TENNYSON'S
POEMS
SHORTER
LYRICS
"
1833-1842
(The
EDITED,
WITH
INTRODUCTION
AND
C. MULLINER,
BEATRICE
HEAD
other
of Shalott, and
Lady
MISTRESS
OXFORD
LONDON:
OF
SHERBORNE
UNIVERSITY
HENRY
1909
NOTES,
BY
M.A.
(LoND.)
FOR
SCHOOL
PRESS
FROWDE
Poems)
GIRLS
HART
HORACE
OXFORD
t
UNIVERSITY
TO
PRINTER
THE
PREFACE
IT is
about
of
various
under
easily (1) the
more
in
ideal, (2) his skill
It is
work.
be
in
given
the
difference
and
prose
the
is
poetry.
A
in
the
as
poems
should
be
they
notice
to
of
and
treating
influence
which
the
1
other
of
the
will arise
growth
Shorter
poems)
are
of the
Poems
and
and
1833-42
and
a2
the
book
other
of
the
important
other
points
of classical
the
poem,
(The
Lady
Poems,
led
for instance,
the
;
and
second
be
may
the
These
later
the
students
psychological
English Idyls
of
regards
treatment
Lyrics,
both
published.
revival
romantic
the
in
several
forgetting
not
nature,
the
bad
methods,
various
compare
of
with
senior
that
point, it is hoped
and
notice
to
and
first
As
may
beginning
are
led
Appendix
versions.
and
help
feature
carefully compared
greatly improved
who
style
were
life
literary taste
be
special
(3) the
his
more
way
grasp
artistic
of poetry,
of
may
good
to
pupil
Tennyson's
pupils
between
printing
earlier
that
literature
appreciate
this
development
also
the
permeate
in
that
hoped
criticism, and
to
which
work
together
kinds
various
Truths
ethical
great
of
emergence
the
grouped
are
enable
to
be studied
constitutes
They
headings
should
poems
which
of
term.
one
*
these
parts, each
three
in
that
suggested
subjects,
dramatic
of Shalott
1842-55.
and
Preface
IV
instinct
and
it
Thirdly,
of
life
these
and
earlier
Idylls
of
will
the
be
of
thus
poems,
King
interest
which
conduct
for
preparation
limitations
Tennyson's
the
as
to
begin
making
advanced
more
a
in
whole.
this
notice
to
them
respect.
the
come
an
study
ideals
out
in
excellent
of
the
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION
vii
ANALYSIS
The
xix
of Shalott
Lady
Mariana
in the
1
South
6
Eleanore
The
8
Miller's
Daughter
.12
Fatima
.19
CEnone
20
Sisters
The
To
27
the
with
following
,
The
Palace
Clara
Lady
The
Vere
May
Queen
New
Year's
28
poem
of Art
de
29
Vere
37
39
Eve
41
Conclusion
44
The
Hesperides
46
The
Lotos-eaters
60
Rosalind
A
.55
of Fair
Dream
Women
56
Margaret
Sonnet.
64
On
"
the
of
result
the
late
Russian
invasion
of
Poland
'
Sonnet.
"
As
The
Blackbird
The
Death
*
*
You
Of
with
old
eyes
.67
.
.
.
67
of the
me,
sat
thou
Old
Year
68
why,
tho'
Freedom
on
thy land,
ill at
the
with
'
72
ease
heights
love
Goose
APPENDIX:
'
.72
.
EARLIER
VERSIONS
.
.
far-brought
;
NOTES
INDEX
'
downcast
69
ask
Love
The
when
S
ToJ.
*
66
.
'
.73
.
76
...
79
107
OF
FIRST
LINES
126
INTRODUCTION
TO
SHORTER
POEMS
AND
LYRICS
(1833-42)
AND
ENGLISH
IDYLS
THERE
in
contained
definite
and
art
his
most
in
periods
second,
;
we
(A) Tennyson's
Boyhood
but
his
of
the
;
born
in
he
tells us,
he
later
a
somewhat
was
Lincolnshire
written
an
a
epic
of
6,000
tragedies,
of
very
boyish attempts
eventful.
un-
rectory.
home,
the
By
of lines in
hundreds
Byronic
cultured
attention.
hear
we
poet.
quietly in
attracted
had
a
life
in
1809
Scott, and
of Walter
as
His
passed
youth were
poetical giftssoon
manner
metre
early life.
was
(1842-55)
of
and
twelve,
POEMS
characteristics
remarkable
He
OTHER
special interest attaching to the
this book.
First, they represent three
the
mind
of Tennyson's
development
shall see
that they bring out
of
one
points
two
are
poems
AND
age
lines in
Popeian
sonnets,
and
dramas.
Some
a
of
these
little volume
in
Stopford Brooke
made
up partly of
a
They are without
Mr.
1827,
Poems
entitled
comments
on
Brothers.
Two
by
them
in
published
were
thus
they were
sentimentality.
:
partly of
of originality,force, or freshness
trace
It
faded
imitation
of previous poets, chiefly of Byron.
certain
that
is one
of the literarypuzzles of the world
great
here
Tennyson, write
poets, as, for example, Shelley, and
within
in their boyhood
trash
two
a
or
step on
; and
year
to a level of original power.'
In
1828
to
Trinity College, Cambridge,
Tennyson went
Arthur
and
there
friendship with
began his memorable
'
bold
noise
and
"
Hallam.
In
volume
1830
came
entitled
out
his
first
serious
attempt
'Poems, chieflyLyrical,by Alfred
at
verse
"
Tennyson
a
'.
Introduction
viii
Arnold is said to have discovered in one
but Mr. Churton
of future powers,
germ
of them1
Matthew
the
the truth when
probably nearer
and somewhat
of a fragile
poems
whose
temper
of Komeo, and
most
worst
to
seem
we
see
a
healthily
more
promisingcharacteristic
he
says
:
morbid
They
touch
of Mercutio.
Hamlet,
.
touch
a
Their
versatility.
...
in
man,
of
is
th"
are
young
.
Their
.
temperance in expression,
of
in
words, producingconfusion
many
Collins is
touch
Lack
fault is affectation.'
too
a
'
thought,all
youthfulnessof the poet. His friends,however,
applauded, and, if we may judge from Arthur Hallam's
in the
Englishman, talked only too flatteringly
essay
mark
the
about
him.
Three
more
later,in December, 1832,2a second
years
ambitious
and
poems,
book
it
then
him.
upon
The present volume
passes
to
on
publishedin 1842,
that
the
full force of criticism fell
beginswith
and
these poems
in two
contained
those
much
publishedcontainingthirtynew
was
was
and
it concludes
of 1833
; it
subsequent volumes
with
few
a
still later
amongst which we shall find the great Ode to the Duke
Tithonus, and The Voyage.
of Wellington,
the Juvenilia, which
Thus, passing over
promised so
ones,
in the volume
have
we
little,
We
shall
notice
of 1833 the work
weak
of
Tennyson's
him
lines,we
see
youth.
affectation,
haltingin rhythm, prone at times to diffuseness,
But
shall
it
the emerall
we
see
gence
sentimentality.
through
of a loftyideal in art, and a still more
noble aim in
shall
morals.
We
shall
see
that
between
1833
change took place; that the same
and
cut down, togetherwith
new
Even the carpingvoice
originality.
and Tennyson took his placeamong
and
poems
work
1842
an
reappear
immense
altered
of commanding
of criticism was
silenced,
the foremost
poets of
the age.
Lastly,we
shall have
notice the characteristics of a
after 1842, which are
the work
of the
few
to
written
poems
poet in his maturity.
Our
(B)Causes ofhis greatdevelopment.
be, what
were
some
of the
1
The
Cambridge
2
The
volume
was
causes
Prize Poem
dated
1833.
which
firstquestion
must
produced so great
of 1829, Timbiwtoo.
ix
Introduction
development between the years 1833 and 1842 ?
the Gleam, publishedlong afterwards,in
and
In Merlin
Tennyson'sold age, there is a retrospectof his own literary
life. He looks back at the awakening of power, at the dawn
of the vision of the ideal Beauty, the first wavering notes
of heavenly music ; then follow words which undoubtedly
apply to the periodwe are considering.
He
glances at the hostile attitude of 'a barbarous
who
crost it', and
people5 to 'the croak of a Raven
the
at
despondency and hopelessnesswhich followed ;
a
gloom lightenedonly by the Master's whisper,'Follow
artistic
an
'.
the Gleam
from
a
plainEnglish,Tennyson suffered
has been
variouslycharacterized
In
criticism.
(i)Severe
criticism which
stupid,unjust,and even
(consideredthen
Quarterly
brutal.
as
'
Lockhart, in the
Mr.
to God's
book
the next
Bible
'),
strain of bombastic
praise hailed another star in
the
the lamented
Keats was
that milky way,
of which
harbinger'. The young poet'ssympathy with nature was
since
ludicrous ',and GEnone was
to be altogether
reviled,
in
a
*
'
the
One
It
repeatedin
line was
same
littlepoem
unfortunate
ran
thus
darlingroom,
Dear
room,
With
thy
is
little
No
Wherein
even
Mr.
narrow
was
held up to
sixteen times.
scorn.
peculiar
"
There
We
less than
no
:
0
1
it
entreat
two
no
room
to
so
room
warm
so
read,
in this little trifle the
Tennyson
break
scribbler
delight,
apple of my sight,
soft and white,
couches
the
forth.
would
have
exquisite,
and bright,
wherein
write.
to
*
Quarterly,to note how
singulartaste and genius of
said
readers,'
our
heart's
my
the
In
such
been
a
dear
littleroom
with
content
one
a
sofa,
probably have covered with black
chintz ; how infinitely
mohair, or red cloth,or a good striped
it were, a type
as
characteristic is white dimity ! 'tis,
more
of the purityof the poet'smind !
it con:
Blackwood's treatment
sidered
was
hardly less severe
for
Tennyson hampered by a puerilepartiality
self-willed and
', and
particularforms of expression
'.
perverse in his infantile vanity
and
that
one
he
would
'
'
'
Introduction
=
Mr. Spedding acknowledged
a critic as
friendly
that these earlypoems
betrayed an over-indulgence
in the luxuries of the senses,
a
profusionof splendours,
harmonies, perfumes,gorgeous apparel,luscious meats and
drinks and creature
comforts, which rather pallupon the
of the outward world to obscure
the glories
sense, and make
In
fact,even
so
'
a
within'.
little the world
teristic.
Tennyson met this criticism is characThe Lover's Tale
That he felt it deeplyis evident.
and
from
withdrawn
not
was
was
printed
publication,
until
in
1879.
Nothing more
again(except a piratedcopy)
and
ding,
Tennyson wrote to Mr. Spedappeared for nine years,
in
I do not wish to be dragged forward again
any
shape before the reading public at present, particularly
The
in which
way
*
the
on
of my
score
old poems,
I have
of which
most
so
(Enone) as to make them much less
(particularly
imperfect.'
(ii)Nine years of study and silence. A weaker man
might have given up in despair; Tennyson set to work to
the modern
poets
study,to travel,to think. The classics,
of Italy,Germany, England, natural history,geology,
astronomy, metaphysics,theology;these and many other
effects on his mind.
subjectswere taken up, and left lasting
corrected
But
he
also to learn in another
was
prosperitymay do for the
is no man
without suffering
Private troubles. His
(iii)
school.
in
commoners
father
had
Then
postponed.
greatestblow
the
the
1833, came
in Austria.
broken
was
What
of Arthur
news
that shock
The
all
by a careful study of
joy from my life,and
Two
Voices
written
the depthsthrough which he
'Thine
Nor
Thou
was
anguish will
any
train
canst
not
1
of
not
reason
of
and
character, but
died in 1831, and
uncertain prospects
being indefinitely
all fell. In September,
sudden
Hallam's
meant
be realized
out
Ease
ennobled.' l
up ; his own
led to his marriage with Miss Sellwood
the old home
'
Tennyson
to
'
In Memoriam.
made
about
this
can
keep
think, but
sleep,
:
thou
death.'
time, and shows
passed.
let thee
only
It blotted
long for
me
death
wilt
weep.'
Martineau, Stiidyof Religion.
Introduction
inch
'Why
is
There
'
You
*
who
one
keep
Set down
transitions in this
"
yes
gorgeous
a
The
author
subjectwith
different matter
from
you
form
peculiar
of
grim reality death.
take
how, of the
talks
the
"
No
l
convincing.*
's bitter and
does this encounter
young
very
favourite
over
"
scorn
That
firstrealization,
matter
no
plain
'
of
sweeps
seldom
not
life,
Nature
says
in you, and walks
'
And
Browning,
first time
the
some
crawl?
', writes Mrs.
account
"
To
In
by inch to darkness
remedy for all.'
crises and
Of
xi
one
"
sentimental,but
that
experienceto
which
the
it is
it,and
gliblyabout
is
a
quitea
now
we
refer.
Browning speaks of it, and
most
thoughtfulpeople, when
"
moment
words
his
"
he
that
says
of
true
are
it is the
"
The
begin,and
nearing the place,
of the night,the
power
The
post of the foe;
When
I
the
am
Where
like his
stands, the Arch
he
Tennyson
own
snows
to
up
this had
Lady of Shalott.
'
the
blasts denote
press
of the storm,
in
visible form.2
Fear
played
Now
a
with
shadows,
Life's
c
mirror
much
cracked
back
at
shivering
could pass through a
the cold touch of Reality. No man
time like this and be unchanged by it. Tennyson emerged
with deeperknowledge and a wider outlook,and all this is
side to side
from
in his
manifest
and human
love drew
poetry.
the poems
of 1842 did appear, there was
the very first as to their reception. The
When
from
made
generous
volume
a
Dickens,
new
amends
'
no
Quarterly
attack, and found the
literature '. Edgar Allan Poe,
for its earlier
real addition to our
Emerson, all joinedin enthusiastic
praiseof
poet.
1
Aurora
Leigh.
doubt
*
Prospice.
the
xii
Introduction
We
(C) Artistic ideal.
how
the
proceednow
1842, if compared, show
and
of 1833
poems
notice in detail
to
first
loftyartistic ideal.
(i)Beauty of rhythm. To appreciatethe great advance
made
by Tennyson in this respect we need only read the
openingof CEnone,as it was in 1833, and againas it appeared
of
the emergence
a
In its later form
corrected in 1842.
of fitting
sound to sense, the
ppwer
of the
be noticed
the
quietdreamy rhythm
in the ninth by the
eightlines,only
the rushingwater
falling
againstthe rocks, and
first
sound
should
of
broken
then
In cataract
Again
the
after cataract
musical
smooth
at the far distance where
takes
is not
the
a
sea.
topmost peak
'
look
stands up and
we
as
the
This
vowel
morning '.
is not nearlyso
the
is resumed
verse
the
to
sounds
not
are
so
(ii)Clearness
The
verse.
skilfully
managed, and the effect
of
is even
an
unpleasingrepetition
varied ; there
sound in the first and
so
in the earlier
marked
second lines.1
and
in its
brevity.The same
passage
altered form
shows
immense
improvement in clearness.
