The Lay of Princess Lune (VII and VIII)
THE MERCY (lines 389 - 414) and THE PHANTASY (415 - 458).
This is the final instalment of the lay; here are the others, in case you missed one:
(you are here)
PREVIOUSLY …
For as they fell, the knight did fight; He stabbed the beast with all his might, And once they struck the stone below, No motion did their bodies show.
AUDIO FOR THIS INSTALMENT:
VII. THE MERCY
Then slowly the enchantment broke, And one by one, the people spoke Of all they should at once rebuild Now that the monster had been stilled, But first they freed the princess fair, And then descended to the pair Who lay upon the stony ground; Their bodies, broken there, were found. The bishop said they should, with haste, On monster's neck, a sickle place, And dig an unmarked grave for him To languish in his coffin, grim. Once done, the clouds began to part As, weeping, the princess lost heart. She lay upon the knight in swoon And to his lips, she pressed her wound; Then suddenly, she felt repaired, And rising up in joy, she stared. For as the sun began to rise, The knight breathed in and opened eyes. The bite upon her pallid throat, Had bled and kept the knight afloat, As with her love, it was bestowed, It healed both wound and knight hallowed. The mercy that the Lord gave them Across the kingdom warmly wend From the wedding which took place That very morning, by His grace. The knight was crowned to trumpet-sounds And all the people gathered 'round To see the dawn of a new age; Of sun and moon without a cage. The kingdom flourished for a year, And then abruptly ended.
VIII. THE PHANTASY
There was some truth in what he said,
That monster underground, abed.
Long had the kingdom been awake,
A sleepless and immortal state;
Its rest was by far overdue;
The bishop knew that this was true;
So all at once, it came undone,
The rightful end for everyone.
A quiet wind blew through her land,
A thousand years since she did stand;
Then wandered I, in phantasy,
A troubled soul in vision free.
I lingered long beside the bricks
Unmarked by word or crucifix;
In vision I had known this place,
And hours digging, I had faced.
Why did I pry that coffin up
From many feet beneath the crust?
In phantasy, I had set eyes
On purest beauty, pale and wise,
And more than any wish before,
I longed to see her life restored.
In desperate dreaming, I devised
To free a long-dead king of lies.
For surely that most agéd beast,
Who had the books of magic creased,
Would know of a most ancient way
To bring the princess back -- I prayed.
No, not for mercy, not for good
And not for wisdom, as I should ...
I prayed but for this one desire;
I prayed for all consuming fire.
For fire of the moon, I prayed;
Then in the dark did not delay
To pull the lid from agéd hearce
And lift the sickle ere it pierced
The monster, quiet, waiting there
A thousand years with restless stare;
Its blood-red eyes then met my own,
And I fell down and longed for home.
For like an ancient spell, intoned,
I knew this dream was not my own;
This phantasy, the beast had sown --
A way to bring him back, he'd known.
Great conclusion to the story! I like how you tie it up with a bow ... and then the bow comes willfully undone, starts running away, and trips into an open grave.
Loved this, Peter! Heck I would even like to see more of the story, even in an adjacent kind of way with different characters, or with the same folks in different circumstances.