II. The crows flapped over by twos and threes, In the pool drowsed the cattle up to their knees, The little birds sang as if it were The one day of summer in all the year, And the very leaves seemed to sing on the trees: The castle alone in the landscape lay Like an outpost of winter, dull and gray; 'T was the proudest hall in the North Countree, And never its gates might opened be, Summer besieged it on every side, But the churlish stone her assaults defied; Though round it for leagues her pavilions tall Stretched left and right, Over the hills and out of sight; III. The drawbridge dropped with a surly clang, In his gilded mail, that flamed so bright It seemed the dark castle had gathered all Sir Launfal flashed forth in his unscarred mail, IV. It was morning on hill and stream and tree, And morning in the young knight's heart; Only the castle moodily Rebuffed the gifts of the sunshine free, And gloomed by itself apart; 2* The season brimmed all other things up Full as the rain fills the pitcher-plant's cup. V. As Sir Launfal made morn through the darksome gate, He was ware of a leper, crouched by the same, Who begged with his hand and moaned as he sate; And a loathing over Sir Launfal came, The sunshine went out of his soul with a thrill, The flesh 'neath his armor did shrink and crawl, And midway its leap his heart stood still Like a frozen waterfall; For this man, so foul and bent of stature, Rasped harshly against his dainty nature, And seemed the one blot on the summer morn, – VI. The leper raised not the gold from the dust: "Better to me the poor man's crust, Better the blessing of the poor, Though I turn me empty from his door; That is no true alms which the hand can hold; He gives nothing but worthless gold Who gives from a sense of duty; That thread of the all-sustaining Beauty The hand cannot clasp the whole of his alms, For a god goes with it and makes it store To the soul that was starving in darkness before." |