Subscribe: by Email | in Reader

Hic Jacet Arthurus Rex Quondam Rexque Futurus -- Francis Brett Young

Guest poem sent in by Mike Lynd
(Poem #1440) Hic Jacet Arthurus Rex Quondam Rexque Futurus
 Arthur is gone . . . Tristram in Careol
 Sleeps, with a broken sword - and Yseult sleeps
 Beside him, where the Westering waters roll
 Over drowned Lyonesse to the outer deeps.

 Lancelot is fallen . . . The ardent helms that shone
 So knightly and the splintered lances rust
 In the anonymous mould of Avalon:
 Gawain and Gareth and Galahad - all are dust.

 Where do the vanes and towers of Camelot
 And tall Tintagel crumble? Where do those tragic
 Lovers and their bright eyed ladies rot?
 We cannot tell, for lost is Merlin's magic.

 And Guinevere - Call her not back again
 Lest she betray the loveliness time lent
 A name that blends the rapture and the pain
 Linked in the lonely nightingale's lament.

 Nor pry too deeply, lest you should discover
 The bower of Astolat a smokey hut
 Of mud and wattle - find the knightliest lover
 A braggart, and his lilymaid a slut.

 And all that coloured tale a tapestry
 Woven by poets. As the spider's skeins
 Are spun of its own substance, so have they
 Embroidered empty legend - What remains?

 This: That when Rome fell, like a writhen oak
 That age had sapped and cankered at the root,
 Resistant, from her topmost bough there broke
 The miracle of one unwithering shoot.

 Which was the spirit of Britain - that certain men
 Uncouth, untutored, of our island brood
 Loved freedom better than their lives; and when
 The tempest crashed around them, rose and stood

 And charged into the storm's black heart, with sword
 Lifted, or lance in rest, and rode there, helmed
 With a strange majesty that the heathen horde
 Remembered when all were overwhelmed;

 And made of them a legend, to their chief,
 Arthur, Ambrosius - no man knows his name -
 Granting a gallantry beyond belief,
 And to his knights imperishable fame.

 They were so few . . . We know not in what manner
 Or where they fell - whether they went
 Riding into the dark under Christ's banner
 Or died beneath the blood-red dragon of Gwent.

 But this we know; that when the Saxon rout
 Swept over them, the sun no longer shone
 On Britain, and the last lights flickered out;
 And men in darkness muttered: Arthur is gone . . .
-- Francis Brett Young
Note: The Latin reads: "Here Lies Arthur, the Once and Future King"

This poem by Francis Brett Young makes the hair on the back of my neck stand
on end!  It offers a different perspective on the King Arthur legend,
showing us that even if the courtly stories of Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur
are merely romantic nonsense there may be sufficient importance in the
underlying historical truth for the legend still to be worth knowing and
remembering.

Francis Brett Young was born in 1884 and died in 1954.  He was a novelist,
short-story writer and poet, and was born in born in Halesowen,
Worcestershire, England. His father was a doctor and his mother also came
from a medical family so it was natural that Francis trained at Birmingham
University to become a physician. He started a practice at Brixham, Devon,
in 1907 and married the following year. His wife was a singer and he
accompanied her as well as setting poems to music for her. During the First
World War he saw service in Africa in the Medical Corps but was invalided
out in 1918, no longer able to practise medicine.  The couple went to live
in Capri until 1929 but travelled widely, including trips to South Africa,
the United States and summers in the Lake District of England.  They
returned to live in England from 1932 and settled at Craycombe House,
Fladbury, Worcestershire. At the end of the Second World War he moved to
South Africa, dying in Cape Town in 1954. His ashes were returned to England
and are in Worcester Cathedral.

Further details to be found at:

http://www.fbysociety.co.uk/

and at:

http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/young.htm

Best wishes,
Mike Lynd

16 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

Tamsin Bacchus said...

