Guinevere by Alfred Tennyson (Poem, Summary, Paraphrase & Analysis)

 

Guinevere

by Alfred Tennyson

(Poem, Summary, Paraphrase & Analysis) 

Guinevere

Queen Guinevere had fled the court, and sat

There in the holy house at Almesbury

Weeping, none with her save a little maid,

A novice: one low light betwixt them burned

Blurred by the creeping mist, for all abroad,

Beneath a moon unseen albeit at full,

The white mist, like a face-cloth to the face,

Clung to the dead earth, and the land was still.

 

For hither had she fled, her cause of flight

Sir Modred; he that like a subtle beast

Lay couchant with his eyes upon the throne,

Ready to spring, waiting a chance: for this

He chilled the popular praises of the King

With silent smiles of slow disparagement;

And tampered with the Lords of the White Horse,

Heathen, the brood by Hengist left; and sought

To make disruption in the Table Round

Of Arthur, and to splinter it into feuds

Serving his traitorous end; and all his aims

Were sharpened by strong hate for Lancelot.

 

For thus it chanced one morn when all the court,

Green-suited, but with plumes that mocked the may,

Had been, their wont, a-maying and returned,

That Modred still in green, all ear and eye,

Climbed to the high top of the garden-wall

To spy some secret scandal if he might,

And saw the Queen who sat betwixt her best

Enid, and lissome Vivien, of her court

The wiliest and the worst; and more than this

He saw not, for Sir Lancelot passing by

Spied where he couched, and as the gardener’s hand

Picks from the colewort a green caterpillar,

So from the high wall and the flowering grove

Of grasses Lancelot plucked him by the heel,

And cast him as a worm upon the way;

But when he knew the Prince though marred with dust,

He, reverencing king’s blood in a bad man,

Made such excuses as he might, and these

Full knightly without scorn; for in those days

No knight of Arthur’s noblest dealt in scorn;

But, if a man were halt or hunched, in him

By those whom God had made full-limbed and tall,

Scorn was allowed as part of his defect,

And he was answered softly by the King

And all his Table. So Sir Lancelot holp

To raise the Prince, who rising twice or thrice

Full sharply smote his knees, and smiled, and went:

But, ever after, the small violence done

Rankled in him and ruffled all his heart,

As the sharp wind that ruffles all day long

A little bitter pool about a stone

On the bare coast.

 

But when Sir Lancelot told

This matter to the Queen, at first she laughed

Lightly, to think of Modred’s dusty fall,

Then shuddered, as the village wife who cries

`I shudder, some one steps across my grave;’

Then laughed again, but faintlier, for indeed

She half-foresaw that he, the subtle beast,

Would track her guilt until he found, and hers

Would be for evermore a name of scorn.

Henceforward rarely could she front in hall,

Or elsewhere, Modred’s narrow foxy face,

Heart-hiding smile, and gray persistent eye:

Henceforward too, the Powers that tend the soul,

To help it from the death that cannot die,

And save it even in extremes, began

To vex and plague her. Many a time for hours,

Beside the placid breathings of the King,

In the dead night, grim faces came and went

Before her, or a vague spiritual fear--

Like to some doubtful noise of creaking doors,

Heard by the watcher in a haunted house,

That keeps the rust of murder on the walls--

Held her awake: or if she slept, she dreamed

An awful dream; for then she seemed to stand

On some vast plain before a setting sun,

And from the sun there swiftly made at her

A ghastly something, and its shadow flew

Before it, till it touched her, and she turned--

When lo! her own, that broadening from her feet,

And blackening, swallowed all the land, and in it

Far cities burnt, and with a cry she woke.

And all this trouble did not pass but grew;

Till even the clear face of the guileless King,

And trustful courtesies of household life,

Became her bane; and at the last she said,

`O Lancelot, get thee hence to thine own land,

For if thou tarry we shall meet again,

And if we meet again, some evil chance

Will make the smouldering scandal break and blaze

Before the people, and our lord the King.’

And Lancelot ever promised, but remained,

And still they met and met. Again she said,

`O Lancelot, if thou love me get thee hence.’

And then they were agreed upon a night

(When the good King should not be there) to meet

And part for ever. Vivien, lurking, heard.

She told Sir Modred. Passion-pale they met

And greeted. Hands in hands, and eye to eye,

Low on the border of her couch they sat

Stammering and staring. It was their last hour,

A madness of farewells. And Modred brought

His creatures to the basement of the tower

For testimony; and crying with full voice

`Traitor, come out, ye are trapt at last,’ aroused

Lancelot, who rushing outward lionlike

Leapt on him, and hurled him headlong, and he fell

Stunned, and his creatures took and bare him off,

And all was still: then she, `The end is come,

And I am shamed for ever;’ and he said,

`Mine be the shame; mine was the sin: but rise,

And fly to my strong castle overseas:

There will I hide thee, till my life shall end,

There hold thee with my life against the world.’

