Just about all of us memorized the poem (shown below) in high school,
but it has a much richer history than all of us are aware of.
First off, here’s the part that we remember:
And what is so rare as a day in
June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it
be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear
lays:
Whether we look, or whether we
listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it
glisten;
The stanzas above are a small
part of a larger work titled, “The Vision of Sir
Launfal”, which was released by James Russell Lowell in 1848. You can read it
in its entirety in the link below, but the COMPLETE poem involving the month of
June goes from line 34 to line 95 of “Prelude to Part First”.
The “rest of the story” is steeped in biblical
history, since Sir Laundal was in search of the holy grail, the chalice that Jesus
drank from at the last supper.
(To quote Indiana Jones, “this is the cup of a carpenter”.
)
Here’s a couple of paragraphs from “Part First”:
My golden spurs now bring to me,
And bring to me my richest mail,
For to-morrow I go over land and
sea,
In search of the Holy Grail;
Shall never a bed for me be
spread
Nor shall a pillow be under my
head,
Till I begin my vow to keep
Here on the rushes will I sleep,
And perchance there may come a
vision true
Ere day create the world anew."
Slowly Sir Launfal's eyes grew
dim,
Slumber fell like a cloud on him,
And into his soul the vision flew.
The drawbridge dropped with a
surly clang,
and through the dark arch a
charger sprang,
Bearing Sir Launfal, the maiden
knight,
In his gilded mail, that flamed
so bright
It seemed the dark castle had
gathered all
Those shafts the fierce sun had
shot over its wall
In his siege of three hundred
summers long,
binding them all in one blazing
sheaf,
Had cast them forth: so, young
and strong,
And lightsome as a locust-leaf,
Sir Launfal flashed forth in his
unscarred mail,
To seek in all climes for the
Holy Grail.
The poem is 345 lines long, and it worth reading in its
entirely.
In the end, or course, Sin Launfal finds the holy grail – but it
is not what he expected.
Remember these words as you read the closing lines:
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it
to them, saying,“This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in
to them, saying,“This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in
remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
(Luke 22:19)
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