Page:Tristram of Lyonesse and other poems (IA tristramoflyonesswinrich).pdf/97

 So Tristram one brief breathing-space apart Hung, and gazed down; then with exulting heart Plunged: and the fleet foam round a joyous head Flashed, that shot under, and ere a shaft had sped Rose again radiant, a rejoicing star, And high along the water-ways afar Triumphed: and all they deemed he needs must die; But Gouvernayle his squire, that watched hard by, Sought where perchance a man might win ashore, Striving, with strong limbs labouring long and sore, And there abode an hour: till as from fight Crowned with hard conquest won by mastering might, Hardly, but happier for the imperious toil, Swam the knight in forth of the close waves’ coil, Sea-satiate, bruised with buffets of the brine, Laughing, and flushed as one afire with wine: All this came hard upon him in a breath; And how he marvelled in his heart that death Should be no bitterer than it seemed to be There, in the strenuous impulse of the sea Borne as to battle deathward: and at last How all his after seasons overpast Had brought him darkling to this dark sweet hour, Where his foot faltered nigh the bridal bower. And harder seemed the passage now to pass, Though smoother-seeming than the still sea’s glass, More fit for very manhood’s heart to fear, Than all straits past of peril. Hardly here Might aught of all things hearten him save one, Faith: and as men’s eyes quail before the sun