The earlier landscapeis difficult to picture,
in the
whereas
later the eye travels easilyfrom the foreground,
with its
flowers and torrent, up the ravine, where the mist lingers
the pines,and so on to the glittering
citywith its
among
background of mountains.
best example of that increased power
The
is
which
obtained by condensation
is The Palace ofArt,1in which the
alterations and
work.
a new
Again, in
began with
omissions
the
were
so
great as
the
to make
it almost
Dream
of Fair Women
stanzas,1beautiful indeed, but curiously
They are omitted in 1842,and the poem begins
earlyvolume,
four
irrelevant.
with the reference to Chaucer.
(iii)
Nature-painting.Mr. StopfordBrooke notices that
Tennyson's best work in nature -paintingis of two kinds.
It occurs
the one
hand when
he is describing
on
scenery
with which
he
and
such
extremely familiar,
the
Isle of
Wight,
is inventing,
paintingfrom
coast
when
he is
1
See
Appendix
of
or,
on
as
the
the
shire
Lincoln-
other
hand,
the visions of his
early versions.
own
Introduction
This
soul.
imaginationis
of constructive
work
xiii
of
course
has been seen, but it is the work
what
on
indirectly
of the combining and selective skill of the beauty-loving
mind.
The result is often an ideal pictureof transcendent
based
loveliness
"
The
Words
lightthat
only to
seem
enhances
The
is
had
been
land.
suggestion
produce
by
its solemn
striking
example.
of the Pyrenees.
1830, but the weird rich
land was
not familiar,and there
this southern
not
most
a
in
there
does
He
of it.
description
clear impressionof the valley,guarded
the curious granite walls
of
peak, nor
in his
certain confusion
a
form
a reminiscence
originally
was
scenery
Tennyson
beauty of
or
veil its beauty,but their dim
versions of (Enone
two
sea
on
charm, and the mind of each reader,according
that is in it,must
do the rest.
the
to the power
The
was
never
a
the
to the version of 1842
turn
we
cirque. When
change is great. All is clear to the inward eye ; it is an
invented landscape', and every word tells. Even
more
the changes introduced
into the story of
remarkable
are
the actual coming of the goddesses. The description
of the
the
'
and
flowers is instinct with life,
And
is, as
at
passionof
last
creativeness
says,
of
the
(iv)Character-drawing.In
his hand
of
at what
studies
these
the
like fire,
lightand
centre
points which should be noticed in
Tennyson's art are connected with
of
and his invention
development
brake
crocus
"
'.
the whole
three
line
new
'
Stopford Brooke
Mr.
The
their feet the
the
may
are
be called
new
the
his
forms.
of 1833
poems
he
tried
character-drawing.Most
solitarytypes
of
such
women,
as
South, Margaret, "c.
They representthe
strong tendency of the age to individualism,but they lack
the complex force and passionwhich
Browning put into
in the
Mariana
his
FiftyMen
human
and
to
and
Women.
environment
A
character
of 1842.
its
always presents peculiardifficulties,
Tennyson's earlier attempts are
our
rouse
sympathy. There is a
the volume
isolated from
The
same
poems
colourless
decided
appear
and
fail
in
advance
very much
Introduction
xiv
and
altered,
there
also
are
of
Simplepictures
of much
ones
new
greater power.
youthfullove,amid
idyllic
surroundings,
or
Daughter, The Talking
Oak, show a firmer, more
sympathetictouch, and two
full of the passion
Love and Dittyand LocksleyHall
are
and complexityof real life. In the second of these poems
find that beautiful simile,which
we
Tennyson himself
such
as
we
find in The
Gardener's
"
"
considered
Love
finest he had
the
took
up the Glass of
hands ;
Every moment,
classical poems,
two
idea
intention
embodied
modern
Time,
shaken,
lightly
(v) Classical form.
thought
and
to have
Greek
into
:
"
it in his
turned
and
itself in
ran
volume
the
(Enone
seems
in
In
made
ever
The
been
to take
legend,and
some
Dear
is the
of
memory
our
one
noble
then, by infusing
it,demonstrate
its truth
for every
already been fully
The
*
golden sands.
of 1833 there were
Lotos -eaters}- Tennyson's
alterations in (Enone
have
dealt with, but some
also occur
ones
striking
Stanza 6 was
eaters.
added, beginning
age.
ing
glow-
wedded
in The Lotos-
lives
',
evidentlyto bring out more
clearlythe disastrous moral
effects of the fruit forgetfulness
of home, the wearing-out
"
of
4
conscience,
the
eye of the
three lines of the earlier version
soul '.
The
last twenty-
omitted,probably as
were
for the increasing
being too lightand jingling
solemnityof
the thought,and instead we
have the ominous
conception
of a thoroughlyLucretian Olympus
smilingLotos-eating
deities,careless of the plague-stricken
So
world.
the
singularunity of the poem is kept up throughout,and the
final impression
is one
of fear,for even
the idlydreaming
gods may wake to anguish.
(vi)Allegorical
style.Lastly,in the volume of 1833, we
find one
where Tennyson tries a new
and exceedingly
poem
difficultform, that of symbolism or allegory,
which though
it embodies
some
great ethical truth, yet partakesof the
"
nature
The
rather
poem
of vision than
is The Palace
1
See
narrative.
of Art.
Much
Appendix.
is said elsewhere
Introduction
the matter
about
improvements in
; here
only notice the immense
stylewhich Tennyson introduced
lack of
Weak
lines,prolixity,
of thought,are
in the sequence
would
we
and
form
of 1842.
interest,confusion
into the
human
xv
version
which
latest version
of this kind
every blemish
be regarded as
of
one
and
it may
such
a
works.
Tennyson's
ruthlesslyexcised
dramaticallyclear
of
the
of the
sake
has been
the
beautiful
of
but
in the
removed,
perfect
most
stanzas
were
keeping the
preparing for
the
thought
catastropheof
of 1842 there is one
other
masterlyexample
Vision of Sin, but in this
Tennyson's critical facultyfound but little to revise
(D)
i.e. The
difficultstyle,
same
alter in
or
and
Many
the
itself ;
close.
In the volume
even
for
form
lends
all faults to
subsequenteditions.
ideal.
Moral
We
pass
on
now
to
notice
in these
of a loftymoral ideal.
steady emergence
in 1833 we
Even
see
Tennyson'spreferencefor a peculiar
Teutonic,
type of character,a type we may call essentially
for it is akin to that which
again and again in the
appears
be said to
literature.
It may
finest English and German
have
two chief elements,
(a)First, a strong tendency to
action and progress, as opposed either to the sentimental
or
mysticaland dreamy type. Its chief characteristic is
level-headed devotion to duty in
a
a
bracingself-control,
the ordinarythingsof life. It is unmistakablyheard in the
in the
words of Pallas Athene, and finds sublime expression
Ode to the Duke
of Wellingtonand in the Morte a"Arthur,
two
the
volumes
of the value of endurance
even
strong sense
the
and
amid
Gleam, which, as
apparent failure. Merlin
already mentioned, is reallya retrospect of Tennyson's
(b) Second,
a
throws much
life,
lighton these earlier poems, and
literary
this peculiar
on
quality.It,too, is a solemn vision,
especially
of earlier days. There under
recalls the Ulysses
and vividly
the grey Magician,Arthur's seer, and
the sea-cliffs we
see
round with many
voices,
again the mysteriousdeep moans
Merlin is dying,but
and the ship strains at her anchor.
from slumber
he tells how
long ago he had been awakened
a
glimpseof a brightIdeal which he
by music and light,
in thinkingthat there
needs must
follow.
Are we
wrong
is something of this deepermeaning in The Day-dream,the
Introduction
xvi
rousingto
souls of
men
newer
"
follow
to
'
truth that sways the
knowledge ',and
KCS
', the fair girlwho by the touch of love awakes
of his father's
her Prince to the greater glories
*
?
court
Beyond the hills,and far away,
purple rim,
Beyond their utmost
the day,
Beyond the night,across
Through all the world she followed
again the
light. The
But
the
wraiths
of
changes. Many thingsmay obscure
gleam hovers in desolate hollows and
scene
in the earlier poems,
too,
is conscious of the blinding
the
pleasures
power of
of the
Tennyson
him.
And
mountain.
sense.
In The
we
Duty,in The Sisters,
of this patientendurance
of temptation,lest
gather,
the night is long,
And
the longernight is near.1
Vision
the need
the darkness
see
Then
ofSin, in Love
and
more
guidinglighthovers over gentler,
peaceful
of
recalls
the
it
loves
scenes
simple
villageyouth and
;
of the
maiden,2 and all the homely joys and sorrows
peasant and the labourer
yet all purifiedand ennobled
by singlenessof aim, and the doing of duty without
murmur
or
complaint. Again, statelier picturesfollow,
the glory of the court, beauty, romance,
minating
chivalry,culin the central figureof Tennyson's poetry,
the
"
"
c
Arthur
the
But
the
blameless
pomp
'.
and
intellect,
its very greatness and
nowhere
is this brought out
of
glory,test endurance, and
than in The Palace of Art.
more
clearly
the
to
Pride
of
Life,to
set
Culture
It is the
above
tion
temptathe
Love
of God.
And
Shut
he
that
out
Howling
Love out in turn shall be
Love
and on her threshold lie
shuts
from
in outer
darkness.
Another
a
false
1
danger evidentlyfelt by Tennyson was that of
ideal,or one which at best is not the highest. We
Vision
of Sin*
a
Cf. The
Gardener's Daughter.
Introduction
XV111
Such
old
extreme
and
found,
but
End,
for
faith
a
ever
became
in
indeed
an
for
ever'.
'
the
by,
gone
untravell'd
world,
Thus
twilight
the
to
came
years
'
indeed
and
the
through
man
himself
he
age
as
this
upheld
'the
of
low
eternal
Not
of
the
sunlight,
Not
of
the
moonlight,
Not
of
the
starlight!
a
'
land's
that
last
it
whose
was
verge
'.
till
in
limit
not
',
the
fades
margin
dark
day
life,
long
of
Life'
ANALYSIS
PART
GROUP
A.
I
CHARACTER
SKETCHES
PAGE
1. Mariana
the
in
South
xxii
......
2.
Eleanore
xxii
........
3. Fatima
xxii
........
4.
Rosalind
xxii
........
5.
6.
Margaret
Lady Clara
7. A
Dream
xxii
........
Vere
of
de
Fair
Vere
xxii
Women
xxii
.....
GROUP
1. The
2.
3.
B.
Miller's
NATURE-PAINTING
xxiii
Daughter
The
xxiii
May Queen
Hesperides
.......
xxiv
........
4.
The
Blackbird
5.
The
Death
xxiv
of the
Old
xxiv
Year
....
GROUP
1. Sonnet.
On
of
2.
'
You
3.
*
Of
4.
*
5.
the
old
Freedom
thy
2. The
'
ill at
the
on
land
Goose.
(Enone
invasion
xxv
tho'
why,
me,
with
ease
heights
love
.
.
.
xxv
'
.
far-brought
.
.
xxv
'
.
xxv
xxv
.......
GROUP
1.
late Russian
.......
sat
thou
of the
POEMS
POLITICAL
OR
result
Poland
ask
Love
The
PATRIOTIC
C.
PHILOSOPHICAL
D.
xxv
........
xxvi
Lotos-eaters
xxvi
3.
The
Vision
of
Sin
4.
The
Palace
of
Art
xxvi
.
5.
xxvi
Ulysses
PART
GROUP
1.
2.
The
The
3. The
A.
II
.
NATURE-PAINTING
xxviii
Eagle
.
An
Brook.
xxviii
Idyll
xxix
Daisy
GROUP
Locksley
.
B.
DRAMATIC
MONOLOGUE
xxix
Hall
b2
Analysis
xx
GROUP
1. The
2. The
3. The
Sisters
Gardener's
POEMS
LOVE
C.
PAGE
xxx
Daughter
xxx
xxxi
Oak
Talking
and Duty
xxxii
5. The
6. Come
7. Move
Day-dream
xxxii
8. The
Letters
4. Love
when
not
I
D.
xxxiii
Earth
eastward, happy
GROUP
xxxiii
dead
am
....
xxxiii
POEMS
PERSONAL
OF
INTEREST
1. To J. S
'
As when
with downcast
2. Sonnet.
eyes
3. To
after reading a Life and Letters
his Travels in Greece
4. To E. L., on
A
Farewell
5.
6. ' Break, break, break
xxxiii
'
,
.
xxxiii
.
.
.
.
xxxiii
xxxiv
.
.
xxxiv
........
'
7. The
8.
xxxiv
Poet's
Song
Afterthought
xxxv
xxxv
C. Macready
to W.
9. Sonnet
10. To the Rev. F. D. Maurice
GROUP
E.
xxxv
xxxv
SPECULATIVE
AND
THEOLOGICAL
1. St. Simeon
Stylites
Two
Voices
3. St. Agnes' Eve
4. Will
xxxvi
2. The
xxxv
xxxvi
.
PART
GROUP
A.
EARLY
1. The
Lady
III
SKETCHES
OF
FOR
THE
'IDYLLS
KING'
THE
of Shalott
xxxvii
2. Sir Galahad
xxxviii
3. Sir Launcelot
and
4. The Epic. Morte
GROUP
B.
Guinevere
Queen
.
.
.
d'Arthur
POEMS
3.
OF
MODERN
LIFE
xli
Audley Court
Walking to the
4. Edwin
5. The
xxxix
xl
1. Dora
2.
xxxvii
Mail
Morris ; or, The
Golden
Year
Lake
....
6. Amphion
7. Will Waterproof'sLyricalMonologue
.
.
.
xlii
xlii
xlii
xlii
xliii
xliii
Analysis
GROUP
C.
BALLAD
xxi
POETRY
PAQE
1. Godiva
xliv
2. Edward
Gray
xliv
xliv
xliv
xliv
xliv
3.
Lady Clare
4. The
Lord of Burleigh
The
5.
Beggar Maid
6. The
Captain
.
GROUP
...
PATRIOTIC
D.
POEMS
1. Hands
all round
2. The Third of February, 1852
3. The Charge of the Light Brigade
4. Ode on the Death
of the Duke
of
xlv
.
GROUP
E.
LATER
CLASSICAL
....
Wellington
AND
.
xlv
xlv
xlvi
PHILOSOPHICAL
POEMS
1. Tithonus
2. The
xlvi
.........
Voyage
xlvii
PART
GROUP
IN
the
A.
CHARACTER
which
by
the
wave
century, men's
of
sweeping over
Europe. The
revolutionary literature, the
was
spread
SKETCHES
early part of the nineteenth
greatly troubled
were
I
of
democratic
minds
thought
of France, the
Chartist
agitations,
state
to produce in men
combined
of culture a sense
of fear, lest
should
be
carried
of all social
too far, and the levelling
things
distinctions should end in dull monotony.
The result of this
intense
desire to develop
an
tendency to individualism,1
free lines,to worship and follow the one
of strongly
on
man
marked
rather
than
conform
to the rule of the
individuality
was
a
many.
