The Vision of Sir Launfal

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1848

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Section Summaries & Analyses

Prelude to Part First

Part First

Prelude to Part Second

Part Second

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Prelude to Part FirstChapter Summaries & Analyses

Prelude to Part First Summary

The poem begins with a reference to a “musing organist” (Line 1) who represents sleep or the creator of dreams and visions. The first stanza describes how he approaches slowly, as sleep does, and “builds a bridge from Dreamland” (Line 4) so that his “lay” (Line 4), or narrative poem, can unfold.

In the second stanza, the speaker continues with the theme of the noble, heroic quest, which is fueled by an idealism not only found in naïve “infancy” (Line 9) but throughout our lives. God and heaven are invoked, as well as their constant beneficent presence, despite our mundane and miserable human lives, our “souls which cringe and plot” (Line 11).

The “skies,” “winds,” “mountain,” “wood,” and “sea” are all natural elements of God’s creation, which in their steadfast and uplifting presence serve to contrast with the “faint hearts” (Line 16) and “drowsy blood” (Line 19) of mere mortals. This comparison between the strength and goodness of nature and therefore of God, with the pettiness and materialism of humans, whose main concern is making money from each other, forms the basis of the third stanza. Even religion can become subjugated to the greed of capitalism: “the priest hath his fee” (Line 23), and “we bargain for the graves we lie in” (Line 24). Humans are portrayed as tempted by the Devil himself when they put all their efforts into making money, when they sell their souls and lifetime’s work for “a cap,” “bells,” and “Bubbles” (Line 28). Returning to God, we are reminded that only He is free for the asking and that the beauty and joy of nature is available to all, even “the poorest comer” (Line 32).

The remaining stanzas in the Prelude to Part First celebrate a summer day as the ultimate expression of the magnificence of God and nature. This section is one of the most popular literary excerpts of American poetry, and it functions as a stand-alone ode to the month of June. The first line is especially familiar and is often quoted alone. The excerpt celebrates the joys of early summer and portrays the beauty and vitality of the season, not only in terms of nature but also in terms of its effects on the human spirit and emotions.

The excerpt, “And what is so rare as a day in June?” begins by asking if there is anything as rare as a day in June. June days are described as perfect, with the blessings of a personified Heaven endowed upon them: “Over it softly her warm ear lays” (Line 36). June is a month of life, growth, blossoming nature, and happy creatures. Sounds and sights are described in detail: “We hear life murmur, or see it glisten” (Line 38), and a great number of the elements of a bucolic countryside in early summer are mentioned, from leaves and flowers to birds and animals. The speaker celebrates the life that returns in the new season, after winter has gone. God’s power and concern for our welfare are praised, as the speaker, and by extension all of us, feels his heart fill with joy: “We are happy now because God wills it” (Line 62). More details from nature are given as evidence of the beauty and fertility of the month. The last stanza again relays the calming and cheering effects of the June day on the human mind and soul: “The heart forgets its sorrow and ache” (Line 89). The final few lines describe the power of nature to assuage our pains as we join in the surge of new growth and energy.

The rest of the first stanza lists various elements of the natural world found in the “hills and valleys” (Line 44) that reflect this blossoming and growth. The “cowslip” (Line 45) and “buttercup” (Line 46) are wildflowers found in grassy meadows. The buttercup has a “chalice” (Line 46), a kind of drinking vessel that recalls the Holy Grail, the cup from which Jesus is supposed to have drunk, the search for which forms the motive for the Knights of the Round Table’s epic journey. Leaves and blades of grass are described as never “too mean” (Line 47), that is to say too small or weak, to shelter animals. One example is the bird enjoying the warmth of the sun: “And lets his illumined being o’errun / With the deluge of summer it receives” (Lines 51-52). The image is that of the bird basking in the sun’s rays, which warm and bring light. The female bird is nesting, and sings to her future chicks, while the male bird sings to the whole world. The end of the stanza is another question: “In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?” (Line 56). Nature is personified here and given the ability to hear its own music.

The last two lines of the last stanza: “What wonder if Sir Launfal now / Remembered the keeping of his vow?” (Lines 94-95), take the reader back to the main narrative of Sir Launfal.

Prelude to Part First Analysis

In the first stanza, the speaker introduces the idea of a dream that may contain “hope and fervor” (Line 6). This refers to the drive and idealism that characterizes quests like that of the Knights of the Round Table and their search for the Holy Grail (Sir Launfal was one of the Knights). The speaker therefore establishes that this poem will contain the vision of the Sir Launfal of the title.