She answered, `Lancelot, wilt thou hold me so?

Nay, friend, for we have taken our farewells.

Would God that thou couldst hide me from myself!

Mine is the shame, for I was wife, and thou

Unwedded: yet rise now, and let us fly,

For I will draw me into sanctuary,

And bide my doom.’ So Lancelot got her horse,

Set her thereon, and mounted on his own,

And then they rode to the divided way,

There kissed, and parted weeping: for he past,

Love-loyal to the least wish of the Queen,

Back to his land; but she to Almesbury

Fled all night long by glimmering waste and weald,

And heard the Spirits of the waste and weald

Moan as she fled, or thought she heard them moan:

And in herself she moaned `Too late, too late!’

Till in the cold wind that foreruns the morn,

A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high,

Croaked, and she thought, `He spies a field of death;

For now the Heathen of the Northern Sea,

Lured by the crimes and frailties of the court,

Begin to slay the folk, and spoil the land.’

 

And when she came to Almesbury she spake

There to the nuns, and said, `Mine enemies

Pursue me, but, O peaceful Sisterhood,

Receive, and yield me sanctuary, nor ask

Her name to whom ye yield it, till her time

To tell you:’ and her beauty, grace and power,

Wrought as a charm upon them, and they spared

To ask it.

 

So the stately Queen abode

For many a week, unknown, among the nuns;

Nor with them mixed, nor told her name, nor sought,

Wrapt in her grief, for housel or for shrift,

But communed only with the little maid,

Who pleased her with a babbling heedlessness

Which often lured her from herself; but now,

This night, a rumour wildly blown about

Came, that Sir Modred had usurped the realm,

And leagued him with the heathen, while the King

Was waging war on Lancelot: then she thought,

`With what a hate the people and the King

Must hate me,’ and bowed down upon her hands

Silent, until the little maid, who brooked

No silence, brake it, uttering, `Late! so late!

What hour, I wonder, now?’ and when she drew

No answer, by and by began to hum

An air the nuns had taught her; `Late, so late!’

Which when she heard, the Queen looked up, and said,

`O maiden, if indeed ye list to sing,

Sing, and unbind my heart that I may weep.’

Whereat full willingly sang the little maid.

 

`Late, late, so late! and dark the night and chill!

Late, late, so late! but we can enter still.

Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now.

 

`No light had we: for that we do repent;

And learning this, the bridegroom will relent.

Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now.

 

`No light: so late! and dark and chill the night!

O let us in, that we may find the light!

Too late, too late: ye cannot enter now.

 

`Have we not heard the bridegroom is so sweet?

O let us in, though late, to kiss his feet!

No, no, too late! ye cannot enter now.’

 

So sang the novice, while full passionately,

Her head upon her hands, remembering

Her thought when first she came, wept the sad Queen.

Then said the little novice prattling to her,

`O pray you, noble lady, weep no more;

But let my words, the words of one so small,

Who knowing nothing knows but to obey,

And if I do not there is penance given--

Comfort your sorrows; for they do not flow

From evil done; right sure am I of that,

Who see your tender grace and stateliness.

But weigh your sorrows with our lord the King’s,

And weighing find them less; for gone is he

To wage grim war against Sir Lancelot there,

Round that strong castle where he holds the Queen;

And Modred whom he left in charge of all,

The traitor--Ah sweet lady, the King’s grief

For his own self, and his own Queen, and realm,

Must needs be thrice as great as any of ours.

For me, I thank the saints, I am not great.

For if there ever come a grief to me

I cry my cry in silence, and have done.

None knows it, and my tears have brought me good:

But even were the griefs of little ones

As great as those of great ones, yet this grief

Is added to the griefs the great must bear,

That howsoever much they may desire

Silence, they cannot weep behind a cloud:

As even here they talk at Almesbury

About the good King and his wicked Queen,

And were I such a King with such a Queen,

Well might I wish to veil her wickedness,

But were I such a King, it could not be.’

 

Then to her own sad heart muttered the Queen,

`Will the child kill me with her innocent talk?’

But openly she answered, `Must not I,

If this false traitor have displaced his lord,

Grieve with the common grief of all the realm?’

 

`Yea,’ said the maid, `this is all woman’s grief,

That SHE is woman, whose disloyal life

Hath wrought confusion in the Table Round

Which good King Arthur founded, years ago,

With signs and miracles and wonders, there

At Camelot, ere the coming of the Queen.’

 

Then thought the Queen within herself again,

`Will the child kill me with her foolish prate?’

