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You are to starve yourself with your delusion
Of Tristram coming back. He may come back,
Or Mark, his uncle, who tonight is making
Another Isolt his queen—the dark Isolt,
Isolt of Ireland—may be coming back,
Though I’d as lief he would remain at home
In Cornwall, with his new queen—if he keeps her.”
Of Tristram coming back. He may come back,
Or Mark, his uncle, who tonight is making
Another Isolt his queen—the dark Isolt,
Isolt of Ireland—may be coming back,
Though I’d as lief he would remain at home
In Cornwall, with his new queen—if he keeps her.”
“And who is this far-off Isolt of Ireland?”
She said, like a thing waiting to be hurt:
“A creature that one hears of constantly,
And one that no man sees, or none to say so,
Must be unusual—if she be at all.”
She said, like a thing waiting to be hurt:
“A creature that one hears of constantly,
And one that no man sees, or none to say so,
Must be unusual—if she be at all.”
“The few men who have told of her to me
Have told of silence and of Irish pride,
Inhabiting too much beauty for one woman.
My eyes have never seen her; and as for beauty,
My eyes would rather look on yours, my child.
And as for Tristram coming back, what then—
One of these days? Any one may come back.
King Arthur may come back; and as for that,
Our Lord and Saviour may come back some time,
Have told of silence and of Irish pride,
Inhabiting too much beauty for one woman.
My eyes have never seen her; and as for beauty,
My eyes would rather look on yours, my child.
And as for Tristram coming back, what then—
One of these days? Any one may come back.
King Arthur may come back; and as for that,
Our Lord and Saviour may come back some time,
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