The second and third stanzas present an idealized image of the heroic and chivalrous knight, who is close to God and nature, as opposed to mean and greedy “commoners” and the rest of society. The references to humans exploiting each other for money may also reflect Lowell’s anti-slavery sentiments.

The section from the fourth stanza to the end of the Prelude to the Part First does not contain a narrative but is fully descriptive. The excerpt’s detailing the beauty and life force of early summer, on a June day, express the speaker’s love of nature and rapturous joy at the blossoming of the countryside. The ability of nature to raise the spirits and fill the heart with happiness is a common theme of Lowell’s. The voice in this excerpt is that of a disembodied speaker who represents the poet and comments on the environment in which Sir Launfal finds himself.

The fourth stanza begins with the question so commonly quoted: “And what is so rare as a day in June?” (Line 33). The speaker answers this question by saying that only in June are the days perfect. Heaven, i.e. God, is responsible for this perfection: “Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune” (Line 35), which means that God tests (tries) the Earth to see if it is in harmony. God or Heaven is personified as a female, and the next line reminds the reader of a gentle, motherly presence: “And over it softly her warm ear lays” (Line 36). This image corresponds to the excerpt’s overall sense of the fertility and fecundity of June or early summer.

In the rest of Stanza 4, readers look and listen, and in doing so, they sense nature’s revival. The soil itself (the clod is a moist lump of soil) is bursting with power. The clod’s stirring, or movement, is that of seedlings striving to break through the soil so that they can become tall (Lines 39-42). This rebirth is attributed to nature’s irrepressible drive for growth, and its need for sunlight for food, a reference to the process of photosynthesis. At the same time, the words “light” and “soul” imbue these lines with a religious tone, as if nature itself is striving upwards towards the light of heaven.

The fifth stanza begins, “Now is the high-tide of the year” (Line 57). This metaphor of the month as the sea continues through the next three lines, as the words “ebbed,” “flooding,” “ripply,” “inlet,” “creek,” and “bay” show (lines 58-60). The image of the tide with its inexorable flow and ebb, regular and reliable, echoes the course of the repeating seasons of which early summer is the high point. This portrayal of water as life and plenitude continues: “Now the heart is so full that a drop over-fills it, / We are happy now because God wills it; / No matter how barren the past may have been” (Lines 61-63). Here the speaker pays homage to the divine power that directs or lives and determines our happiness.

The poem moves on to cataloguing the ways that nature surrounds us and restores us, including the “sap,” or juice of trees and plants, the “blossoms,” “skies,” “dandelions,” “maize,” and the nesting robin. All these elements conspire to create an idyllic summer’s day, which we could not fail to be stimulated by, even “if the breeze kept the good news back” (Line 74). The final four lines of this stanza describe aural signs of the energy that the June day contains:

We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,—

And hark! how clear bold chanticleer,

Warmed with the new wine of the year,

Tells all in his lusty crowing! (Lines 76-79).

The “yon heifer” (Line 76) is a young female cow nearby, “lowing” is her sound, and the “chanticleer” is a rooster, whose energetic call (lusty crowing) signals the dawn and thus the beginning of the period of new activity, like June itself. The tone of this stanza is light-hearted and celebratory. It finishes with an exclamation mark that encapsulates this joyful feeling.

The sixth stanza begins, “Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how” (Line 80), bringing back a slightly more serious tone. However, this does not last long as the speaker returns to his talk of everything being happy, bright, and colorful in “the natural way of living” (Line 85). There is more reference to the hidden power of God directing our lives, as in “we know not how” and “Who knows whither the clouds have fled? / In the unscarred heaven they leave not wake” (Lines 86-87). This image is one of the clouds disappearing from the sky, which is completely clear, leaving no trace. The implication is also that heaven is perfect and pure and that we have no reason to question it or God’s doings. In the same way, nature, or God, can wipe away our tears, leaving no memory of sadness, and God can wipe away our pains and sorrows too. The power of nature to heal and obliterate our deepest emotional wounds is expressed with great fervor in the lines:

The soul partakes the season's youth,

And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe

Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth,

Like burnt-out craters healed with snow (Lines 90-93).

The speaker says that the human soul is rejuvenated by the season of summer with its youthfulness and emphasis on rebirth and regrowth. The “sulphurous rifts” are the hot, burning sentiments usually associated with youth, which, when placated by nature, are smoothed over by a layer of snow: silent, white, cooling, and pure. This is a metaphor of the human soul as a volcano, with its sulfurous lava and its craters, which represent imperfections, scars of past suffering, which nature has covered and calmed. Ironically, the word “snow,” which is not an element of summer but of a different season, appears here. This is an early hint of the description to be found in Part First, of the cold and unwelcoming Castle and its rich inhabitants.