Sir Galahad in the Well

A Leap of Faith – Kai Wang

Ellene Warner

“And then Galahad put him in the earth as a king ought to be, and so departed and so came into a perilous forest where he found the well the which boileth with great waves, as the tale telleth to-fore. And as soon as Galahad set his hand thereto it ceased, so that it brent no more, and the heat departed. For that it brent it was a sign of lechery, the which was that time much used. But that heat might not abide his pure virginity. And this was taken in the country for a miracle. And so ever after was it called Galahad’s well.”

Sir Galahad in the Well

Deep in the perilous forest,

Where nearby ringeth fun’ral knell, 

Past the end of the winding road

Which miry fog didst forbode

Enshrined in arbor of thorns

I found him: Sir Galahad in the Well

“We must get you up,” said I,

But the knight did not reply, 

‘Til I reached down for his pell

And found him much too heavy to be pulled from the Well

There are places upon places and things upon things

      Worlds upon worlds that I will never see, 

My life drifts before me like the crown of a tree,

      Every branch of which knots just out of my reach—

I cut it down. 

“I have been lost,” said the knight, 

On the path of life, assumed I, 

“I know not when I fell,” 

Neither did I, so I said to the Well

“The arbor-crown stretcheth far, 

And upon dusk-time all the stars,

Which skip with twinkling light

‘Cross the freckl’d face of the night,

Are obscured by the thorny dell