Later Sonnets: Le Roi Est Mort. Vive Le Roi!

WHY wait for Arthur ? He too long has slept
He shall not hear you — no, nor heed your moan,
More than the wail of those fair Queens that kept
Their watch for him what months in Avalon !
He shall not wake for any mother's son
Nor mother's daughter of them all in tears,
His knights, his ladies. How then for this one,
You the last blossom of our world's lost years ?
— Ah, let him sleep. For see how in the wood,
Under the dead oak, green new saplings spring,
How the thorn blossoms, while birds cry aloud
In scorn of grief. And, Lady, by the rood !
There rides a knight, new-armed and questing proud,
Who shouts, "The king is dead. Long live the King I"