Another
in the
of
men
effect was
to reawaken
interest in character -drawing,
of
that
short
is,
production,
giving definite types
poems
and women
less isolated from
their human
more
or
"
The
fashion compares
curiouslywith a similar
the
drama
of the seventeenth
tendency
century. In the
Jonsonian
teristic
Comedy of Humour, we also see some
specialcharacin a man
isolated and carried to such an excess,
that
sometimes
is almost
lost, and we
personality
sympathize with
If
him
than
with
is a danger
abstraction.
this
no
more
an
in the Drama, much
is it likelyto occur
in a short
even
more
is
where
the
outside
human
element
wholly wanting,
poem
and the type stands out alone, sharp,and colourless.
We have
in
included seven
this
five
are
simply pictures,
poems
group :
with
elaborate dresses and fanciful names.
women
environment.
in
'
'
1
See
Introduction,p.
xiii.
Analysis. Part
xxii
1. Mariana
in
the South
represents
a
I
forsaken
girl.
In
the
volume
of 1830 Tennyson had publisheda little poem
inspired
'
in the Moated Grange.
Mariana
by a line in Measure forMeasure
There the background is grey and sombre, and the gloom is that
is in
the scene
flats. In the later poem
of the Lincolnshire
France
and the colouringis deep and rich : the orange
Southern
with
and crimson
of sunset, the deep blue of a sky glittering
stars.
The figure,
however, is equally statuesque and lifeless,
simply that of a woman's desolation.
pression
elaboration of detail; the im2. In Eleanore, there is more
here there is
of colour is curiously vivid, yet even
find it resolves itself nearly
little variety: on
analysiswe
always into either gold or purple. Imperial,eastern beauty is
that even
what
motionless
Passion droops his
we
see, but so
"
"
wing and
'
sleeps'.
is an attempt to describe the wilder and more
ous
sensufor
it
love
isolate
the
moment
its
of
from
grander
phases
; to
it
in
its
show
to
and
lower
form,
only
personal
aspects,
purely
attraction, which is regardlessof others and careless of Duty
far from this,that we
so
Tennyson's deepest convictions were
is not a success.
wonder
that the poem
cannot
4. Rosalind appearedin the volume
of 1833, but was
suppressed,
3. Fatima
,
and not printedagain until 1884.
This has more
than
vitality
and is charming enough In its picture
the preceding poems,
of young sparkling
life; the careless girl,
untouched by passion,
of the breezy moorland
and the sunshine, is much
creature
a
attractive
to
modern
more
English thought than the languid
southern beauty.
5. Margaret is another
pretty though less energetictype of
careful to point out
English girl,but again Tennyson seems
that it is a picture of a soul asleep. Apart from the shock
and struggle
of existence, these beautiful but phantom women
know
neither real sorrow
real joy. Self-centred passion
nor
is no
of
the whole
life than the thoughtless
more
gaiety of the
child ; they who would know, must
taste it to the lees ',must
be willing
to put out on the untra veiled sea of beingand suffering,
of mystery and darkness.
6. In Lady Clara
Vere de Vere, the sixth poem
have
we
included
in this group,
there is the beginning of something
human.
more
quite different,
complex and therefore more
The haughty girl,
with the men
whom
she is too proud
trifling
'
love, is
to
strikingpicture,and,
enough,
likely
drawn from
forms
dark background
a
agony
to the selfish indifference of high birth.
7. Lastly,among
the character
sketches
have
we
placed
A Dream
Fair
first
Women.
It
was
of
publishedin 1833, but
a
while the pathos of the
life,
the moated
forMeasure, iii.1.
1
'At
grange
"
"
mother's
resides this
dejected Mariana.'
"
Mectsure
Character
no
alteration and
subjected to so much
revision,
in
the
later
versions
illustrate
improvements
remarkable
the development of Tennyson's critical
way
It also shows
in the delineation
of
a
great advance
the
a
sense.
immense
character.
In Cleopatraand
in
xxiii
was
poem
and
in
Sketches
sharp contrast,
in
we
Jephthah'sdaughter,standingas they do
have at last two
livingfigures
; dream-
be, but
shapes they
may
in them
still. The
throbs
the
passion and glory of the past
restlessly
pants for dominion,
one
in the
even
triumph
realms of the dead, the other still glows with
of national victoryand self-sacrifice.
GROUP
B.
the
NATURE-PAINTING
There is hardly a poem
of Tennyson's which
used as an illustration of his love for Nature.
This littlegroup has been selected,not because
it in a higher degree than
others, but because
certain
important elements which go to make
might
be
not
they exemplify
they point to
up
in
success
nature-painting.
1. In
have a story of village
Miller's Daughter, we
love,
all
and
set
in
the
simple, pure,
enduring,
homely beauty of
of the landscape,
Englishcountry life. There is no description
is perfectand
but the picture grows
before us till the whole
harmonious.
shows
No
more
clearlyTennyson's power
poem
of painting a background in sympathy with human
life and
It is to these lovers
emotion.
The cheerful
a happy earth '.
sounds of morning greet us : the skylark,the soft cooing of the
The
'
woodlands, the noisy millstream.
Moreover, it is
white
chestnut
The
delicate
of
the
blossoms, the
springtime.
breezy blue of the sky, the quiveringsunbeams, all combine to set
of the girlleaningfrom the window
the flowers.
off the figure
over
the poem
When
the lovers,
have touched
ends, age and sorrow
but love has outlived it all,and the sunset
is rosy.
remarkable.
2. In The May Queen the colours are even
more
doves
in the
The
earth is brilliant with
round the porch,cowslipsare
'
the wild
And
hollows
But
marsh
over
Honeysuckle
is
the hill,
marigold shines
like fire in swamps
and
gray.'
change comes,
girl-a
spring flowers.
and
all Nature
sympathizeswith
the
dying
*
When
the flowers come
again,mother, beneath the waning light,
You'll never
in the lone gray fields at night;
see
me
more
airs blow
cool
When
from the dry dark wold the summer
On the oat grass and the sword grass and the bulrush in the pool.'
Three
times, to her fancy,the
music
of the March
winds
seems
xxiv
Analysis.
I
Part
and the brightness
soul ; her time has come,
of
girl's
of
in
God
blessed
home.
to
her
of
the
a
speaks
light
3. In The Hesperides,the suitingof sound to sense, and the
of delineating
colour,are the most strikingelements in the
power
slow
the mystic dance of the
graceful,
nature-painting.Sleepless,
The
southern lightglows
metre.
the
warm
nymphs permeates
to
call the
dawn
"
on
the
Atlantic
blue, the
the
fruit-tree,guarded by
folds.
4. The
GROUP
There
A new
C.
of
star
's a new
face at
The
shines
on
dragon
the
with
hallowed
his
purple
Blackbird
reminds
us
chieflyof
Tennyson'ssympatheticknowledge of the habits of wild things,
and his keen observation
of bird life in particular.
5. In The Death
breathes
of the Old Year the whole poem
the stillness of a world under snow.
The night is starry and
cold. Slowly, with a sound of lingering
regret,the past with its
memories
and
then
slipsaway,
immediatelywith the crowing of
the cock the charm
beginsto break, the cricket chirps,and
'
little poem
silver
red-combed
face at the
the door.'
PATRIOTIC
OR
door, my
friend,
POLITICAL
POEMS
The
in this group
five poems
throw
considerable
lighton
human
Freedom
and
Tennyson's attitude towards
Progress.
times
The
difficult. Reform
in every
one's
were
was
very
in 1832, but it was
mouth
taken up rather by the well-to-do
middle
classes,and promised but little for the suffering
poor.
Still,the very fact of democratic ideas being in the air disturbed
riots
society,and the result was
deep-seatedunrest, and even
and disturbances.
This state
of things produced in Tennyson, and
in many
like him, a distrust of what
he considered
'mob
fury', 'raw
haste ',and ' lawless din ; the anxious
fear
'
lest
Should
fire the
many
wheels
of
over
haste
change
which
he dwells in his unpublished poem
The Statesman.1
A nice balance
between
the tendencies of the present, and the
traditions of the past, is there held up
the pattern of true
as
on
statesmanship. A strong English common
loyaltyto the
sense,
of
too
Constitution,suspicion anything
reactionaryor subversive
of law
and order, such were
the characteristics of the LiberalConservatism
of the age.
This was
difficult point of view to introduce into poetry.
a
'
3. Freedom
with lipsdivine the falsehood
turning to scorn
1
See
Life of Tennyson, p.
93.
xxvi
Analysis. Part
1
is the
of the Problem
of which the four other poems
statement
?
is Perfection,the rtXciWtf 1 of man
the working out. What
Three answers
have always been ready.
1. Is it the gratification
of the Body
the pleasures
of sense?
Let us
of the Hedonist
This, in its crudest form, is the answer
eat and drink, for to-morrow
die '.
we
2. Is it the culture of the Intellect,the fullness of mental
are
"
'
"
development ?
This is the Aristotelian
I take
position:
mind
possessionof men's
and
I
the sects may
not what
care
I sit as God
holding no form
But contemplatingall.2
deed,
brawl,
of creed
Or lastly,
3. Is it spiritual
and
moral
of the
the answer
perfection,
which
Idealist,that goodwill,spoken of by Kant the philosopher,
at last developsinto a
symmetrical passion for good ?
'
'
the splendourof Here,
snow-cold
to this ever-present
Pallas, stand as types of the three answers
problem. Shall it be Laughter and Beauty, or Power, wisdom
will
bred, and throned of wisdom,' or the third, the full-grown
life of shocks, dangers,and deeds,' 'until pure Law
a
corn'
?
measure
perfectFreedom
(Enone is shadowed
the
confusion and horror brought about
by
the
choice
of
Paris. The other poems bringout these thoughts
by
still further.
In the Lotos-eaters we
shall hear again the seductive voice
of Aphrodite,while the final results on
itself are
the nature
Rosy-fingered
Aphrodite,
"
"
"
*
-
*
"
vividlyportrayed in The Vision of Sin.
In The Palace of Art there is a masterlypictureof a soul rich
in all thingsof the Mind.'
Again we see Here, with her proffer
of royalpower ample rule,unquestion'd
', seeingmen, in power
'
'
'
Only are likest gods, who have attained
Rest in a happy place and quiet seats
Above
the thunder, with undying bliss
In knowledge of their own
supremacy.'
subtle. It has been
Ulyssesthere is something much more
said that in it Tennyson drew the portraitof his own
mind, and
when
speaking to his son he said, It gave my feelingsabout
the need of going forward and bravingthe struggle
of lifeperhaps
In
'
simply than anythingin
more
Here
the
to
we
must
notice
problem, and
is
undoubtedly the third answer
working out of the words of Pallas
that
a
In Memoriam\
it is
Athene.
*
Ulysses,'said Emerson,
belongs to
destined to be the highest,and to be
next
1
'
generation.'It recalls
i.e.the attainment
words
in
of full growth.
one
a
high class
of
poetry,
cultivated in the
of Tennyson'sletters :
more
2
Palace
of Art.
xxvii
Philosophical
'
Thro'
darkness
is there built
and
storm
for His
and
weariness
created
of mind
and
to the Gates
of
body
Light.'
ones
passage
firstpublished in 1842, and no alterations were
made
written
after
in
in it subsequently. It was
1833, soon
probably
Arthur Hallam's death.
It is not, as Mr. Churton Collins points
it suggestedby the Odyssey.
the
of
was
Homer,
nor
out,
Ulysses
the spirit,
The germ,
and the sentiment
of the poem, are from
the 26th Canto of Dante's Inferno,where Ulyssesin the Limbo
of the Deceivers speaks from the flame which swathes him.'
Neither my
fondness for my son, nor
my aged sire'sdistress,
the affection due which should have rejoicedPenelope's
heart,
nor
win
availed to overpower
within me
to
experience
eagerness
my
but
of the world, and of the virtues and vices of mankind
;
I started on the expanse
of the deep sea with a singlevessel and
with that small company
I and
which had not deserted me.
old and
when
reached
the
we
companions were
my
weary,
his
strait
where
Hercules set up
narrow
boundary-marks.
O brothers," I cried, ye who
through dangers innumerable
have
reached the West, grudge not to the too brief waking-time
still remains, to win, by
of our
which
senses
sun's wake, the knowledge of the uninhabited
not created to live the
you of your origin; ye were
but to pursue
virtue and intelligence."
By this brief address
I made
companions so eager for the voyage, that hardlyafter
my
that
could I have
restrained them ; and
stern
turning our
toward the morn
we
sped our mad flightwith oars for wings.
did
the
Already
eye of night behold all the s*tars of the other
poleand our pole so low that it rose not above the sea level.'
Tozer's Translation.)
(Inferno,Canto xxvi, 94-126.
for the Greek
Ulysses (Latin name
Odysseus) was
King of
island
off
the
Corinthian
He
sailed
for the
a
Ithaca, rocky
gulf.
Trojan War under Agamemnon ; his sagacityin contrivingthe
wooden
horse led to the fall of Troy, and
then, after many
wanderings and an absence of thirtyyears, he succeeded in
reachinghome in safety,where he was welcomed
by his faithful
he
wife Penelope,and his son Telemachus.
According to Homer
returned alone,all his companions having perished,but Tennyson,
for dramatic
has altered the story,and represents him
purposes,
survivors
the
of the old crew.
as
calling
together
first
The
point to notice is the nature-painting. Something
has been said in the Introduction
about
Tennyson's invented
direct
made
are
we
description,
landscape; here, without any
of the surroundings
conscious
almost
dramatic
touches.1
The
by
barren crags of rugged Ithaca stand out againstthe glow of the
sunset, the lightsbegin to twinkle from the rocks, there gloom the
It
a
was
'
'
...
.
"
.
.
"
.
.
.
"
1
and
The
is created
should
be compared with the ghost scene
in Macbeth, where a sympatheticnature
simply by the allusions in the speeches.
poem
the witches
in Hamlet
background
xxviii
Analysis. Part
I
broad seas.' The moon
slowlyrises,the stars shine out, and
the
the deep moan
the
recalls
of the waters.
sound
of
even
verse
Then
against this symbolicbackground,full of the mystery and
of Ulysses.
the wistfulness of evening,there stands out the figure
All is hi harmony
the waning day, the ship in port,the aged
dark
"
king, with the indomitable
spiritstrainingout into a wider life.
The glow in the west beckons, the sails are rounded
by the wind,
and
the man
duction
is restless to be gone. 7 After a few lines of introthe poem
tain
brings before us the Past ; lines 21 to 43 conthe present contrast
his
from
between
and
son
;
Ulysses
43 to the end we see the Future.
As Mr. StopfordBrooke says,
interest here
the dominant
is the human
interest
the
the soul that cannot
rest, whom
the
the
unknown
allures
of
exact
to
action,
image
opposite
always
of the temper of mind
of the Lotos-eaters '. The Past is briefly
expressedin the words of Pallas : it had been indeed a life of
shocks, dangers,and deeds ', a vast and rich experience which
had become
part of the soul, the arch wherethro' gleamed the
true ; the
untravell'd world '. The thought is psychologically
richer the mind, the greater its capacity for further reception,1
the nobler the spirit,
the more
it
'
.
.
.
"
*
*
each rebuff
Welcomes
makes
earth's smoothness
rough,
sit
that
bids
stand, but
nor
nor
sting
That
Each
It may
be
compared
with
Tennyson'spictureof
go.8
Virtue
:
She desires no isles of the blest,no quiet seats of the just,
To rest in a golden grove, or to bask in a summer
sky,
Give her the wages
of going on, and not to die.
