Near Avalon
by William Morris
A ship with shields before the sun,
Six maidens round the mast,
A red gold-crown on every one,
A green gown on the last.
The fluttering green banners there
Are wrought with ladies' heads most fair,
And a portraiture of Guenevere
The middle of each sail doth bear.
A ship with sails before the wind,
And round the helm six knights,
Their heaumes are on, whereby half blind,
They pass by many sights.
The tattered scarlet banners there,
Right soon will leave the spear-heads bare.
Those six knights sorrowfully bear
In all their heaumes some yellow hair.
Morris is considered by some to be the Father of Modern
Fantasy. His "The Well at the World's End" was one of
the first medieval fantasies and of course he was the
founder of the whole Morris School of art and furniture.
I've got "Well" around here someplace in my Hobbit Hole
and one of these days I might reread it. It's been quite
some time since the first time I did, which was when I
bought the book oh...well..much too long ago.
Got to love the Internet and being able to use modern
technology to look up a poem by a 19th century poet
on a legend from the 5th century.
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