pouring out one glorious song that should be the gospel of Reform,
full of consolation and strength to the oppressed, yet falling gently
and restoringly as dew on the withered youth-flowers of the oppressor.
That way my madness lies, if any." This passionate yearning for reform
is embodied poetically in the _Vision_. In a broad sense, therefore,
the poem is an expression of ideal democracy, in which equality,
sympathy, and a sense of the common brotherhood of man are the basis
of all ethical actions and standards. It is the Christ-like conception
of human society that is always so alluring in the poetry and so
discouraging in the prose of life.

The following explanation appeared in the early editions of the poem
as an introductory note:

"According to the mythology of the Romancers, the San Greal,
or Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus Christ partook
of the last supper with his disciples. It was brought into
England by Joseph of Arimathea, and remained there, an
object of pilgrimage and adoration, for many years in the
keeping of his lineal descendants. It was incumbent upon
those who had charge of it to be chaste in thought, word,
and deed; but, one of the keepers having broken this
condition, the Holy Grail disappeared. From that time it was
a favorite enterprise of the Knights of Arthur's court to go
in search of it. Sir Galahad was at last successful in
finding it, as may be read in the seventeenth book of the
Romance of King Arthur. Tennyson has made Sir Galahad the
subject of one of the most exquisite of his poems.

"The plot (if I may give that name to anything so slight) of