PART
A.
GROUP
II
NATURE-PAINTING
Much
has already been said about Tennyson's deep love for
in this small group,
Nature.8
The first of the poems
to catch
1. The Eagle, is an excellent example of his power
the essentials of a landscape,and delineate them in a few vivid
line The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls
words : the famous
has often
been noticed, with its peculiar aptness to describe
'
a
wind-swept
2. In
The
Farm
scene
:
The
is
seen
sea,
Brook
a
some
homely
the time,
a
summer
'
from
a
great height.
and
remarkable
out.
points come
the
brook
near
Philip's
babbling
one, by
afternoon.
The music of the running
new
This is a common
thought in German
philosophy. Knowledge
in the deepest sense, inasmuch
is power
it involves the capacity
as
for further progress.
2
3
Rabbi Ben Ezra, Browning.
See Introduction, p. xii.
1
Naturewater
to
seems
head
in middle
Painting
ring through the
age
back
forlorn
'
A
metre.
sits
musing
xxix
'
man
the
on
with tonsured
stile. He is a
from foreignlands, but not to home; the
shadows
the pleasant scene, and as he muses,
at
once
thought
paints her picturesof the dead and the lost; of the
memory
brother, who had sung of this very brook, of
gifted young
garrulousold Philip, of blue-eyedKatie and the innocent plot to
gain time and make up a lover's quarrel. It is a prettypicturemade
wanderer
come
"
"
fields,white, like the
up
of
and
Englishwoods
sunny
full of
Twinkled
The
shy wild
the
surf, with
'
where
things,
innumerable
ear
meadow-sweet,
in copse and fern
'
tail.
and
the brook still sounds
in our
is
nature
ears, and
she
beautiful
but
the
has
man
as
was
just
twenty years ago ;
Thus by a subtle change
aged, and the dead are otherwhere.
feel the sadness of it all. Even Philip's
we
tongue is silent now,
we
spend our years as a tale that is told ', and nature heeds
Then
not.
at the last Tennyson breaks
into the sorrowful
us
reverie
with
the thought of reunion
after many
days, and
of
Lawrence
finds
friends
is
the
his
and
comforted.
Aylmer
youth
Such is the poem, showing the poet'scurious power of throwing
the scene
the glamour of remembered
over
beauty,while the sounds
of Nature, here the ceaseless cadence
of the brook, suggest
rippleof
as
'
"
"
truth.
philosophical
For
But
men
may
I go
on
come
for
and
men
may
go,
ever.
written
in Edinburgh in 1853.
3. The Daisy was
Tennyson
had left his wife and
at Richmond,
their infant son
whilst he
of
North
went
further to the
the
'.
Gray Metropolis
The poem
is an
account
of a journey in the July of 1851.
He
and his wife had started from Boulogne, and, though they
were
or
Venice, they greatly
prevented from visitingRome
'
the
drives
the
the glorious
over
mountains,
enjoyed
evening
violet colouringof the Apennines and the picturesquenessof
the peasants beatingout their flax or spinning with their distaffs
at their cottage doors.'
The metre
should speciallybe noticed.
of the best among
the many
he
Tennyson ranked it as one
had invented, and called it a far-off echo of the Horatian
Alcaic.1
'
GROUP
B.
A
MONOLOGUE
DRAMATIC
Mr. Churton
Collins placesLocksleyHall among
the studies of
Passion. Tennyson himself says it is a dramatic impersonation.
There is not one
touch of biography in it from
beginning to
a
end.
edifice.'
is
Hall
an
Locksley
entirelyimaginative
'
.
.
1
verse
2
.
.
.
.
Alcaeus
was
a
Lyric poet of Mytilene who
called after him the Alcaic.
Letter to Charles Esmarch.
Life,by Lord
invented
a
Tennyson, p.
kind
695.
of
Analysis.
xxx
Part
II
It is curious
that more
to note
than one
expressed
person
bitter resentment
at the poet for having put into verse
their
own
private experience of faithless ladies, and another critic
the story of Tennyson's own
calmly stated that it was
past.
In a somewhat
quaint letter written in 1888, when Locksley
Hall sixty years after had
appeared,he protests against this
last view, saying, that he never
had a cousin Amy, that his
little boys, and that he was
not
grandchildren were
even
!
white-headed
Lord Tennyson says that his father dedicated
this later poem
to his wife, because he thought the two
poems
in the future two
of the most
be
to
teresting
inwere
likely
historically
of his works, as descriptive
of the tone of the age at two
distant periodsof his life.1
Certain points worthy of specialnotice are
1. Its form.
A dramatic
impersonation differs from a drama
inasmuch
the speeches and actions of the other characters
as
"
only be imagined from their effects on the one who tells
the story. All is steeped in one
and that must
personality,
to
be
that
extent
of
the
some
necessarily
author, or at least
can
that of one
definite,consistent creation of the author's mind.
2. The
of youth; youth in its
picture is essentiallyone
in its passionateattachments, and sanguine
brilliant beginning,
bitterness of its disillusion,
temperament ; youth in the extreme
its exaggeration of wrongs,
its strong tendencies
to
action
action which we
know
by instinct will infallibly
assuage
at last the dull throb of pain. One
beautiful simile has already
been alluded to.* Another
hardly less remarkable follows it:
"
Love
took up the
with might;
Smote the chord of
harp
of Life, and
smote
on
all the
Self,that, trembling,
pass'din music
chords
out
of
sight.
Thirdly,we
notice
that
the
attitude
here
towards
the power
of wealth, the strenuous
the ordinary
competition,nay, even
bonds of society,is almost one
of revolt ; but it must
also be
remembered
that Tennyson has put these views into the mouth
of a youth whose mind is almost unhinged by disappointment.
GROUP
C.
LOVE
POEMS
Sisters was
first published in 1833, and
1. The
attracted
of
attention.
deal
Kemble
the
ballad
set
to music,
good
Fanny
but she was
the whole inclined to think it too painful,and
on
to wish such things should not be written.
2. The
idyllof The Gardener's Daughter is another picture
It is peculiarly
of youthful love.
rich in colouring,
because
a
1
8
See Life,by Lord
Tennyson, p.
See Introduction, p. xiv.
693.
Love
Poems
xxxi
'
*
the lover is an artist ; immense
was
care
the
the
of
the
central
bestowed
girlstanding among
on
figure
also shows Tennyson'ssympathy with simple
The poem
roses.
The
close throws
life.
a
peculiarglamour of sadness
ordinary
the whole.
We suddenlyrealize that we have been standing
over
before a sacred veiled picture: the idol of youth is now
only
The present Lord
the blessed memory
of old age.
Tennyson
mentions
an
unpublishedpoem of his father's called The AnteChamber, and intended as a Prologueto The Gardener's Daughter.
The closing
It is a descriptionof Eustace, the Artist's friend.
as
Tennyson
lines
says,
surely of
are
more
the author of In Memoriam
I
than
ordinary interest,coming
from
:
bless
...
The
Framer, Him
All-perfect
who
the heart
made
twinfold necessity
whole life an overflowing urn
Capacious both of Friendshipand of Love.
Forethinkingits
Thro'
one
of these two
powerful factors in life inspired
his finest poetry. It is the complete failure of both which
makes
the darkest tragedy of the Arthur Epic :
Tennyson's ideal
I lean'd in wife and
All whereon
Is traitor to my
peace
My God, thou hast forgotten me
.
.
.
'
3.
was
friend
in my
death.'
Tennyson is said to have told a friend that The Talking Oak
an
experiment meant to test the degree in which itis within
In one of his
the power of poetry to humanize
external nature.
Sellwood
letters to Miss
throwing
occurs
an
interestingpassage
'
Dim
and
mystic
feeling about nature.
light on his own
childhood.
far
into
hill
reach
back
with
tree
and
sympathies
A known
landscape is to me an old friend, that continually
talks to me
of my
own
youth, and half -forgottenthings,and
for me
indeed does more
than many
old friend that I know.
an
1
old park is my delight.'
The enthusiasm
almost recalls the
of the oak for the maiden
fashion
life
and
of
ascribing
feelingto inanimate
Euphuistic
Sir
M. Jusserand
choice examples from
nature.
quotes some
for
consoled
In
the
his
e.
Arcady
valleysare
PhilipSidney, g.
which wind in the midst of
their lowness by the silver streams
another
them : the ripples of the Ladon
struggle with one
Philoclea is bathing, but those which
to reach the place where
her refuse to give up their fortunate
surround
position. A
"
how
the winds
mark
not
Did
shepherdess embarks :
you
whistled and the seas
danced
for joy ; how the sails did swell
An
'
with
prideand
all because
1
Life of Tennyson,
1
EnglishNovel
they had
p. 144.
in the Time
Urania
?
"
Jusserand.
of Shakespeare,
xxxii
Analysis. Part
II
says that The Talking Oak is beautiful and the most
of 1842, althoughit is a little spoiltby its
the
volume
of
poetic
wit and ingenuity.
4. In Love and Duty we have a much
serious psychological
more
there is anything autobiographical
about the
study. Whether
which
need
The
is
not
matter
a
concern
us.
positionis
poem
Emerson
the problem indeed is
:
common
clear, sufficiently
sufficiently
that of the Idyllsof the King in another form.
Intense love
between
and woman,
man
quite innocent in its beginning,and
then the sudden
revelation that duty points to separation and
is to be the sequel ?
Is sufferingto end in
What
not union.
the death of Love ? Even evil things work out to good, can this
'
greatest, this wonder
', end hi dust and a ruined life ? Surely
it
has
for
alreadyquickened and ennobled the souls of both.
not,
Then if good results from ill,
why not give way, and follow Love,
it
is
Lancelot
did
?
as
Nay,
Tennyson'sown voice which we hear,
that were
Love at its highestand noblest is Duty.
treason.
"
"
heroic for earth too hard,
left the ground to lose itself in the sky,
Are music sent up to God
by the lover and the bard ;
heard
shall hear it by and by.1
that
He
it
once
we
:
Enough
The
The
high that proved too high, the
passion that
It is the man
who
they bid adieu for ever.
speaks,
to reach
and perhaps that is the reason
why Love in him seems
its fullest Beauty. So completelyis self effaced,that he would
And
so
the shadow
of his own
from
pain, and with
the
he
unfaithful
to
truth,
'pointsher forward to
quiet eyes,
'. Truly,to such Love is all and death is nought '.
a distant light
first publishedin 1842, but The Sleeping
5. The Day-dream was
of 1830.
the poems
The prologue
Beauty had appeared among
Collins quotes
Mr. Churton
added after 1832.
and apologue were
shield
her
even
'
'
the best commentary
words
as
on
it, Poetry
is like shot-silk with
glancing colours. Every reader
many
find his own
and
must
interpretationaccording to his ability,
Two
the
with
his
to
poet.'
according
thoughts may
sympathy
which this beautiful poem
the many
be noticed among
suggests.
has
is
Love
revelation
in
a
nd
that
ideal
a
an
life,
First,
a
power
and moral activityto which
to a mental
to raise man
or woman
their previous existence was
as
a
even
sleep. That care and
with it,the poet
pain,nay, even danger and failure may come
he picturesthe
of
but
stanza
in
beauty
a
extraordinary
grants,
land, that new world which is the old
journey into the unknown
Tennyson's own
'
'
Across
the hills and
their utmost
deep into the
Beyond
And
It is
at last the
that
significant
far away
purple rim
dying day.
girlfollows
the night'.
1
Browning, Abt Vogler.
her lover
'
beyond
xxxiv
Analysis. Part
the
(1848). But
previous"year
public should
II
Tennyson was
unwillingthat
This
horror
of
think
so.
publicity,
vulgar
with
criticism,and the intrusions of the interviewer, remained
Mr.
his
In
letter
dated
to
all
life.
Gladstone,
a
Tennyson
which throws a quaint
December, 1883, we find this postscript,
lighton his views : ' I heard of an old lady the other day to
all the great men
When
of her time had written.
whom
rushed
her
Froude's CarlyU came
she
to
and
to an
out,
room,
up
she kept their letters,and flung them
old chest there wherein
into the fire. " They were
written to me," she said, " not to
the public,"and she set her chimney on
fire,and her children
"
The chimney 's on
and grandchildrenran in.
fire !
Never
"
she said, and went on burning. I should like to raise
mind !
altar to that old lady,and burn incense upon it.'1 The person
an
is addressed
the poem
be identified with any
to whom
cannot
brother
Charles
has
been suggested,and
certainty. Tennyson's
the allusions seem
appropriate to his life and character, but
it is more
some
probably
imaginary person.
4. To
E. L., on
his Travels in Greece.
Edward
Lear, the
whom
this
to
is
long
lifea
addressed,
was
landscape painter,
poem
friend of Tennyson's. The accounts
of his travels in his
Journal
he
best known
But
is
are
as the
remarkably graphic.
the
author of
Nonsense
Books '.
In 1837 the Tennysons were
5. A Farewdl.
obligedto leave
the
the
littlehamlet
Lincolnshire wold where the
on
Somersby,
which
had
and
been his home for so many
born,
was
great poet
the
"
"
'
The Rectory, with its lawn and old-fashioned garden, its
years.
and above all,
its swift steep-bankedbrook, inspired
flowers,
many
best
his
of
the
of
some
earlyNature poetry. This brook is
very
also described in the Ode to Memory, and is referred to more
than
In
in
Memoriam.
once
*
6. Break, break, break.
This
a
was
composed in
poem
Lincolnshire lane at five o'clock in the morning between
soming
blosnot publisheduntil 1842, but it unhedges '. It was
doubtedly
refers to the great sorrow
of Tennyson's life,the
death of his friend.
The scenery is that of Clevedon
Church,
'
*
obscure and solitary
the
above
the
Bristol
Channel.
on
heights
the graveyard you can
From
hear the music of the tide as it
washes
the
low
cliffs
not
against
a hundred
yards away.'z In
the vault below the manor
aisle of this church rests all that is
mortal of Arthur Henry Hallam.
*
There
The
And
And
twice
a
day
salt sea-water
hushes
makes
a
1
8
the
Severn
passes
fills:
by,
half the babbling Wye
silence in the hills.
Lifeof Tennyson,p.
Ibid.,p. 247.
670.
of Personal Interest
Poems
The
is hush'd
And
hush'd my
When
fill'dwith
I brim with sorrow
Wye
xxxv
moved
nor
along,
deepest griefof all
tears that cannot
fall,
drowning song.1
7 and 8. The Poet's Song and Afterthought
are
autobiographical
in the sense
that they show on the one
hand Tennyson'slofty
conception of the poet'smission to the world, and on the other
the temptation of the poetasters to cavil at others, and to bow
weakly
false criticism.
to W. C
Macready. Tennyson was intimate with
Mr. Macready, the actor, during his Cheltenham
days in 1847,
when
he used to make
to see
London
to
frequent expeditions
his friends.
He did not approve of Macready as
Hamlet
',but
'
liked him as
Macbeth
'. This Sonnet
addressed
to him
was
the
in
1851.
on
leaving
stage
10. To the Rev. F. D. Maurice.
Among the brilliant members
of the Tennyson set at Cambridge in 1830, there was
a
society
Frederick
called the Apostles, the originatorof which
was
Maurice.