I was all set to send this in as a guest submission but then found you have beaten me to it! So have my comment anyway:

I've loved this poem from the moment I first came across it in my early teens - to the extent of actually writing it out into the personal anthology I was creating in an old exercise book. It is quoted in full at the beginning of Rosemary Sutcliffe's Sword and Sunset (her writing of the Arthurian legend firmly in post Roman British history) - a book like Lord of the Flies, so good that everyone should read it but so laden with impending doom one cannot bear to read it more than once. Later on I found where the poem comes from - it was written in the face of another overwhelming defeat, being first published in 1944....

John Jarratt said...

A poem I have loved for l these many years having come across it in
Wavell's 'Other Men's Flowers' just after WW2. You have it quite
right in saying that it brings up the hairs on your neck.
My only comment is that I am sure the word 'muttered' in the last
line should be 'murmured'. (much more poetic too!).
J Jarratt

Jack Johnson said...

I first read this in F.B.Young's 'The Island', a history of Britain in poetic prose. After a second reading, I had committed it to mind.
The title, in Latin, is an inscription on a tombstone in Glastonbury Abbey. Nearby is Wearyall Hill, to which Joseph of Arimathea brought the infant Jesus :
'And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?'
Evocative myths, but truly hair-raising.

Ideas de negocios said...

Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, but I am firmly convinced of this and love to learn more about the subject. If possible, acquire knowledge, would you update your blog with more information? It is very helpful to me

denbagus said...

thank's
Obat Penyakit Ambeien di Apotik
Merk Obat Penyakit Ambeien di Apotik
Berapa Harga Obat Penyakit Ambeien di Apotik?
Obat Alternatif Penyakit Ambeien di Apotik
Obat Ampuh Mengatasi Penyakit Ambeien di Apotik
Obat Ambeien Berdarah di Apotik
Obat Manjur Mengobati Ambeien Berdarah di Apotik
Obat Untuk Menyembuhkan Ambeien Berdarah di Apotik
Nama Obat Ambeien Berdarah di Apotik
Obat Sakit Ambeien Berdarah di Apotik
Obat Ambeien Alami di Apotik
Obat Hemoroid Ambeien Alami di Apotik
Pusat Obat Ambeien Alami di Apotik
Obat Ambeien Alami Aman Bagi Ibu Hamil di Apotik
Obat Penyakit Ambeien Alami di Apotik
Mengobati Kelamin Bernanah
Mengobati Kelamin Lelaki Yang Bernanah
Mengobati Kelamin Bernanah Dengan Obat Denature
Cara Untuk Mengobati Kelamin Bernanah
Mengobati Alat Kelamin Bernanah
Cara Mengobati Kelamin Bernanah
Cara Mengobati Kelamin Perih Bernanah
Cara Mengobati Kelamin Sakit dan Bernanah
Cara Mudah Mengobati Kelamin Bernanah
Cara Alami Mengobati Kelamin Bernanah
Mengobati Kelamin Pria Bernanah
Mengobati Kelamin Pria Bernanah Tanpa ke Dokter
Ramuan Untuk Mengobati Kelamin Pria Bernanah
Mengobati Kelamin Pria Bengkak dan Bernanah
Mengobati Ujung Kelamin Pria Bernanah
Mengobati Kelamin Wanita Bernanah
Cara Cepat Mengobati Kelamin Wanita Bernanah
Mengobati Kelamin Wanita Ngilu Bernanah
Tips Ampuh Mengobati Kelamin Wanita Bernanah
Mengobati Kelamin Wanita Bernanah Secara Herbal
Mengobati Penyakit Kelamin Bernanah
Resep Tradisional Mengobati Penyakit Kelamin Bernanah
Solusi Untuk Mengobati Penyakit Kelamin Bernanah
Mengobati Penyakit Kelamin Permpuan Bernanah
Mengobati Penyakit Kelamin Bernanah atau Gonore

Post a Comment