But openly she spake and said to her,

`O little maid, shut in by nunnery walls,

What canst thou know of Kings and Tables Round,

Or what of signs and wonders, but the signs

And simple miracles of thy nunnery?’

 

To whom the little novice garrulously,

`Yea, but I know: the land was full of signs

And wonders ere the coming of the Queen.

So said my father, and himself was knight

Of the great Table--at the founding of it;

And rode thereto from Lyonnesse, and he said

That as he rode, an hour or maybe twain

After the sunset, down the coast, he heard

Strange music, and he paused, and turning--there,

All down the lonely coast of Lyonnesse,

Each with a beacon-star upon his head,

And with a wild sea-light about his feet,

He saw them--headland after headland flame

Far on into the rich heart of the west:

And in the light the white mermaiden swam,

And strong man-breasted things stood from the sea,

And sent a deep sea-voice through all the land,

To which the little elves of chasm and cleft

Made answer, sounding like a distant horn.

So said my father--yea, and furthermore,

Next morning, while he past the dim-lit woods,

Himself beheld three spirits mad with joy

Come dashing down on a tall wayside flower,

That shook beneath them, as the thistle shakes

When three gray linnets wrangle for the seed:

And still at evenings on before his horse

The flickering fairy-circle wheeled and broke

Flying, and linked again, and wheeled and broke

Flying, for all the land was full of life.

And when at last he came to Camelot,

A wreath of airy dancers hand-in-hand

Swung round the lighted lantern of the hall;

And in the hall itself was such a feast

As never man had dreamed; for every knight

Had whatsoever meat he longed for served

By hands unseen; and even as he said

Down in the cellars merry bloated things

Shouldered the spigot, straddling on the butts

While the wine ran: so glad were spirits and men

Before the coming of the sinful Queen.’

 

Then spake the Queen and somewhat bitterly,

`Were they so glad? ill prophets were they all,

Spirits and men: could none of them foresee,

Not even thy wise father with his signs

And wonders, what has fallen upon the realm?’

 

To whom the novice garrulously again,

`Yea, one, a bard; of whom my father said,

Full many a noble war-song had he sung,

Even in the presence of an enemy’s fleet,

Between the steep cliff and the coming wave;

And many a mystic lay of life and death

Had chanted on the smoky mountain-tops,

When round him bent the spirits of the hills

With all their dewy hair blown back like flame:

So said my father--and that night the bard

Sang Arthur’s glorious wars, and sang the King

As wellnigh more than man, and railed at those

Who called him the false son of Gorlos:

For there was no man knew from whence he came;

But after tempest, when the long wave broke

All down the thundering shores of Bude and Bos,

There came a day as still as heaven, and then

They found a naked child upon the sands

Of dark Tintagil by the Cornish sea;

And that was Arthur; and they fostered him

Till he by miracle was approven King:

And that his grave should be a mystery

From all men, like his birth; and could he find

A woman in her womanhood as great

As he was in his manhood, then, he sang,

The twain together well might change the world.

But even in the middle of his song

He faltered, and his hand fell from the harp,

And pale he turned, and reeled, and would have fallen,

But that they stayed him up; nor would he tell

His vision; but what doubt that he foresaw

This evil work of Lancelot and the Queen?’

 

Then thought the Queen, `Lo! they have set her on,

Our simple-seeming Abbess and her nuns,

To play upon me,’ and bowed her head nor spake.

Whereat the novice crying, with clasped hands,

Shame on her own garrulity garrulously,

Said the good nuns would check her gadding tongue

Full often, `and, sweet lady, if I seem

To vex an ear too sad to listen to me,

Unmannerly, with prattling and the tales

Which my good father told me, check me too

Nor let me shame my father’s memory, one

Of noblest manners, though himself would say

Sir Lancelot had the noblest; and he died,

Killed in a tilt, come next, five summers back,

And left me; but of others who remain,

And of the two first-famed for courtesy--

And pray you check me if I ask amiss-

But pray you, which had noblest, while you moved

Among them, Lancelot or our lord the King?’

 

Then the pale Queen looked up and answered her,

`Sir Lancelot, as became a noble knight,

Was gracious to all ladies, and the same

In open battle or the tilting-field

Forbore his own advantage, and the King

In open battle or the tilting-field

Forbore his own advantage, and these two

Were the most nobly-mannered men of all;

For manners are not idle, but the fruit

Of loyal nature, and of noble mind.’

 

`Yea,’ said the maid, `be manners such fair fruit?’

Then Lancelot’s needs must be a thousand-fold

Less noble, being, as all rumour runs,

The most disloyal friend in all the world.’

 

To which a mournful answer made the Queen:

`O closed about by narrowing nunnery-walls,

What knowest thou of the world, and all its lights

And shadows, all the wealth and all the woe?