Arthur Hallam
The effect which he
writes of him :
has produced on the minds of many
at Cambridge by the single
"
creation of that Societyof
Apostles (forthe spirit
though not
the form was
dare to
created by him) is far greaterthan I can
in the
calculate,and will be felt,both directlyand indirectly,
2
is
to
that
us.'
that
asked
It
Maurice
was
Tennyson
age
upon
be godfatherto his son Hallam, and when the Theological
Essays 3
out in 1858 they were
dedicated to the poet. The latter
came
that
believed
if Maurice's doctrine had been somewhat
more
within ordinarycomprehension,he would have taken his place
to
a
9. Sonnet
'
*
"
foremost
as
thinker among
GROUP
the churchmen
of
our
AND
SPECULATIVE
E.
age.
THEOLOGICAL
This littlegroup
has many
and classical poems
begun
*
I
was
thingsin
of Part
*
as
so
I.
sophical
philo-
The Two
I wrote
When
early as 1833.
burden
miserable,
a
utterly
with the
common
to
was
Voices.(2)
it,'said Tennyson,
myself and to my
"
'
"
Sooner or later
family,that I said, Is lifeworth anything?
nearly all thoughtfulpeople pass through an experienceof this
of Death
a placewhere, as Bunyan
sort
a valleyof the Shadow
of the fiends' voices in our
says, we are hard put to it on account
It is
which
from our
own.
we
can
scarcelydistinguish
ears,
such
with
where we
a
struggle
place of obstinate questionings,
"
"
1
a
In Memoriam.
3
By
F. Maurice.
02
Lifeof Tennyson, p.
36.
Analysis.
xxxvi
problems as
the waste
of Nature
and
to
our
Than
In
We
hear
with
be
on
the
high-engender'dbattles 'gainstthe
torture
of the
mind
to
more
longings for that undiscovered
weary
seductive
of Despair,
tones
after stormie
after life does
Sleepe after toyle,port
Ease
lie
'
again Hamlet's
even
the dead
ecstasy.8
restless
country ',or the
II
ference
pain in this Universe, and the indifdo
the
elements,
sufferings. Why
servile ministers, join their
infirm and old ? *
Better
Part
death
after warre,
seas,
greatlyplease.3
final answer
given by Tennyson is only an echo of Spenser
As the sentinel cannot
and the great writers of earlier times.
of the morning watch, so the later
leave his post tillthe sound
poet'sthoughts travel back to the heroes of old,
The
Who
Saw
And
rowing hard against the stream
distant gates of Eden
gleam
did not dream
it was
dream.
a
ends with the peace of the Sabbath
poem
of hope. It is better to live on.
message
morning, and
The
No
Has
Whatever
life that
ever
crazy
breathes
sorrow
the
saith
breath
with
human
trulylong'd for death.
The
next two poems, St. Agnes' Eve (3)and St. Simeon
Stylites
view
another
from
different
of
take
(1),
points
great problem,
up
St. Agnes' Eve was
first publishedin 1837, in
viz. Asceticism.
The Keepsake. In the reignof Diocletian a young girlof thirteen
is said to have suffered martyrdom ; she it is whom
Tennyson
has taken as his St. Agnes, a spiritof unearthly purity, the
companion picture to the Nun in The Holy Grail,or possibly
himself.
In the later poems
to Sir Galahad
we
even
see
more
attractive
this most
clearlywhat Tennyson's view was of even
form
says
of asceticism.
Galahad's
career
was
short, and
Arthur
expressly,
And
one
And
now
However
hath
had the vision face to face,
his chair desires him here in vain
him otherwhere.
they may crown
*
The poem
mysterious language
goes on to hint in somewhat
that in the King himself, patient,duty loving,doing his work
shall find the Ideal,and not in any cloistered
in the world, we
1
8
King Lear, HI. ii.
Faerie Queene, I. ix.
40.
2
Macbeth,
"
The
Holy
ni, ii.
Grail.
and
Speculative
To
saint.
him
of
consciousness
xxxvii
the visions of the unseen,
and the
daily come
when
he
last
at
and
immortality,
passes to the
Isles of Avilion, Bedivere
Sounds,
Around
Theological
as
a
if
hears
in
the
distance
fair
city were
king returning from his
some
a
great cry,
voice
one
wars.
In St. Simeon
(1),we see the pride of Asceticism at
Stylites
The strange assumption of abject humilitymingled
its basest.
with the sense
of having merited
a right to a
high place,the
with the ever-present dread that at the
clutchingat the crown,
curious
last moment
St. Simeon
and
it may
elude him, make
a
complicated study ; we feel that whatever saintshipmay mean,
nothing so entirely self-centred can
possiblybe meritorious,
and we pity the deluded sufferer more
than we despisehim.
Will (4).
we
Finally in this group
place the little poem,
will. Will, it has been
desire,when there is present with it a belief in the possibility
of attainment, and it is tentative action which
generates
it out of mere
desire. Thus
weaker
will grows
through acted
If reallystrong, neither
crime, or stronger through noble deeds.
Character
is
completely fashioned
a
said, is
calamity can force it. This then is Tennyson's
to the problem he has suggested. It is will which
own
answer
the
what
makes
will fixed on
a
saintship
duty, no matter
;
sufferingnor
be.
environment
or the apparent disaster may
the
Launcelot
saw
beauty of this ideal. He was essentially
sleek ; his mood
noble by nature
not sin and grow
; he could
homeless
the
often
like
Arthur
noted
fiend, and even
was
a
ful
trouble in his eyes '. In his agony
he longed to break the shameHe
Grail.
the
he
the
of
and
went
bonds,
Quest
even
on
willed to give up his sin, and
did all but the one thing; he never
all
in
vain.
Arthur
went
so
was
on
no
quest, and everything
'
earthlyfailed him,
it may
we
seem,
of the west, he
are
but
he
willed righteousness
and, strange as
in that last dim battle
that even
and passed to his throne.
conscious
conquered
PART
GROUP
A.
4
FOR
SKETCHES
EARLY
IDYLLS
III
OF
THE
THE
KING'
remarkable
to the five most
introduced
this group
we
are
the
the
in
characters
King.
Idyllsof
been written
have
as
1. The Lady of Shalott may
early as
di
called
the
Donna
Italian
is
1832.1
There
an
romance
May,
Scalotta,which tells the story of Elaine's love and death, and
IN
1
Fitzgeraldmentions
its
being read
to
him
at
Cambridge.
xxxviii
Analysis.
Part
III
Shalott is a form (throughthe French) of Astolat.
The meaning
has occasioned much
discussion.
has
Tennyson
curiouslyaltered
the story to suit his own
in
Canon Ainger he
to
speaking
;
purpose
said : ' The new-born
love for something,for some
in the
one
wide world from which she has been so long secluded, takes her
of the region of shadows
out
into that of realities.' But this
Most
of the
can
hardly be said to fully explain the matter.
give
the
puzzle and look upon the poem
as
brilliant fancy with no
specialmeaning. They regard it as
growing quitesimply in the mind of Tennyson by the association
of ideas.
connexion
in thought
May we not, however, see some
this and the fullydeveloped Idyll? Is there not somebetween
thing
commentators
shadowy
up
in the love
even
of Elaine
for Lancelot
?
It has
been
of Tennyson's women
suggested that none
are
wholly
One
of
istics
charactersatisfactory.
Shakespeare'smost remarkable
is the power
to paint strong and
yet attractive women,
women
who, like Portia,can save the situation when men
are
despairing,or who, like Volumnia, may deliver their country.
None
of Tennyson's women
are
quite of this type, and Elaine,
lovable as she is,seems
almost the opposite. At the touch of
disaster the nature
even
gives way, and cannot
adjust itself
the
old environment.
Affection for father and
brother,
needs
of the lonely home, cannot
keep her, and so she
fades out of life with the song upon
her lipsabout
Love
and
to
the
Death,
'And
sweet
is death
who
puts
an
end
to
pain.'
Tennyson's heroic men must stay at the post of duty, however
bitter life may
be, and so must
Shakespeare'snoblest women.
the poet seems
Here
to picture a love
with less breadth
and
has
since
it
less
with
to
do
the intellectual life : the
strength,
girlhas lived in fantasy,so when the great blow comes, there is
nothingelse to turn to. Life is quite empty, and she dies. The
The key to this tale of
present Lord Tennyson writes thus :
is
human
of
and is to be
magic symbolism
deep
significance,
found in the lines
'
Or when
the moon
overhead
was
Came
two
lovers
latelywed ;
young
"
I am
half sick of shadows
said
The Lady of Shalott.'
"
and improved in the later
Spedding in the Edinburgh writes of it:
The lady of Shalott is stripped of all her finery,her pearl
"
garland, her velvet bed, her royal apparel, and her
blinding
diamond
and
in
the
bright", are all gone;
simple
certainly
white robe which
to much
she now
her beauty shows
wears,
The
was
poem
edition of 1842.
very
Mr.
much
altered
'
greater advantage.'
2. Sir Galahad.
This
beautiful poem
was
publishedin 1842,
Early Sketches for
and
a
alterations
no
prelude
to
i
Idyllsof
the
King
'
xxxix
in it. It forms
subsequentlymade
one
Idylls,The Holy Grail.
its originin remote
antiquity. From a Celtic legend
were
of the finest of all the
The story has
with distinctlyheathen
associated
with
colouring it became
and the Grail or dish used at the Last
Joseph of Arimathea
with
the
Supper. This sacred vessel, afterwards connected
Crucifixion,
was
kept at Glastonbury,but as the times waxed evil
the holy cup disappeared. Then
it seemed
to come
in vision to
the pure hi heart.
Percival's sister,the holy nun, saw
it,and it
she who
kindred
was
the
in
a
recognized
spirit
boy-knight
Galahad
him the sword-belt woven
: she bound
from her own
on
brighthair,she bade him go forth as her knightto break through
all ;
She sent the deathless passion in her eyes
Thro' him, and made
him hers and laid her mind
On him, and he believed in her belief.
Tennyson was no doubt attracted by the artistic beauty of this
be forgotten,that when
not
the Grail had
subject,but it must
passed hidden through the great Hall, and when so many of the
to seek it for a twelvemonth
and
knights had taken the vow
did not express approval. He even
in
a day, King Arthur
saw
the
it
to
maim
order
the
of
round
a
sign
Table,
great
that for most
the life of unselfish
men
giving as his reason
work
the way
for others was
to holiness,and
that if they
'
'
missed
that, it would end in
the quagmire.
and Queen
3. Sir Launcdot
King
we
have
In this
we
slowlythrough
sympatheticNature
pass
a
followingwandering fires,lost
Guinevere.
the seasons
In
the
in
Idyllsof the
of the year,
background for human
and
thus
passion.
and Queen Guinevere, it is the
fragment, Sir Launcdot
the victorious Arthur
had
joyous springtime. When
swept
back the heathen and won
his bride,he sent his best loved knight
to fetch her.
And
Lancelot
the flowers,
pass'd away among
latter
(For then was
April,)and return'd
the
in
flowers,
Among
May, with Guinevere.*
It
springwhen the young Gareth won his spurs. Camelot
still
was
flashingin the early sunlight,
misty morn,
In Geraint and
and brave men.
a
mystic city of pure women
Enid
it is early summer,
close upon
Whitsuntide, but there are
shadows
the suspicionthat all is
beginning to mar the brightness,
When
not right in the Palace.
to The Holy Grail,the
we
come
but the air is
gloom is deepening ; the time is stilllate summer,
with
had
and
ill
reached
the cell of
thunder,
even
heavy
tidings
was
late
in the silver
the pure
nun.
1
Coming of Arthur.
xl
Analysis.
Part
III
In The
Last Tournament
it is indeed
and
autumn
; the sere
the
the
wet
yellow leaf,
moaning wind,
muttering storm, are only
in sympathy with Lancelot, sittingdispiritedhi Arthur's
seat,
his mind full of foreboding. Thus we are prepared for the Great
Idyllwith which this group closes.
4. The
was
Epic. Morte d:'Arthur. This magnificent poem
written as early as 1835 ; it appeared in the volume
of 1842, and
vision of Arthur
The
I
was
never
as
subsequently altered.
have drawn him,' said Tennyson, had come
me
when, little
upon
than a boy, I firstlightedupon Malory.'
more
The Morte d'Arthur follows very closely
the third,fourth, and
fifth chapters of the Romance.
The first point we would notice
is the Nature
has passed into winter.
background. Autumn
When
the king had
left one lyinghi the dust at Almesbury ',the
death-white
mist had shrouded
the world ; but now
bitter
a
'
'
'
wind, clear from
the north, has blown
the fog aside, and the
the field of battle,covering the
wan
waves
are
rollingin over
faces of the dead.
One figure
stands out sharp and clear
that of
the arch -traitor.
Then
Arthur
smites
for the
with Excalibur
last time, and Modred
falls in shameful fight
with his king. At
this point the earlier poem
is extraordinarily
opens, and the scene
We see bare black cliffs,
vivid.
a ruined
chapelon a dark strait
of barren land, a broken cross ;
"
On
Lay
one
a
side
lay
great
water
the
Ocean, and
and
the
on
moon
was
one
full.
The
air is clear and icy cold.
We
cannot
help asking,what
does it all mean
?
Tennyson himself explained the main drift.
of man
The whole is the dream
coming into practicallife,and
sin.
ruined
Birth
is a mystery, and
death
is a
by one
hi
the
and
midst
lies
the
tableland
of
and
its
life,
mystery,
It
is
the historyof one
not
strugglesand performances.
man
of one
or
generation,but of a whole cycle of generations.' But
this last scene
a thousand
rouses
questions. Arthur is obviously
the ideal man.
Even
the chronicler Joseph of Exeter writes :
The old world knows
not his peer, nor
will the future show us
his equal.' Mr. Gladstone, commenting
the Idylls,
on
says :
'
look
We know
hi
not where
to
historyor in letters for a nobler
*
'
overpowering conception of
he might be than
man
as
of this volume.
Whenever
he appears,
it is as
the great pillar
of the moral order, and the resplendent top of
human
excellence.' 1
But ifthis be so, why the deep gloom of this closingscene
? His
life-work seems
wrecked.
The sequel of to-day unsolders all,'
it
And
My realm reels back into the beast, and is no more.'
has been pointed out that these mournful
words
true.
seem
Not only had wife and friend failed,but also knight after knight
or
more
in the
Arthur
'
'
1
Lifeof Tennyson, p.
526.
xlii
the
III
Analysis. Part
clear-cut
Old Allan.
Still the figures
has
the language
idealized
are
Tennyson
very
in which they express strong emotion, it is but a poet'slicence.
2. Audley Court was
Lord Tennyson
first publishedin 1842.
gives the following note on it written by his father : x ' This
was
partiallysuggested by Abbey Park at Torquay.
poem
forceful
human, and
phrases of
if
days the loveliest sea villagehi England
from the
In
those old days,I, coming down
a
now
over
Torquay, saw a star of phosphorescencemade by the
buoy appearing and disappearing in the dark sea.' This sight
Torquay
and
hill
in old
was
is
inspiredthe
town.
lines with
which
the poem
closes
:
lower
down
The bay was
oily-calm; the harbour buoy,
Sole star of phosphorescencein the calm,
With
one
sparkleever and anon
green
and
were
we
Dipt by itself,
glad at heart.
