Heard a carol, mournful, holy, Under tower and balcony, Out upon the wharfs they came, And round the prow they read her name, Who is this? and what is here, And they crossed themselves for fear, All the knights at Camelot: But Lancelot mused a little space; He said, "She has a lovely face; The Lady of Shalott." ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON. Romance and Reality Romance The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire and Reality The old mayor climbed the belfry tower, The ringers ran by two, by three; "Pull, if ye never pulled before; 66 66 Good ringers, pull your best," quoth he. Play uppe Men say it was a stolen tyde The Lord that sent it, He knows all; The message that the bells let fall: By millions crouched on the old sea wall. I sat and spun within the doore, My thread brake off, I raised myne eyes; Lay sinking in the barren skies; "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling, Ere the early dews were falling, Where the reedy Lindis floweth, Floweth, floweth, From the meads where melick groweth "Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!" calling, Quit your cowslips, cowslips yellow; Come uppe Whitefoot, come uppe Lightfoot, Come uppe Jetty, rise and follow, From the clovers lift your head; Come uppe Whitefoot, come uppe Lightfoot, If it be long, aye, long ago, When I beginne to think howe long, Againe I hear the Lindis flow, Swift as an arrowe, sharpe and strong; And all the aire it seemeth mee Bin full of floating bells (sayth shee), Alle fresh the level pasture lay, And not a shadowe mote be seene, Save where full fyve good miles away Romance and Reality Romance and Reality The steeple towered from out the greene; The swannerds where their sedges are Then some looked uppe into the sky, To where the goodly vessels lie, And where the lordly steeple shows. 66 They sayde, " And why should this thing be, They ring the tune of Enderby! "For evil news from Mablethorpe, Of pyrate galleys warping down; They have not spared to wake the towne: And storms be none, and pyrates flee, 6 Why ring The Brides of Enderby "?" I looked without, and lo! my sonne Came riding downe with might and main: He raised a shout as he drew on, Till all the welkin rang again, "Elizabeth! Elizabeth!" (A sweeter woman ne'er drew breath Than my sonne's wife, Elizabeth.) "The olde sea wall (he cried) is downe, The rising tide comes on apace, And boats adrift in yonder towne Go sailing uppe the market-place." He shook as one that looks on death: 99 "Good sonne, where Lindis winds away With that he cried and beat his breast; And uppe the Lindis raging sped. Romance and Reality |