If ever Lancelot, that most noble knight,

Were for one hour less noble than himself,

Pray for him that he scape the doom of fire,

And weep for her that drew him to his doom.’

 

`Yea,’ said the little novice, `I pray for both;

But I should all as soon believe that his,

Sir Lancelot’s, were as noble as the King’s,

As I could think, sweet lady, yours would be

Such as they are, were you the sinful Queen.’

 

So she, like many another babbler, hurt

Whom she would soothe, and harmed where she would heal;

For here a sudden flush of wrathful heat

Fired all the pale face of the Queen, who cried,

`Such as thou art be never maiden more

For ever! thou their tool, set on to plague

And play upon, and harry me, petty spy

And traitress.’ When that storm of anger brake

From Guinevere, aghast the maiden rose,

White as her veil, and stood before the Queen

As tremulously as foam upon the beach

Stands in a wind, ready to break and fly,

And when the Queen had added `Get thee hence,’

Fled frighted. Then that other left alone

Sighed, and began to gather heart again,

Saying in herself, `The simple, fearful child

Meant nothing, but my own too-fearful guilt,

Simpler than any child, betrays itself.

But help me, heaven, for surely I repent.

For what is true repentance but in thought--

Not even in inmost thought to think again

The sins that made the past so pleasant to us:

And I have sworn never to see him more,

To see him more.’

 

And even in saying this,

Her memory from old habit of the mind

Went slipping back upon the golden days

In which she saw him first, when Lancelot came,

Reputed the best knight and goodliest man,

Ambassador, to lead her to his lord

Arthur, and led her forth, and far ahead

Of his and her retinue moving, they,

Rapt in sweet talk or lively, all on love

And sport and tilts and pleasure, (for the time

Was maytime, and as yet no sin was dreamed,)

Rode under groves that looked a paradise

Of blossom, over sheets of hyacinth

That seemed the heavens upbreaking through the earth,

And on from hill to hill, and every day

Beheld at noon in some delicious dale

The silk pavilions of King Arthur raised

For brief repast or afternoon repose

By couriers gone before; and on again,

Till yet once more ere set of sun they saw

The Dragon of the great Pendragonship,

That crowned the state pavilion of the King,

Blaze by the rushing brook or silent well.

 

But when the Queen immersed in such a trance,

And moving through the past unconsciously,

Came to that point where first she saw the King

Ride toward her from the city, sighed to find

Her journey done, glanced at him, thought him cold,

High, self-contained, and passionless, not like him,

`Not like my Lancelot’--while she brooded thus

And grew half-guilty in her thoughts again,

There rode an armd warrior to the doors.

A murmuring whisper through the nunnery ran,

Then on a sudden a cry, `The King.’ She sat

Stiff-stricken, listening; but when armd feet

Through the long gallery from the outer doors

Rang coming, prone from off her seat she fell,

And grovelled with her face against the floor:

There with her milkwhite arms and shadowy hair

She made her face a darkness from the King:

And in the darkness heard his armd feet

Pause by her; then came silence, then a voice,

Monotonous and hollow like a Ghost’s

Denouncing judgment, but though changed, the King’s:

 

`Liest thou here so low, the child of one

I honoured, happy, dead before thy shame?

Well is it that no child is born of thee.

The children born of thee are sword and fire,

Red ruin, and the breaking up of laws,

The craft of kindred and the Godless hosts

Of heathen swarming o’er the Northern Sea;

Whom I, while yet Sir Lancelot, my right arm,

The mightiest of my knights, abode with me,

Have everywhere about this land of Christ

In twelve great battles ruining overthrown.

And knowest thou now from whence I come--from him

From waging bitter war with him: and he,

That did not shun to smite me in worse way,

Had yet that grace of courtesy in him left,

He spared to lift his hand against the King

Who made him knight: but many a knight was slain;

And many more, and all his kith and kin

Clave to him, and abode in his own land.

And many more when Modred raised revolt,

Forgetful of their troth and fealty, clave

To Modred, and a remnant stays with me.

And of this remnant will I leave a part,

True men who love me still, for whom I live,

To guard thee in the wild hour coming on,

Lest but a hair of this low head be harmed.

Fear not: thou shalt be guarded till my death.

Howbeit I know, if ancient prophecies

Have erred not, that I march to meet my doom.

Thou hast not made my life so sweet to me,

That I the King should greatly care to live;

For thou hast spoilt the purpose of my life.

Bear with me for the last time while I show,

Even for thy sake, the sin which thou hast sinned.

For when the Roman left us, and their law

Relaxed its hold upon us, and the ways

Were filled with rapine, here and there a deed

Of prowess done redressed a random wrong.

