[Illustration: "CROSSING THE BAR."
"TWILIGHT AND EVENING BELL, AND AFTER THAT THE DARK"
"AND MAY THERE BE NO SADNESS OF FAREWELL, WHEN I EMBARK."--TENNYSON.]

Impassioned purity, high minister
Of spirit's joys, was his, reserved, restrained.
His song was like the sword Excalibur
Of his symbolic knight; trenchant, unstained.
It shook the world of wordly baseness, smote
The Christless heathendom of huckstering days.
There is no harshness in that mellow note,
No blot upon those bays;
For loyal love and knightly valour rang
Through rich immortal music when he sang.

ARTHUR, his friend, the Modern Gentleman,
ARTHUR, the hero, his ideal Knight,
Inspired his strains. From fount to flood they ran
A flawless course of melody and light.
A Christian chivalry shone in his song
From Locksley Hall to shadowy Lyonnesse,
Whence there stand forth two figures, stately, strong,
Symbols of spirit's stress;
The blameless King, saintship with scarce a blot,
And song's most noble sinner, LANCELOT.

Lover of England, lord of English hearts,
Master of English speech, painter supreme
Of English landscape! Patriot passion starts
A-flame, pricked by the words that glow and gleam