Morris are, it has been said,
3. Walking to the Mail and Edwin
full of that honest Universityhumour
which characterizes the
tour.'
In the
talk of Englishmen when
vacation
are
on
a
they
former
the curious bit of Lincolnshire
folklore,of how
occurs
the family ghost,packed among
the beds, proposed to accompany
tions.
the farmer, who was
leavinghis house to avoid its visitaThe worthy man
the
familiar
exclaims:
voice
hearing
*
with
You, flitting
Jack,
the
turn
Morris
horses' heads
and
home
us
too
?
"
again.
or, The
Lake, first appeared in the seventh
There is a special
in 1851.
interest attaching
edition of the poems
it
contains
references
the
to
because
to it,
subject which was
4. Edwin
;
mind
four years before, viz. the woman
which
he
dealt with so fullyin The Princess.
question,a subject
Bull has somewhat
Edward
The
mundane
fat-faced curate
which
distasteful
views
to the
of woman's
are
destiny,
very
The teller of the story speaks rashly of
Morris.
poet Edwin
much
in
*
Tennyson's
'
modern
mind dissecting
passion and subsequently
about the subject by a bitter experience.
learns more
firstpublishedin 1846, and many
of the
5. The Golden Year was
suggested by the difficulties of
thoughts contained in it were
the time.
Party spiritran very high on the Corn Bill and the
Free Trade and Protection
Coercion Bill. The strugglebetween
and
the
and
was
raging,
gravest problems concerning religion
education were
coming to the front. It seemed very far indeed
all men's good should be 'each man's rule '.
from a day when
breaks in upon
The rugged old James's practicalcommon
sense
The times may
but the panacea
be difficult,
the poet'sdream.
the
wayward
'
'
1
Lifeof Tennyson,p.
163.
of Modern
Poems
be found in idlythinkingof a golden year in the dim
devotion to ordinary
the
best remedy is steady work,
:
to such
is not
to
future
duty
xliii
Life
"
;
This
grand
same
year
is
ever
recall the striking
words of Arthur
himself
but
is
the
hind,
as
king
We
at the
in The
doors.
Holy Grail.
The
To whom
a
space of land is given to plow
from the allotted field
Who
wander
not
may
Before his work is done.
6. Amphion is a humorous
allegoryin which Tennyson laments
Collins
that his age can so littleappreciatepoetry. Mr. Churton
doubt
remarks
that Amphion was
no
capable of performing
of
all the feats here attributed to him, but there is no record
the
to
confined himself
to have
them : he appears
charming
Thebes was
into their placeswhen
stones
being built. Tennyson
him with Orpheus.
to have confounded
seems
at the Cock.
7. Witt Waterproofs Lyrical Monologue. Made
often in London, staying at
the year 1842 Tennyson was
About
then that he used
It was
the Temple, or Lincoln's Inn Fields.
201 Fleet Street ;
No.
Cock
the
to dine with his friends at
Tavern,
inn in the days of Pepys, who
this was
a noted
speaks of having
1668
In Tennyson's
'.
23rd.
there
been
April
mighty merry
Fitzthe resort of many
literarypeople. Edward
day it was
"Cock"
the
'The
of
tells
us1
head-waiter
Gerald
by
plump
Temple Bar, famous for chops and porter, was rather offended
'
Had
Mr. Tennyson dined oftener there,
when told of this poem.
Cock
The
have minded
it so much, he said.'
not
he would
Collins
Mr. Churton
ceased to exist as an inn on April 10, 1886.
and Queries, seventh
Notes
of it from
also quotes a description
of
At
the
end
442-6
vol.
a
:
long room
beyond the
i,pp.
series,
its only
which, except for a feeble side window, was
skylight,
small
led
that
door
in
a
the
lavatory
past
day time, was a
light
of the
and up half a dozen narrow
steps to the kitchen, one
Across
saw.
strangest and grimmest old kitchens you ever
dishes, you looked into it and
a mighty hatch, thronged with
beheld there the white-jacketed
man-cook, served by his two
'
robust
and
red-armed
kitchenmaids.
preparing chops, pork chops
in
For
winter, lamb
they
you
chops
in
were
spring,
and
steaks and sausages,
kidneys
rabbits, and stewed
and potatoes, and poached eggs and Welsh
the menu,
That
was
cheese, the specialglory of the house.
the only guests. But of late years, as innovations
and men
were
mutton
often
chops always,
precede
a
and
catastrophe,two
new
thingswere
introduced,
and both were
Both were
respectable
vegetablesand women.
the
virtuous
Smurthwaite,
felt,especially
by
good, but it was
de trop in a placeso masculine and so carnivorous.'
that they were
1
Lifeof Tennyson,
p. 154.
xliv
Analysis.
GROUP
A
ballad
sentimental, in
French ballade,
a
BALLAD
C.
been
has
III
Part
defined
as
POETRY
popular
a
The
ballads are
romantic
very ancient.
weds
the royal lover, the poor child
babe
in the
noble
is from
The
Castle
of the
of poetry.
substituted
all
characteristics
The
"
simplicity,felicitous
picturesqueness,
speed.1
beggar
for
or
the
are
of
stock
a
choice
maid
who
the
dead
who
house, the simple villagemaiden
heart of the Lord
this kind
narrative
word
simple homely verse.
dancing song (It.ballare,to dance). The themes
of
the
song,
wins
subjects for
good
of
ballad
are
expression,
fire and
1. Godiva
is included
is in blank
and
verse
here
not
in ballad
form
at
all.
It
of the nature
of the subject
merely on
and the simplicity
It is a poem
founded
and force of the diction.
first
of
who
told
Matthew
wrote
a
on
Westminster,
legend
by
account
in 1307.
He mentions
Leofric,Lord of Coventry,
a certain Earl
who lived in the reign of Edward
the Confessor, and who imposed
this severe
The
his noble wife Godiva.
test on
Godiva
pageant
takes place in Coventry at the fair on Friday in Trinity week.
2. Edward
Gray is the old tale, told with considerable force
and
passion, of a lover's misunderstanding and
fanciful nature
of the last three verses
is rather
from the vigour of the beginning.
3.
Lady Clare
has
has
Tennyson
story, but
is taken
from
Miss
death.
a
Ferrier's novel
The
fallingoff
Inheritance.
simplifiedthe complicationsin the
very much
followed little details of words
and descriptions
closely.
4.
The
Lord
of Burleigh. At Burleigh House, the magnificent
Marquis of Exeter, visitors are still shown the
portraitof a certain Lady Burleighwho died in January, 1797,
at the age
of twenty-four, to the inexpressible
surpriseand
of all acquainted with her.'
concern
Cecil,
nephew and
Henry
heir to the ninth Earl of Exeter, was
staying at a little village
mansion
of
the
'
in
Shropshirewhen
he
met
Sarah
heroine of this
succeeded
to
afterwards
Hoggins, the
He married
her, and two years
the title and estates, but the story adds that she could not bear
the unaccustomed
of her
and
state
position,and she
pomp
died
sinkingunder the burden of an honour unto which she was
born '.
not
poem.
'
5. The
Beggar Maid
was
ballad in the first series of the
6. The Captain. Another
1
See A.
Lang
in Ward's
probably suggested by the sixth
Percy Reliques,Book ii.
style.
example in the same
English Poets, vol. i,p.
204.
Patriotic Poems
GROUP
D.
PATRIOTIC
xlv
POEMS
had always shown
the keenest interest not only
but
in
that same
at
life
also
life abroad.
In
home,
English
1852,' writes Lord Tennyson, 'my father along with many
under
others regarded France
Napoleon as^a serious menace
of Europe. Although a passionate patriot,and
to the peace
of
blind to her faults,and
not
lover
true
a
England, he was
was
unprejudicedand cosmopolitan in seeing the best side of
other nations ; and in later years, after the Franco-German
War,
filled with admiration
at the dignified
in which
he was
way
France
was
gradually gatheringherself together. He rejoiced
in agreement, and worked
whenever
England and France were
of
for
the
the world.' 1
good
togetherharmoniously
all round was
1. Hands
in 1852
publishedin the newspapers
and refers to the French
Landor, writing to John
menace.
Forster, says of it that it is incomparably the best (convivial)
lyricin the language.
2. The Third ofFebruary. On December
2nd, 1851, Prince Louis
the
of
a
Napoleon, nephew
great emperor, had accomplished
He
for some
had
his amazing Coup d'Etat in Paris.
time
had
the
been
and
Republic,
supporting
managed so
previously
Then, having
successfullyas to get himself elected President.
the Government
the army, he proceeded to overthrow
over
won
The
himself master
of France.
deed was
and make
plished
accomwith ruthless violence,and a thrill of indignationpassed
Lord Palmerston, however, the
through England at the news.
Secretary for Foreign Affairs,without any, authorityfor his
action, spoke approvingly of the Coup d'Etat to the French
in consequence,
He
ambassador
in London.
obliged to
was,
the
3rd
when
and
Parliament
met
on
of February,
resign office,
felt to know
the reason
of this
1852, the keenest anxiety was
in
Lord
successful
sudden
John
dismissal.
a
Russell,
very
speech,explained the action of the Government, and the speech
of Lord
Palmerston, which followed, quite failed to offer any
Tennyson's indignant
adequate explanation of his conduct.
of
and
the
the English
the
voices
Queen
feeling
protest only
Tennyson
'
in
this
subject.
Charge of the Light Brigade. On October 25, 1854,
the lines of the allied
the Russians
made
on
a desperate attack
Justin
of Balaklava.
armies in the hope of gaining possession
of the incident :
The
McCarthy gives the following account
bold and brilliant but it was
attack was
repulsed.
splendidly
credit to English courage,
Never
did a day of battle do more
nation
on
3. The
a
1
8
Life of Tennyson, p. 287.
Historyof our own
Times, ch. xi,p.
68.
'
xlvi
III
Analysis. Part
It will be memorable
or less perhaps to English generalship.
in all Englishhistoryas the battle in which occurred the famous
fatal misconception
chargeof the Light Brigade. Owing to some
of the meaning of an
order from the Commander-in-Chief, the
has been rightly
in all,charged what
Light Brigade,607 men
described as "the Russian
in
position". Of the 607 men
army
back.
198 came
Long, painful,and hopelesswere the disputes
be wholly
about
this fatal order.
The controversy can
never
of the first
The officer who
bore the order was
settled.
one
who
fell in the onset.
All Europe, all the world, rang with
...
of the futile and
wonder
and
admiration
splendid charge.'
The
Lord Tennyson says that on December
2nd his father wrote
the
few
in
after
minutes,
Light Brigade
a
Charge of
reading the
one
descriptionin the Times in which occurred the phrase some
of
of
had blundered
this
the
the
his
and
metre
was
',
origin
poem.1
4. Ode on the Death ofthe Duke of Wellington. On the afternoon
of September 14, 1852, the Duke
of Wellingtondied in his sleep
Castle. Tennyson had never
him intimately,
at Walmer
known
but we
that such a character inspired
him with
wonder
cannot
enthusiasm.
to truth and to duty,
a peculiar
Unswerving fidelity
of
fame
life
and
aim
which
a
no
or
flatterycould
simplicity
the great qualities
which made
him so conspicuous.
spoil,were
among
'It never
entered into the mind of any one to suppose,'
actuated
says Justin McCarthy, that the Duke of Wellingtonwas
in any step he took or advice he gave by any feelingbut a desire
for the good of the State.' *
The ode as a whole is remarkable
*
'
advance
in artistic development.
showing Tennyson'sextraordinary
The
sweetness
of the rhythm, the terse force of the
the tides of music's
of the emotion
words, the rising
as it were
on
all
golden sea ', only to die away in lingeringnotes of peace
as
'
"
mark
the master-hand.
GROUP
1. Our
LATER
CLASSICAL
PHILOSOPHICAL
POEMS
E.
last group
AND
which show us Tennyson's
matured
which was
first published
Tithonus,especially,
powers.
in 1860, is,as a work of art, a wonderful
production. Polished,
musical, simple,in it we look in vain for the faults of earlier
days. The
highly imaginative landscape, the glimmering
thresholds of the dawn, the wild team, which
shake the darkness
from their loosen'd manes,
and beat the twilightinto flakes of
fire ',combine
form
to
a dim
background of misty light,
against
contains two
poems
*
1
2
Life of Tennyson,p. 320.
History of our own
Times, ch.
xxiii.
Later
Classical and
the
Poems
Philosophical
xlvii
who
figureof Tithonus, the old man
of
the
boon
received
eternal
life.
But
youth
of maturity is the philosophical
more
even
significant
problem
What
is Life ? Swift, too, had faced this question,
involved.
and in the awful story of the Struldbrugshe has painted the
existence without
last horrors of continued
To his
progress.
like
the
diseased imagination it seemed
disintegrationof all
Tennyson's picture is far less
things except consciousness.
repellent.Tithonus is not in torture : his mind is clear, his
the less desperate. It is
body at ease, but the case is none
of joy in a life bereft of hope.
infinite griefto have the memory
there is no
Future ; so he despairs,and begs for
To this man
death.
the most
refined of the pleasures of sense
have
Even
that Beauty is there, nay, her pitying
He knows
out.
worn
his
the
tears
cheek, but the responsiveglow is gone :
are
on
is not
satisfied with seeing.' Old
age always presents
eye
the
this
to
of
something
thoughtful. The springs
experience
of mere
enjoyment begin to fail : the soul turns upon herself
It may
whither ?
next
with the abrupt query, what
? and
be that Browning is suggesting the same
thought in that most
Childe Roland
Tower
came.'
difficult of poems,
to the Dark
The
the
2. In
to
Voyage we may read
solution,and it is fitting
with that which is so eminentlycharacteristic
close this volume
had more
charm
of the poet. Probably no
object in nature
the sea.
human
for Tennyson than
in its
so
Nothing seems
exercises
its
such
an
moods, nothing
abiding fascination over
The idea of freedom, of unlimited
votaries.
force, of tireless
The
all
close
Enoch
it.
of
Arden's
vitalityare
suggestedby
is fittingly
attended by the sea-storm
heroic life-struggle
: Arthur
Avilion.
moonlit
the
to
water
But, possibly, deepest
passes over
It is that of
meaning of the sea is expressed by this poem.
The craving for a largerlife,for
unlimited scope for energy.
the satisfaction of the thirst for knowledge,for the attainment
of the Ideal, all this and more
was
symbolized to Tennyson
As the body fails,
by the gallantship ready to weigh anchor.
for more
the longingof the spirit
of
expression,and more
power
deepens that
stronger,and with it the conviction
scope, grows
will
the
touch
its bonds
and
of death.
at
are
physical
snap
So the end becomes
of the cable on a tide too deep for
a loosing
sound or foam, a launchingout on the boundless Deep, a Crossing
of the Bar, beyond which is the Pilot and Home.
