IDYLLS OF THE KING

Based on Malory's "Morte d'Arthur", the "Idylls" (written between 1833 and 1869) tell the classic story of Arthur's struggle to maintain order and preserve his kingdom in the face of monumental upheavals, including civil war, his wife's adultery with his best friend, and betrayals by his once-close associates. Arthur's last soliloquy before he dies and is carried off in the "dusky barge" to Avalon, where great heroes find eternal life, includes the lines, "The old order changeth, yielding place to new,/And God fulfills himself in many ways..." The poem's last lines are, "And the new sun rose ...