But I was first of all the kings who drew

The knighthood-errant of this realm and all

The realms together under me, their Head,

In that fair Order of my Table Round,

A glorious company, the flower of men,

To serve as model for the mighty world,

And be the fair beginning of a time.

I made them lay their hands in mine and swear

To reverence the King, as if he were

Their conscience, and their conscience as their King,

To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,

To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,

To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,

To honour his own word as if his God’s,

To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,

To love one maiden only, cleave to her,

And worship her by years of noble deeds,

Until they won her; for indeed I knew

Of no more subtle master under heaven

Than is the maiden passion for a maid,

Not only to keep down the base in man,

But teach high thought, and amiable words

And courtliness, and the desire of fame,

And love of truth, and all that makes a man.

And all this throve before I wedded thee,

Believing, "lo mine helpmate, one to feel

My purpose and rejoicing in my joy."

Then came thy shameful sin with Lancelot;

Then came the sin of Tristram and Isolt;

Then others, following these my mightiest knights,

And drawing foul ensample from fair names,

Sinned also, till the loathsome opposite

Of all my heart had destined did obtain,

And all through thee! so that this life of mine

I guard as God’s high gift from scathe and wrong,

Not greatly care to lose; but rather think

How sad it were for Arthur, should he live,

To sit once more within his lonely hall,

And miss the wonted number of my knights,

And miss to hear high talk of noble deeds

As in the golden days before thy sin.

For which of us, who might be left, could speak

Of the pure heart, nor seem to glance at thee?

And in thy bowers of Camelot or of Usk

Thy shadow still would glide from room to room,

And I should evermore be vext with thee

In hanging robe or vacant ornament,

Or ghostly footfall echoing on the stair.

For think not, though thou wouldst not love thy lord,

Thy lord hast wholly lost his love for thee.

I am not made of so slight elements.

Yet must I leave thee, woman, to thy shame.

I hold that man the worst of public foes

Who either for his own or children’s sake,

To save his blood from scandal, lets the wife

Whom he knows false, abide and rule the house:

For being through his cowardice allowed

Her station, taken everywhere for pure,

She like a new disease, unknown to men,

Creeps, no precaution used, among the crowd,

Makes wicked lightnings of her eyes, and saps

The fealty of our friends, and stirs the pulse

With devil’s leaps, and poisons half the young.

Worst of the worst were that man he that reigns!

Better the King’s waste hearth and aching heart

Than thou reseated in thy place of light,

The mockery of my people, and their bane.’

 

He paused, and in the pause she crept an inch

Nearer, and laid her hands about his feet.

Far off a solitary trumpet blew.

Then waiting by the doors the warhorse neighed

At a friend’s voice, and he spake again:

 

`Yet think not that I come to urge thy crimes,

I did not come to curse thee, Guinevere,

I, whose vast pity almost makes me die

To see thee, laying there thy golden head,

My pride in happier summers, at my feet.

The wrath which forced my thoughts on that fierce law,

The doom of treason and the flaming death,

(When first I learnt thee hidden here) is past.

The pang--which while I weighed thy heart with one

Too wholly true to dream untruth in thee,

Made my tears burn--is also past--in part.

And all is past, the sin is sinned, and I,

Lo! I forgive thee, as Eternal God

Forgives: do thou for thine own soul the rest.

But how to take last leave of all I loved?

O golden hair, with which I used to play

Not knowing! O imperial-moulded form,

And beauty such as never woman wore,

Until it became a kingdom’s curse with thee--

I cannot touch thy lips, they are not mine,

But Lancelot’s: nay, they never were the King’s.

I cannot take thy hand: that too is flesh,

And in the flesh thou hast sinned; and mine own flesh,

Here looking down on thine polluted, cries

"I loathe thee:" yet not less, O Guinevere,

For I was ever virgin save for thee,

My love through flesh hath wrought into my life

So far, that my doom is, I love thee still.

Let no man dream but that I love thee still.

Perchance, and so thou purify thy soul,

And so thou lean on our fair father Christ,

Hereafter in that world where all are pure

We two may meet before high God, and thou

Wilt spring to me, and claim me thine, and know

I am thine husband--not a smaller soul,

Nor Lancelot, nor another. Leave me that,

I charge thee, my last hope. Now must I hence.

Through the thick night I hear the trumpet blow:

They summon me their King to lead mine hosts

Far down to that great battle in the west,

Where I must strike against the man they call

My sister’s son--no kin of mine, who leagues

With Lords of the White Horse, heathen, and knights,

Traitors--and strike him dead, and meet myself

Death, or I know not what mysterious doom.

And thou remaining here wilt learn the event;

But hither shall I never come again,

Never lie by thy side; see thee no more--

Farewell!’

 

And while she grovelled at his feet,

She felt the King’s breath wander o’er her neck,

And in the darkness o’er her fallen head,

Perceived the waving of his hands that blest.