It is a very
The
and
of
mind.
a
ordinary
singularconception
worthy
great
is
that
the
of
of the vessel coming into Port
thought
resumption
life.
of the familiar routine, the beloved
but perhaps narrow
this.
than
the
is
outlook
far grander
Tennyson reminds us that
In The Voyage we see life lived in the pursuitof an Ideal, and
it is full of energy.
Over the waters
they follow the vision:
but is it
at intervals they catch glimpses of its loveliness
which
in
we
see
asked
wan
"
and
'
"
"
mental, moral,
or
?
spiritual
Is it
Knowledge, or
Virtue,
or
xlviii
Analysis.
Heavenly
in
her
Hope,
perfect
rather
or
beauty
Never
Nor
and
last
at
visibly
know
in
its
the
is
end
fullness
aim,
unrealized
The
sceptic
fools
', the
dark
', but
is
of
all
the
Divine
In
If
may
sneer
or
strife,
so
Through
human
in
but
chill
', and,
'
and
approved
shades
1
in
sanctified,
Wordsworth,
silent
it
and
as
sunset
of
is
'
that
poet,
Excursion.
pass,
to
endless
the
deepest
the
ordained,
to
of
ship
a
his
and
great
pursued.
after
to
another
a
*
pain,
rest,
We
Life
of
owing
love'
and
and
following.
doubt
the
feeble,
are
beginning.
him
words
exercised
tribulation:
Truth
unflinchingly
winter,
no
the
of
energy
crew
foil
to
beyond
in
The
the
yet
still
of
in
us
;
strenuous
Modred,
is
morn
still
is
the
did
the
;
or
came.
yet,
as
as
is
eve
which
destiny
repeat,
at
in
Absolute
furl'd
was
undismayed,
leaves
stars
three,
all
they
end
have
III
not
dropt
be
Man's
I
it
ours
only
Tennyson
Life,
of
that
may
western
sail
still
:
may
convictions.
But
found
it
end
?
climes
but
failing,
it
is
anchor
colder
to
Part
joy.1
baths
THE
LADY
AND
OF
SHALOTT
OTHER
POEMS
LADY
THE
OF
SHALOTT
PAST
ON
either
side
Long
fields of
That
clothe
And
thro*
the
and
up
Gazing
where
Bound
an
Thro'
the
the
there
Overlook
And
of Shalott.
aspens
and
dusk
quiver,
that
for
in
the
shiver
runs
the
river
down
four
to
Camelot,
grey
flowers,
space
silent isle embowers
The
Lady
of Shalott}.
margin, willow-vefl'd,
Slide the heavy barges trail'd
By
the
ever
of
a
;
below,
island
walls, and
grey
runs
lilies blow
the
Flowing
Four
sky
by
many-tower' d Camelot
the people go,
down
wave
island
the
meet
road
whiten,
breezes
of rye,
and
field the
island
Little
By
and
wold
The
Willows
lie
river
barley
the
To
And
the
I
towers,
;
Lady of
The
Shalott
and unhail'd
shallopflitteth silken-sail'd
to Camel ot
Skimming down
her hand
her wave
hath seen
who
horses
slow
By
The
But
Or at
Or
the
;
casement
in all the
known
is she
Only
T
?
land,
of Shalott
Lady
The
stand
her
seen
:
I
reaping early
bearded
barley,
that
echoes
cheerly
a
song
the river winding clearly,
reapers,
the
among
In
Hear
From
Down
tower' d Camelot
to
:
the reaper weary,
by the moon
Pilingsheaves in uplands airy,
whispers 'Tis the fairy
Listening,
Lady of Shalott.1
And
*
II
PART
she
THERE
A
magic
She has
A curse
She
And
And
And
is
There
And
And
on
her
To
look
not
she
down
of the
sees
Gamelot.
curse
may
be,
steadily,
hath she,
of Shalott.
care
Lady
a
mirror
her
world
the
stay
to
the
what
moving thro*
hangs before
she
if she
weaveth
little other
The
That
Shadows
There
day
colours gay.
with
web
heard a whisper say,
knows
so
by night and
weaves
clear
all the
year,
appear.
highway
near
to Camelot
:
Winding down
the river eddy whirls,
there the surly village-churls,
the red cloaks of market
girls,
Pass
onward
from
Shalott.
Sometimes
a
Shalott
Lady of
The
of damsels
troop
glad,
ambling pad,
a
curly shepherd-lad,
long-hair'dpage in crimson clad,
Goes by to tower'd Camelot
An abbot
Sometimes
Or
And
on
an
sometimes
and
ridingtwo
knights come
She hath no loyal knight and
The
two
:
true,
of Shalott.
Lady
The
;
blue
mirror
the
thro'
in her web she still delights
the mirror's magic sights,
To weave
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral,with plumes and lights,
And
music, went to Camelot
But
Came
*
the
when
Or
I
am
The
III
The
And
A
came
sun
the
barley-sheaves,
dazzlingthro' the leaves,
between
rode
He
the brazen
greaves
upon
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
kneel'd
red-cross knight for ever
flamed
To a
That
in his
lady
shield,
the
sparkledon
Beside
bridle
And
free,
glitter'd
of stars
branch
see
we
golden Galaxy.
bells rang merrily
As
And
Shalott.
in the
Hung
The
yellow field,
remote
bridle
The gemmy
Like to some
A
bower-eaves,
her
from
BOW-SHOT
;
of shadows,' said
Lady of Shalott.
PART
A
latelywed
lovers
two
young
half sick
overhead,
was
moon
from
mighty
as
he
:
he
rode
down
his blazon'd
silver
rode
Beside
to
baldric
Camelot
slung
bugle hung,
his
armour
remote
rung,
Shalott.
Lady of
The
All in the
Shaktt
weather
unclouded
blue
saddle-leather,
shone
Thick-jewell'd
the
The
helmet-feather
the
helmet
and
like one
Burn'd
As
burning
he
down
rode
together,
flame
to
Camelot.
As often thro' the purple night,
Below
the starry clusters bright,
Some
bearded
light,
meteor, trailing
Shalott.
still
Moves
over
in
His broad clear brow
On burnish'd hooves
sunlightglow'd;
his war-horse
trode ;
flow'd
his helmet
From
underneath
he rode,
His coal-black curls as on
to Camelot.
As he rode down
and from the river
the bank
From
He flash'd into the crystalmirror,
'Tirra lirra,'
by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.
She
She
She
She
left the web, she left the loom,
three paces thro* the room,
made
the
bloom,
water-lily
the
helmet
saw
saw
and
plume,
the
Camelot.
She look'd down
and floated wide ;
Out flew the web
The mirror cracked from side to side ;
1
me,' cried
is come
The
curse
upon
The Lady of Shalott.
to
IV
PABT
IN
the
stormy east-wind
The
pale yellow woods
The
broad
Heavily
stream
the
waning,
were
in his banks
tower'd Camelot ;
and found a boat
came
willow
left
afloat,
about
the
prow
The
complaining,
sky raining
low
Over
Down
she
Beneath
a
And
round
straining,
Lady of
she
Shalott.
wrote
And
Like
Shalott
Lady of
The
down
the river's dim
some
bold
see'r in
a
expanse
trance,
mischance
Seeing all his own
With
a
glassy countenance
Did
And
She
loosed
The
broad
the
at
she look
"
to
"
Camelot.
closingof
the day
she
the chain, and down
bore her far away,
stream
The Lady of Shalott.
layj
Lying, robed hi snowy white
That
looselyflew to left and right
The
leaves upon
her falling
light
Thro* the noises of the night
"
"
She floated down
to Camelot
And
the boat-head
wound
as
along
The
willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singingher last song,
Th"
Heard
a
carol,mournful, holy,
blood
Till her
lowly,
frozen slowly,
darken'd
wholly,
was
her
eyes were
Camelot
Turn'd
to tower'd
the tide
she reach'd upon
ere
first house by the water-side,
For
The
Singing in
her
The
Under
By
of Shalott.
loudly,chanted
Chanted
And
Lady
Lady
and
tower
she
song
;
died,
of Shalott.
balcony,
gallery,
garden-walland
she floated by,
the houses
high,
Silent into Camelot.
the wharfs
Out upon
they came,
lord
and
and dame,
Knight
burgher,
the prow
And
round
they read her name,
A
gleaming shape
Dead-pale between
The
Who
And
is this ?
in the
Lady of
and
what
Shalott.
is here ?
lightedpalace near
:
of royal cheer ;
the sound
they cross'd themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot
Died
And
mused
Lancelot
said, She has
But
little space ;
lovely face ;
a
'
He
Shalott
Lady of
The
a
lend her grace,
in his mercy
The Lady of Shalott.*
God
IN
MARIANA
SOUTH
THE
at its feet,
black shadow
The
house thro* all the level shines,
Close-latticed to the brooding heat,
WITH
one
silent in its dusty vines :
the right,
A faint-blue ridge upon
An
empty river-bed before,
And
distant shore,
shallows on
a
glaringsand and inlets bright.
she moan,
*Ave Mary,' made
But
And
'Ave Mary,1 night and morn,
to be all alone,
And
*Ah,* she sang,
and love forlorn.1
To live forgotten,
And
In
*
She,
carol sadder
and bosom
brow
her
as
From
grew,
slowly down
Thro' rosy taper fingersdrew
Her streaming curls of deepest brown
To left and right,and made
appear,
in a
Still-lighted
Her melancholy
The
home
And
of
'Ave
woe
shrine,
divine,
secret
eyes
without
Mary,*
a
tear.
her
was
moan,
;*
Madonna, sad is night and morn
to be all alone,
And
'Ah,' she sang,
'
*
To
live
Till all the
Into
Low
on
and
forgotten,
crimson
deep
orange
her
knees
Before
Our
Lady
love forlorn.'
changed, and
o'er the
herself
she
murmur'd
past
sea,
cast,
she ;
8
Mariana
'
0
cruel
*
And
heart,'she changed her tone,
cruel
Is this the
To
But
To
And
to
in the
seem'd
to
her eyes
shalt be
into
But
thou
heat
pass the door,
and
say,
alone no
more.1
black
one
all
over
day decreased,
the
slowly rounded
And
The
to heat
'
fallingday
flaming downward
From
is scorn,
be left alone,
live forgotten,
and die forlorn ?
image
look
'
end
love, whose
end,
sometimes
An
in the South
the
to
shadow
from
east
the
wall.
'
her moan,
The day to night,*she made
The day to night,the night to morn,
left alone
And
day and night I am
To live forgotten,
and love forlorn.1
*
At
eve
a
There
Backward
And
There
cicala
dry
came
a
sung,
sound
as
of the
rosy-bright
on
Large Hesper glitter'd
the
And
thro*
deepening
Heaven
Heaven
over
'
;
the lattice-blind she flung,
the balcony.
lean'd upon
all hi spaces
And
sea
When
To
I shall
her
that knows
on
to
cease
spheres,
night.
made
she
weeping
The nightcomes
tears,
silent
the
rose
then
her
be
and
live forgotten,
all
moan,
not morn,
alone,
love
forlorn.1
ELElNORE
THY
dark
Nor
For
Which,
eyes open'd not,
first re veal' d themselves
there
from
the
is
Englishair,
nothing here,
outward
Moulded
thy baby
Far off from human
to
to
the
inward
thought.
neighbourhood,
brought,
9
Elednore
Thou
A
beneath
mile
With
thou
Of
on
a
from
nursed
wert
morn,
cedar-wood.
forehead
breezes
summer
oaken
our
in
fann'd
not
was
glades,
delicious land
some
floatingshades
flattering
thy childish thought
The
oriental fairybrought,
At the moment
of thy birth,
And
From
lights,and
lavish
old well-heads
And
the
hearts
And
To
of
coves
choicest
or
deck
of haunted
:
rills,
purple hills,
shadow'd
The
Jewel
Or
the
bounteous
Thy
But
born,
wert
on
wealth
a
sunny
of all the
shore,
earth,
shell,or starry ore,
thy cradle, Eleanore.
the
yellow-bandedbees,
Thro'
half-openlattices
Coming in the scented breeze,
Fed thee, a child, lying alone,
With
whitest honey in fairygardens
A gloriouschild,dreaming alone,
In silk-soft folds,upon
yieldingdown,
With
the hum
of swarming bees
Into
dreamful
slumber
lull'd.
ni
Who
may
Summer
To
minister to thee ?
herself should minister
thee, with
fruitagegolden-rinded
golden salvers, or it may be,
Youngest Autumn, in a bower
Grape-thicken'dfrom the light,and blinded
With
a
deep-hued bell -like flower
many
the air
Of fragrant trailers,when
all the heaven,
Sleepeth over
On
And
Crimsons
the
Even,
All along the shadowing shore,
the
over
crag
an
that
fronts
inland
Eleanore
mere,
!
cull'd-
10
Elednore
IV
How
full-sail'd verse
may
How
express,
words
adore
measured
may
The
full-flowingharmony
Of thy swan-like
stateliness,
Eleanore
The
luxuriant
?
symmetry
Of thy floatinggracefulness,
Eleanore
turn and
Every
Every
?
glance of thine,
lineament
divine,
Eleanore,
And
That
the
stays
Is
Like
glow,
steady sunset
thee ?
upon
For
in thee
nothing sudden, nothing single;
two
of incense
streams
From
one
censer,
in
free
one
shrine,
and
motion
mingle,
Thought
flow
Motions
Mingle ever.
tho1
To one
as
another, even
They
modulated
were
so
To an
unheard
melody,
lives about thee, and a sweep
Which
Of richest pauses, evermore
Drawn
from each other mellow-deep ;
Who
I stand
I
Daily
I muse,
may
express
before
see
and
as
thee, Eleanore
thee, Eleanore
?
;
thy beauty graduallyunfold,
and more.
hourly, more
in
a
while
cloud of gold,
a
ambrosial
smile.
trance, the
Slowly, as from
Comes
out
thy deep
I muse,
in a trance, whene'er
as
The languors of thy love-deepeyes
I were
Float on
I would
to me.
So tranced, so rapt in ecstasies,
To stand apart, and to adore,
Gazing on thee for evermore,
Serene, imperialEleanore
!
Ekanore
11
VI
Sometimes, with
intensity
most
to see
Gazing, I seem
thought, smilingasleep,
Thought folded over
Slowly awaken'd, grow so full and deep
In thy large eyes, that, overpower'd quite,
I cannot
veil, or droop my sight,
But am
as
nothing in its light:
As
tho'
Ev'n
while
Should
To
a
Fix'd
we
gaze
face, there
then
"
And
So
his
orb, and
like
a
slowly fade
as
draw
slowly grow
remain
sun
again,
itself to what
full,so
set,
it,
on
slowly round
full
heaven
star, in inmost
a
it
before j
was
deep, so slow,
and go
to come
Thought seems
In thy large eyes, imperialEleanore.
vn
high,
and
Roof'd
fear.
thro*
an
evening atmosphere,
Floating
the sky ;
about
Grow
golden all
In thee all passion becomes
passionless,
Touch'd
mellowness,
by thy spirit's
Losing his fire and active might
As
thunder-clouds
In
a
that, hung
world
the
with
on
doubt
silent meditation,
Fallinginto a still delight,
And
luxury of contemplation:
As waves
that up a quiet cove
Rolling slide,and lying still
Shadow
Or
sometimes
at will
forth the banks
they swell and move,
Pressingup
With
motions
against the land,
of the
outer
sea
the self-same influence
And
Controlleth all the soul and
:
sense
gazing upon thee.
bow-stringslacken'd,languid Love,
Leaning his cheek upon his hand,
Droops both his wings, regardingthee,
Of
His
:
Passion
12
Eleanore
would
languish evermore,
Serene, imperialEleanore.
