hath done!
And you, and he, and I, are ONE!" . . .
O miserie!
Then hand in hand, most woefully,
They went, the willows weeping nigh;
O miserie!
Left hand in left was left to cling!
On each a silver wedding-ring.
O miserie!
And having walkt a little space,
They halted, each one in her place:
O miserie!
And chanted loud a wondrous plaint
Well chosen: wild, one-noted, quaint:
O miserie!
"Heigho! the Wind and the Rain!
The Moon's at the Full, Gauwaine, Gauwaine
Heigho! the Wind and the Rain
On gold-hair woven, and gold-hair plain!
Heigho! the Wind and the Rain!
Oh when shall we Three meet again!"
Atween the river and the wood,
Knee-deep 'mid whispering reeds they stood:
O miserie!
The green earth oozing soft and dank
Beneath them, soakt and suckt and sank! . . .
O miserie!
Yet soak-and-suck-and-sink or not,
They, chanting, craned towards Camelot. . . .
O miserie!
6
