"Annot of Benallay" (A Poem)

Death was no stranger to Robert Stephen Hawker. A vicar of Morwenstow, the priest became known for giving Christian burials to the shipwrecked sailors who washed ashore Stanbury Mouth near the parish.[1] He also attained recognition for his poetry, which garnered the attention of Charles Dickens and often, as his poem “Annot of Benallay” showcases, dealt with a theme common in his life: the deceased.[2]

At lone midnight the death-bell tolled,
To summon Annot’s clay:
For common eyes must not behold
The griefs of Benallay.

Meek daughter of a haughty line,
Was Lady Annot born:
That light which was not long to shine,
The sun that set at morn.

They shrouded her in maiden white,
They buried her in pall;
And the ring he gave her faith to plight
Shines on her finger small.

The Curate reads the dead man’s prayer
The silent Leech stands by:
The sob of voiceless love is there, 15
And sorrow’s vacant eye.

’T is over. Two and two they tread
The churchyard’s homeward way:
Farewell! farewell! thou lovely dead:
Thou Flower of Benallay.

The sexton stalks with tottering limb,
Along the chancel floor:
He waits, that old man gray and grim,
To close the narrow door.

“Shame! shame! these rings of stones and gold!”
The ghastly caitiff said;
“Better that living hands should hold,
Than glisten on the dead.”

The evil wish wrought evil deed,
The pall is rent away:
And lo! beneath the shattered lid,
The Flower of Benallay.

But life gleams from those opening eyes,
Blood thrills that lifted hand:
And awful words are in her cries,
Which none may understand.

Joy! ’tis the miracle of gore,
Of the city called Nain: —
Lo! glad feet throng the sculptured floor,
To hail their dead again.

Joy in the hall of Benallay,
A stately feast is spread:
Lord Harold is the bridegroom gay,
The bride th’ arisen dead.[3]

Works Referenced

Baring-Gould, Sabine. The Vicar of Morewenstow: Being a Life of Robert Stephen Hawker. London: Methuen and Company, 1899.

Hawker, Robert Stephen. “Annot of Benallay.” The Cornish Ballads and Other Poems. Oxford: James Parker and Company, 1869. 23-25.
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[1] Baring-Gould, 105-106. 

[2] Baring-Gould, 46. 

[3] Hawker, 23-25.