If thou shouldst never see my face again, Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice

Reference: These lines are taken from Morte d’Arthur by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Explanation: ‘Morte d’Arthur’ describes the death of the great British king, Arthur, and Bedivere’s depositing of Arthur’s sword, Excalibur, in the lake from which Arthur first acquired it. Bedivere tends to the dying king, who hands his knight the sword and tells him to go and throw it in the lake. Bedivere goes to the lake but finds he cannot bear to throw away such a mighty sword, so he hides it and returns to his king. Arthur can tell Bedivere has disobeyed him, so off Bedivere goes again, but once again he cannot bring himself to fling Excalibur into the water. When he returns to Arthur again, the king can tell that Bedivere has disobeyed him and commands him to go back. Bedivere succeeds on the third attempt, and once he has thrown the sword into the lake, a hand, clothed in white samite, rises from the water and grabs the sword, brandishing it three times before disappearing with it under the 5 water. When Bedivere returns to the dying king, Arthur can tell from Bedivere’s shock that the knight has thrown the sword back, and Arthur prepares to die. A barge arrives to carry him off to his final resting-place, and Arthur is placed on board, where he is tended by three queens. The barge sails off to the isle of Avilion (Avalon).

      Tennyson is trying to summon the magic and myth of the Arthurian story, but it is revealing that he chose to focus on the death of Arthur at the beginning of his own poetic career. Did he do this because of the death of his Arthur, Hallam? Tennyson appears to have felt, at this time in the mid-1830s immediately following Hallam’s death, that life had lost its meaning and purpose and that, to coin a phrase, the world, and Tennyson, would ‘never see his like again’. Here it’s worth noting that Arthur’s first words to Bedivere in the poem express his certainty and his doubt: his certainty that the age of the Round Table, a golden age, has passed, and his doubt that he will ever live again.

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