 

Then, listening till those armd steps were gone,

Rose the pale Queen, and in her anguish found

The casement: `peradventure,’ so she thought,

`If I might see his face, and not be seen.’

And lo, he sat on horseback at the door!

And near him the sad nuns with each a light

Stood, and he gave them charge about the Queen,

To guard and foster her for evermore.

And while he spake to these his helm was lowered,

To which for crest the golden dragon clung

Of Britain; so she did not see the face,

Which then was as an angel’s, but she saw,

Wet with the mists and smitten by the lights,

The Dragon of the great Pendragonship

Blaze, making all the night a steam of fire.

And even then he turned; and more and more

The moony vapour rolling round the King,

Who seemed the phantom of a Giant in it,

Enwound him fold by fold, and made him gray

And grayer, till himself became as mist

Before her, moving ghostlike to his doom.

 

Then she stretched out her arms and cried aloud

`Oh Arthur!’ there her voice brake suddenly,

Then--as a stream that spouting from a cliff

Fails in mid air, but gathering at the base

Re-makes itself, and flashes down the vale--

Went on in passionate utterance:

 

`Gone--my lord!

Gone through my sin to slay and to be slain!

And he forgave me, and I could not speak.

Farewell? I should have answered his farewell.

His mercy choked me. Gone, my lord the King,

My own true lord! how dare I call him mine?

The shadow of another cleaves to me,

And makes me one pollution: he, the King,

Called me polluted: shall I kill myself?

What help in that? I cannot kill my sin,

If soul be soul; nor can I kill my shame;

No, nor by living can I live it down.

The days will grow to weeks, the weeks to months

The months will add themselves and make the years,

The years will roll into the centuries,

And mine will ever be a name of scorn.

I must not dwell on that defeat of fame.

Let the world be; that is but of the world.

What else? what hope? I think there was a hope,

Except he mocked me when he spake of hope;

His hope he called it; but he never mocks,

For mockery is the fume of little hearts.

And blessd be the King, who hath forgiven

My wickedness to him, and left me hope

That in mine own heart I can live down sin

And be his mate hereafter in the heavens

Before high God. Ah great and gentle lord,

Who wast, as is the conscience of a saint

Among his warring senses, to thy knights--

To whom my false voluptuous pride, that took

Full easily all impressions from below,

Would not look up, or half-despised the height

To which I would not or I could not climb--

I thought I could not breathe in that fine air

That pure severity of perfect light--

I yearned for warmth and colour which I found

In Lancelot--now I see thee what thou art,

Thou art the highest and most human too,

Not Lancelot, nor another. Is there none

Will tell the King I love him though so late?

Now--ere he goes to the great Battle? none:

Myself must tell him in that purer life,

But now it were too daring. Ah my God,

What might I not have made of thy fair world,

Had I but loved thy highest creature here?

It was my duty to have loved the highest:

It surely was my profit had I known:

It would have been my pleasure had I seen.

We needs must love the highest when we see it,

Not Lancelot, nor another.’

 

Here her hand

Grasped, made her vail her eyes: she looked and saw

The novice, weeping, suppliant, and said to her,

`Yea, little maid, for am I not forgiven?’

Then glancing up beheld the holy nuns

All round her, weeping; and her heart was loosed

Within her, and she wept with these and said,

 

`Ye know me then, that wicked one, who broke

The vast design and purpose of the King.

O shut me round with narrowing nunnery-walls,

Meek maidens, from the voices crying "shame."

I must not scorn myself: he loves me still.

Let no one dream but that he loves me still.

So let me, if you do not shudder at me,

Nor shun to call me sister, dwell with you;

Wear black and white, and be a nun like you,

Fast with your fasts, not feasting with your feasts;

Grieve with your griefs, not grieving at your joys,

But not rejoicing; mingle with your rites;

Pray and be prayed for; lie before your shrines;

Do each low office of your holy house;

Walk your dim cloister, and distribute dole

To poor sick people, richer in His eyes

Who ransomed us, and haler too than I;

And treat their loathsome hurts and heal mine own;

And so wear out in almsdeed and in prayer

The sombre close of that voluptuous day,

Which wrought the ruin of my lord the King.’

 

She said: they took her to themselves; and she

Still hoping, fearing `is it yet too late?’

Dwelt with them, till in time their Abbess died.

Then she, for her good deeds and her pure life,

And for the power of ministration in her,

And likewise for the high rank she had borne,

Was chosen Abbess, there, an Abbess, lived

For three brief years, and there, an Abbess, past

To where beyond these voices there is peace.

