Page:Tristram of Lyonesse and other poems (IA tristramoflyonesswinrich).pdf/173

 Hearing; and all his brother bade he swore Surely to do, and straight fare forth from shore. But the white-handed Iseult hearkening heard All, and her heart waxed hot, and every word Thereon seemed graven and printed in her thought As lines with fire and molten iron wrought. And hard within her heavy heart she cursed Both, and her life was turned to fiery thirst, And all her soul was hunger, and its breath Of hope and life a blast of raging death. For only in hope of evil was her life. So bitter burned within the unchilded wife A virgin lust for vengeance, and such hate Wrought in her now the fervent work of fate. Then with a south-west wind the Swan set forth, And over wintering waters bore to north, And round the wild land's windy westward end Up the blown channel bade her bright way bend East on toward high Tintagel: where at dark Landing, fair welcome found they of King Mark, And Ganhardine with Brangwain as of old Spake, and she took the cup of chiselled gold Wherein lay secret Tristram's trothplight ring, And bare it unbeholden of the king Even to her lady's hand, which hardly took A gift whereon a queen's eyes well might look, With grace forlorn of weary gentleness. But, seeing, her life leapt in her, keen to guess The secret of the symbol: and her face Flashed bright with blood whence all its grief-worn grace