On King Arthur's Round Table at Winchester
On King Arthur's Round Table at Winchester
(Sonnet VIII)
Original Text
Thomas Warton, Jr., Poems (London: T. Becket, 1777).
2Its rafter'd hall, that o'er the grassy foss,
3And scatter'd flinty fragments clad in moss,
4On yonder steep in naked state appears;
5High hung remains, the pride of war-like years,
6Old Arthur's board: on the capacious round
7Some British pen has sketch'd the names renown'd,
8In marks obscure, of his immortal peers.
9Though join'd by magic skill, with many a rhyme,
10The Druid frame, unhonour'd, falls a prey
11To the slow vengeance of the wizard Time,
12And fade the British characters away;
13Yet Spenser's page, that chants in verse sublime
14Those chiefs, shall live, unconscious of decay.
Notes
1] Warton wrote a description of Winchester (1750), later used as a guide-book. Winchester is traditionally connected with King Arthur, but in Warton's time the table he writes of was known to be of much later period; it is now supposed to date from the time of King Stephen, but the painted designs on it are of the Tudor period. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1777
RPO poem Editors
N. J. Endicott
RPO Edition
2RP.1.688; RPO 1996-2000.
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