 

Summary

Queen Guinevere had vanished from the royal court, escaping from the shame of her love for Lancelot and the slow ruin it brought upon King Arthur’s kingdom. After days of wandering in fear and sorrow, she took refuge in the quiet convent at Almesbury, where only a young maid attended her. There she sat alone, wrapped in the robe of the humble, trembling with the weight of scandal and memory. She thought of the bright, noble halls of Camelot, of the shining armor, of Lancelot’s tender voice, and how everything had been broken by her own choices.

The townspeople whispered. Some recognized her, others merely suspected. A noblewoman came and spoke sharply to her, accusing her of bringing ruin to the land, fueling the war among Arthur’s knights, and causing the fall of the Round Table. The Queen could not defend herself. She bowed her head, accepting every word as a blow she deserved. When the noblewoman left, the small maid tried to comfort her, but Guinevere sank deeper into silence, her tears staining her hands.

One night, when the convent slept, King Arthur himself arrived. He came not as a ruler surrounded by knights, but as a weary, saddened man dressed in simple armor. He entered the pale chapel light, and Guinevere fell at his feet. He lifted her gently, not with anger but with grief. He told her that her love for Lancelot had broken the harmony of Camelot, had made the noble knights turn on one another, and had divided the land he had tried to shape into a kingdom of justice and peace. Yet he did not curse her. He spoke with sorrowful tenderness, telling her he would fight one last battle and that afterwards he would go to a distant land—Avalon—where wounded kings might heal or die.

He asked nothing from her except repentance and a life turned toward heaven. Then he kissed her on the forehead—once—and left her forever.

When the door closed behind him, Guinevere collapsed in sobbing anguish. The vision of Arthur’s lonely dignity, the collapse of the life she might have shared with him, and the ruin of Camelot all gathered over her like thunder. She prayed desperately, begging God to lift the weight of her guilt. From that night forward, she changed. She rose early and worked with the sisters, obeyed the Abbess, and humbled herself in every small duty—cleaning, tending gardens, praying in the cold, fasting, and caring for the poor.

Years passed. Guinevere grew quiet, grave, and gentle. She no longer spoke of the court or of her youth. She carried her sorrow like a cloak, but not to be admired—only as a reminder to walk carefully, to seek forgiveness in every breath. The maid who once attended her saw how the Queen’s tears turned into patience, how her fear became faith.

In time, the Abbess died, and the sisters, surprised by the depth of Guinevere’s transformation, chose her to succeed. She accepted the role humbly, guiding the convent with kindness and discipline. Three brief years she served, and when they passed, she slipped away from life in quiet peace.

Thus the Queen who had once sat crowned beside Arthur, the glory of the Round Table, passed beyond earthly sorrow. In the end she lay not among jewels or knights but among holy women, resting in the place where, beyond the loud voices of the world, there is peace.

 

Paraphrase

Queen Guinevere fled from Camelot after her affair with Lancelot brought shame to the kingdom. Lost and overwhelmed, she found shelter in a quiet convent at Almesbury. Only a young maid stayed with her. Guinevere sat alone, remembering the bright days of the court, the knights in shining armor, and the love that had destroyed everything she once had.

People began to wonder who she was. Some suspected, and one noblewoman came to confront her. The noblewoman blamed Guinevere for the divisions among Arthur’s knights, for the chaos in the kingdom, and for the downfall of the Round Table. Guinevere didn’t argue back. She bowed her head, accepting that the accusations were true. The maid tried to cheer her, but Guinevere sank deeper into sadness.

Late one night, King Arthur arrived at the convent. He came quietly and alone, not as a powerful ruler but as a tired man worn out by sorrow. When Guinevere fell at his feet, he lifted her kindly. He told her that her love for Lancelot had shattered the harmony of Camelot and driven his knights into conflict. But he did not speak harshly. Instead, his voice was full of grief. He said he would go to battle one last time and afterwards journey to Avalon—an unknown place where wounded kings might heal or die.

He asked for nothing more than her repentance and a life devoted to God. Then he kissed her once on the forehead and walked away.

After he left, Guinevere wept uncontrollably. The image of Arthur’s lonely dignity and everything she had destroyed crushed her heart. She prayed for forgiveness. From that moment on, she changed her life. She worked humbly in the convent—cleaning, gardening, fasting, praying, caring for the poor, and following every instruction from the Abbess.

Time passed. Guinevere became quiet, gentle, and devoted. She never spoke of her former life. Her tears turned to patience, and her fear became devotion.

When the Abbess died, the nuns were amazed at how Guinevere had transformed. They chose her to lead them. She served as Abbess for three short years, guiding the convent with calm dignity. Then she died peacefully.

The woman who once wore a crown and sat beside King Arthur ended her life not in glory but in prayer, surrounded by the sisters of the convent—finally resting beyond the noise of the world.

 

Analysis

Alfred Tennyson’s Guinevere, one of the central poems in Idylls of the King, is not merely a narrative about the fall of a queen—it is a meditation on guilt, repentance, and the moral tragedy of human weakness. Tennyson’s portrayal of Guinevere moves beyond the medieval caricature of the adulterous queen and instead presents a deeply human figure whose personal choices are inseparable from the moral and political collapse of Arthur’s kingdom. The poem becomes a stage on which the private drama of love and betrayal unfolds alongside the public disintegration of an ideal.

At the core of the poem lies a conflict between the noble ideals of Arthur and the emotional impulses that drive Guinevere toward Lancelot. Under Arthur’s rule, Camelot was built on the hope of a higher moral order: chivalry, honor, loyalty, and righteousness. This kingdom is almost spiritual in nature—Arthur himself functions as a moral ideal rather than a conventional monarch. His authority is grounded in virtue, not in power. Against this world stands Guinevere, whose motivations are not monstrous but human. She desires love, warmth, passion, and companionship. Her relationship with Lancelot, though adulterous, is portrayed as sincere rather than predatory. Tennyson refuses to treat her as a villain; instead, he frames her as a character caught between idealism and desire—an embodiment of tragic imperfection.

The setting at Almesbury introduces a stark contrast. Guinevere, once surrounded by knights, jewels, and courtly celebrations, is now isolated in a convent, stripped of grandeur and exposed to relentless introspection. Her physical descent mirrors her emotional and spiritual fall. The queen’s presence there is not a triumph of penitence but a collapse into silence and regret. Tennyson emphasizes that Guinevere’s suffering is internal: she is haunted not by punishment from others, but by a conscience that has awakened after too many years of denial. Even when accused by the noblewoman, she says little. Her very silence indicates that she recognizes the truth of the condemnation. The poem uses this silence to frame repentance not as self-defense but as the acceptance of responsibility.

Arthur’s arrival is the emotional and moral climax of the poem. His speech to Guinevere is not angry—it is mournful. This is the crucial turning point because Arthur reflects the pain of betrayal without vengeance. His loss is immeasurable: the Round Table is fracturing, his knights are splintered into factions, and the very idea of Camelot collapses because the unity at its heart has been poisoned by deceit. Yet Arthur demonstrates mercy. He addresses Guinevere as a person he loved and trusted, rather than as a criminal. In doing so, he becomes a Christ-like figure, showing compassion in the face of deep betrayal. His kiss on Guinevere’s forehead is not romantic but sacramental—a symbolic gesture of forgiveness, and a final farewell both earthly and emotional. His departure is as tragic as it is dignified; the king leaves knowing he cannot save the world he built, nor the woman he cherished.

After Arthur leaves, the poem’s tone shifts. Guinevere is no longer a disgraced queen but a soul in search of redemption. Tennyson carefully traces the transformation from passion to penitence. The work she performs in the convent—simple, repetitive, humble—becomes a means of moral purification. The poem suggests that true repentance is not dramatic; it is lived daily, in obscurity and discipline. Guinevere’s humility is sincere: she no longer seeks love, admiration, or status. Instead, she seeks to reconcile herself with God and with the painful memories she carries. Tennyson does not grant her immediate absolution. Redemption, in this poem, is not a sudden emotional release but the slow purification of the heart.

The final moments of Guinevere’s life are understated but profoundly symbolic. She becomes Abbess not as a reward for her past actions, but because her humility and devotion have become authentic. Leadership in the religious community represents the completion of her moral journey: she has turned entirely away from the self-centered desires that undid Camelot. Her death is calm, without spectacle, a stark contrast to the tumult of her earlier life. In the end, peace comes not through return to glory but through withdrawal from the world and surrender to divine forgiveness.

Tennyson’s treatment of Guinevere reveals a broader theme that runs through the Idylls: the fragility of ideals when confronted with human imperfection. Arthur’s Camelot collapses not because its ideals are flawed, but because human beings cannot always live up to those ideals. Lancelot, a paragon of valor, falls to passion; Guinevere, meant to be the moral center of the court, becomes its fracture point. Their love is not evil, but it is destructive—because it stands in opposition to the moral order that sustains the kingdom. In this way, Tennyson shows that even the purest intentions can bear tragic consequences when they conflict with duty.

Ultimately, Guinevere is a poem about the intersection of love, morality, and loss. It portrays guilt not as punishment from the outside, but as an inner reckoning that transforms the soul. It presents repentance not as humiliation, but as a path toward grace. And it reminds the reader that the ideals of the world—no matter how noble—are fragile when held by imperfect human hands. Through Guinevere’s fall and quiet redemption, Tennyson invites us to reflect not just on sin and consequence, but on the possibility of peace after sorrow, and the dignity that remains in a broken heart that learns to bow.