And
so
vnr
with tresses unconfined,
wind
odorous
amorous,
the sunset and the moon
low between
;
I
But when
the
While
Breathes
Or, in
On
thee
see
roam,
shadowy saloon,
a
half reclined ;
thy grace ; and in its place
slumber
charmed
a
keeps,
silken cushions
I watch
heart
I
While
My
thy face ;
upon
languid fire creeps
And
a
Thro'
muse
my
veins
to
frame,
all my
Dissolvinglyand slowly: soon
From
thy rose-red lipsMY
Floweth
With
and
;
then,
as
in
name
swoon,
a
rife,
tongue faltereth,
My tremulous
I lose my
colour, I lose my breath,
dinning sound
my
ears
are
the cup of a costlydeath,
life.
with delirious draughts of warmest
Brimm'd
I die with my
delight,before
hear from thee ;
I would
I hear what
I drink
tell my
name
again to
I would be dying evermore,
So dying ever, Eleanore.
Yet
I
the wealthy miller yet,
double chin, his portly size,
SEE
His
And
who
The
The
DAUGHTER
MILLER'S
THE
me,
that
busy
slow
His
Seem'd
And
wrinkles
wise
dusty
knew
smile
forehead
him
could
round
that,
forget
his eyes ?
round
about
drilycurl'd,
half-within and half-without,
full of dealingswith the world
?
The
In
I
Millers
Daughter
yonder chair I see
Three fingersround
see
his grey
At
his
With
So
twinkle
eyes
and
scarce
memory
fill my
My
own
There's
soul
glad,
so
make
can
Alice,we
sad.
kiss
:
die.
must
in this world
somewhat
whole,
me
one
Shall be unriddled
by and
There's somewhat
flows to us
But
lit up
and
clear
glass: give me
sweet
"
yet
warmth,
summer
healthy,sound,
Yet
old silver cup
the
"
full of
His
sit,
jest grey eyes
lightningsof a
own
summer
So
him
18
amiss
by.
in
life,
is taken
quite away.
Pray, Alice, pray, my darlingwife,
That
die the self-same day.
we
may
more
Have
I not found a happy earth ?
I least should breathe
a
thought of
from
God
Would
birth
renew
me
my
life again.
live my
I'd almost
with
thee to walk,
So sweet
it seems
And
It
to
the
Across
be
walnuts
thee
woo
in after-dinner
seems
To
again
once
mine
pain.
"
talk
and
the wine
"
long and listless boy
Late-left an
orphan of the squire,
this old mansion
mounted
Where
high
Looks
down
the
villagespire:
upon
For
the
Have
Each
And
In
But
lived
morn
By
and
my
wild
some
oft I heard
loved
I had
I
saw
no
sleep was
skylark'smatin
the
those
tender
making
your
motion
long,
thro*
song.
dove
moan
eyes, my
of my
own.
life with fancy
For scarce
my
Before I dream'd
Still hither thither
Like
you
alone so
broken
firrywoodlands
ere
I and
here, where
even
;
love,
play'd
pleasantdream
idly sway'd
that
long mosses
in the
stream
"
Millers
The
14
Daughter
bridge I lean'd to hear
milldam
with noise,
The
rushing down
the minnows
And
see
everywhere
In crystaleddies glance and poise,
when
The tall flag-flowers
they sprung
Below
the range
of stepping-stones,
that hung
Or those three chestnuts
near,
thick with
In masses
milky cones.
Or
the
from
But, Alice, what
When
after
hour
an
roving
('Twas April then), I
Below
And
I cast
But
had
love-songI
An
Beat
from
echo
time
From
sameness
of
phantom
Then
leapt a
I watch'd
their
read,
strain,
head
of the
into
As
glowing
when
silent song,
thousand
came
a
the level
flood,
wavers
dark
and
For,
remember,
you
That
morning, on
A
long
And
And
Such
were
you
when
They
!
these
with
I
warm
dimpled
you
the
beck.
had set,
casement's
edge
of
mignonette,
leaning from the ledge:
I raised
met
eyes
That
box
green
eye ;
gleaming neck,
a
arm,
the
Within
times.
In lazy mood
little circles die ;
sunbeam
a
brain.
morning long,
in the rhymes,
And
there a vision caught my
The reflex of a beauteous
form,
A
buds
trout.
the
They past
a
and
went
in my
corner
the
me,
weary
That
measured
a
odd
some
With
somewhere
nothing
to
It haunted
The
sat
glisteningto the breezy blue ;
the slope,an
absent fool,
on
me
down, nor thought of you,
angled in the higher pool.
Were
A
woods
and
came
chestnuts, when
the
that,
was
in the
swear
have
my
two
to
never
eyes, above
full and
so
bright
"
love,
my
lost their light.
you,
16
Miller's
The
at last I dared
when
But
The
Daughter
know,
lanes, you
speak,
to
with may,
cheek
white
were
Your
not, but your
ripe lipsmoved
Flush'd like the coming of the day ;
it was
And
so
half-shy,
half-sly,
You
would, and would not, little one
"
1
Although I pleaded tenderly,
And
you
I
and
all alone.
were
mother
brought
slowly was
my
desire :
to my
To yield consent
She wish'd
me
happy, but she thought
I might have look'd a little higher;
And
And
*
Go
to wed
too young
young
sake
I love her for your
Yet must
Alice here/ she said :
fetch your
I
Her
And
was
eyelidquiver'das
But, Alice,you
This
dress and
she
to fetch
I went
down
:
"
were
by
that
;
spake.
my
ill at
bride
ease
turns
you
:
;
tried,
not
should
please.
you
I loved you better for your fears,
could not look but well ;
I knew
you
And
dews, that would have fall'n in tears,
fearful
Too
I kiss'd away
that
before
they
fell.
the little flutterings,
I watch'd
would
not see
mother
The
doubt
my
She spoke at large of many
things,
at the last she spoke of me
And
;
look'd
And
face,
turning
your
upon
;
this door
sat apart,
you
silent grace
And
a
rose, and, with
Approaching, press'dyou heart to heart.
As
near
Ah, well
but
"
Alice, on
I gave
When,
A
sing the
arm
you,
in arm,
we
foolish
the
went
song
day
along,
pensive pair,and
were
gay
you
that I may
bridal flowers
With
seem,
As in the nights of old, to lie
in the stream,
Beside the mill-wheel
"
While
those
full chestnuts
whisper by.
The
It is the
And
Miller's
miller's
she
That
That
For
hid
in
I'd touch
And
be
trembles
In
be
ear:
so
and
the
night,
white.
and
warm
girdle
her
dainty dainty waist,
heart would
beat against me,
and
sorrow
And
I'd
I should
clasp it
And
I would
And
dear,
so
jewel
her
at
neck
I would
About
And
her
dear,
so
the
ringletsday
her
17
daughter,
is grown
I would
Daughter
in
rest:
know
round
be
if it beat
the
right,
and
close
so
tight.
necklace,
day long to fall and rise
Upon her balmy bosom,
With
her laughter or her sighs,
And
I would
lie so light,so light,
I
A
all
should
scarce
trifle,sweet
True
His
And
force to
make
makes
Like
Where
me
those
spells
"
dwells,
own
Past
and
in truth
Love.
His
early rage
rhyme in youth,
me
talk
much
too
hours
life to
in age.
are
gone,
thou
me
Present, wound
garland for
a
own.
now,
vivid
mine
make
letter
words
blame
now
love
true
spiritis his
must
And
Do
the
if I waste
Had
which
"
all the
You
unclasp'dat night
interprets right alone.
lightupon
For
So,
love
!
be
the
art,
in one,
heart :
sing that other song I made,
Half-anger'dwith my happy lot,
shade
The day, when
in the chestnut
I found
the blue Forget-me-not.
So
Love
Can
Many
Many
Love
that
he
hath
and
pass,
arise
suns
a
the
chance
gift is
Even
in the
us
and
the
set.
years
Love
so.
net,
forget?
we
the
beget.
debt.
The
Love
Millers
is hurt
is made
Love
with
a
Daughter
jar
and
fret.
regret.
vague
Eyes with
Idle habit
idle tears are
wot.
links us yet.
for we
is love?
forget:
What
Ah,
thro* mine
Look
Round
my
life in
dearer
thro* my
Look
Untouch'd
of years,
for ever
dwell
Yet
shed :
for when
they
tears
Of
tears,
many
I
them
first
knew
since
eyes,
sorrow
:
Became
That
time
!
!
part
ripe,
was
heart
outward
an
stillness
into
;
well.
their
had
they
still affection of the
The
thine
with
very
shade
any
with
wife,
entwine
life,
soul
May those kind eyes
They have not shed a
Dear
True
eyes with thine.
thine arms
true heart
other
My
not
nol
breathing type,
past again,
unknown
before ;
left a want
Although the loss that brought us pain,
That
loss but made
love the more,
us
And
farther
With
The
woven
Weak
of the
symbols
The
But
but
seem
arms,
kiss,
The
lookingson.
settled
be
to
bliss,
comfort, I have found in thee :
who
bless thee, dear
that God
wrought
"
spiritsto one equal mind
With
blessingsbeyond hope or thought,
With
blessingswhich no words can find.
Two
"
Arise, and
To
For
let
the
old
mill
look,
the
sunset, south
fires your
Touching the
the
narrow
sullen
chalk-hill
dry
and
across
vale
all the
And
Is
forth,
yon
Winds
On
wander
us
the
dewless.
wolds
north,
folds,
in rosy
glass,
casement
pool
below
bearded
Let
;
and
:
grass
us
go.
FATIMA
O
LOVE,
0
sun,
from
that
when
Shudderest
Throbbing thro*
Lo, fallingfrom
Lo, parch'd and
like
I whirl
Last
night
Below
the
!
wither'd, deaf
leaves
1 thirsted
for
the
among
crush'd
them
I look'd
Of
athwart
that
Last
long
night,
From
swift
my
O
Love,
With
My
0
blood
that
spoke
he
drew
soul
thro*
dew.
know
hill,I
the
mounts
came
frame.
narrow
whole
long kiss my
lips,as sunlight drinketh
he
name,
flame
one
Before
his
and
went
of
once
:
south.
the
one
fire !
:
mouth
my
drouth
burning
to
my
:
breast,
some
in
showers
flowers
little shafts
shiver'd
Were
my
the
desert
when
thousand
A
on
:
the
tender
I roll'd
I
towers
brooks,
the
wind.
hours
hateful
city'seastern
blind,
and
roaring
in
i
mind,
constant
my
wasted
I
0
withering might
thy noonday height
I strain
sight,
my
and
all thy heat
light,
Love
Love,
quickly : from below
Sweet
deep gardens, blow
gales, as from
brow.
Before
him, striking on
my
In my
spiritsoon,
dry brain my
from
to swoon,
swoon
Down-deepening
He
cometh
like
Faints
dazzled
a
like
The
wind
sounds
And
from
beyond
Is
pour'd
The
skies
isled
And,
My
stoop
in
Bursts
into
hills, and
down
sudden
heart, pierced
blossom
fire
a
noon
in
thro'
in
nigher
their
desire
of
seas
with
his
moon.
wire,
silver
a
the
the
upon
morning
;
light,
fierce
sight.
delight,
Fatima
20
My
whole
soul
All
naked
in
a
blinded
Droops
waiting silently,
sultrysky,
his shining eye
with
him
I will possess
will die.
or
round
I will grow
him
in his
looking on
Die, dying clasp'din his
place,
his
live,die
Grow,
:
face,
embrace.
(ENONE
lies
THERE
vale in
a
Ida, lovelier
valleysof Ionian hills.
swimming vapour slopesathwart
all the
Than
The
and
Puts
forth
And
loiters,
slowly drawn.
The
lawns
an
glen,
pine to pine,
from
creeps
On
hand
either
down
meadow-ledges midway
and
flowers, and
in
rich
Hang
arm,
the
far below
them
brook fallingthro* the clov'n
to the sea.
after cataract
cataract
The
ravine
long
In
Behind
Stands
The
valley topmost Gargarus
takes the morning : but
opening wide apart, reveal
the
gorges,
The
column'd
Dion's
and
Troas
citadel,
of Troas.
crown
Hither
at
came
Mournful
CEnone, wandering forlorn
Of
Paris,
once
Her
cheek
Floated
her
had
her
playmate
lost the
hair
She, leaning on
or
a
seem'd
fragment
0
Dear
For
The
The
mother
mother
the
on
and
rose,
to
hills.
her
round
with
neck
vine,
mountain-shade
from
the
upper
d Ida,
Ida, many-fountain'
Ida, harken ere I die.
noonday quiet holds the
grasshopperis silent in the grass
now
noon
float in rest.
twined
till the
Sang to the stillness,
to her seat
Sloped downward
'
in front
and
up
roars
hill :
the
:
the stone,
on
lizard,with his shadow
Bests like a shadow, and the cicala sleeps.
cliff.
(Enonc
The
Is
purple flowers droop : the golden bee
I alone awake.
:
lily-cradled
My
My
I
'
0
is
mother
mother
Hear
me
Hear
love,
dim,
are
eyes
life.
d Ida,
Ida, many-fountain'
daughter
of
I die.
ere
Hills, 0
0
me
the cold crown'd
the
of
heart
my
of my
Ida, harken
0 Earth, hear
house
am
breaking,and
all aweary
am
Dear
That
full of tears, my
are
eyes
heart
And
I
21
snake
! O
Caves
brooks,
mountain
River-God,
a
for I will
speak, and build up all
with my
My sorrow
song? as yonder walls
Rose
slowly to a music slowly breathed,
A cloud that gather'dshape : for it may
be
That, while I speak of it, a little while
My heart may wander from its deeper woe.
1
me,
0
mother
Ida, many-fountain'd Ida,
Dear mother
Ida, harken
the
I waited
underneath
Aloft
And
the
Beautiful
Leading
Came
'
up
aloft
the
Paris, evil -hearted
a
mother
Ida, harken
call'd
Far-off the torrent
The
I sat
up the
streaks
alone
:
'
He
Dear
to
mother
smiled, and
Disclosed
a
me
white-breasted
he moved
dawn
Clustered about
his cheek
And
the wind
When
forth
ere
solitarymorning
of virginsnow.
Fronting the
Droop'd from
Went
Paris,
jet-blackgoat white-horn'd,white-hooved,
from reedy Simois all alone.
O
Far
I die.
dawning hills,
was
dewy-dark,
mountain
pine :
lawn
mountain
dewy-dark
ere
his
I die.
from the
smote
With
like a
;
shoulder, but
his
temples like
brighten'das the
blows
the
him
Ida,
harken
opening
fruit of pure
down-dropt
out
eyes
star
leopard-skin
a
his sunny
a
hair
God's;
foam-bow
foam, and
embrace
cleft :
coming
all my
he
ere
I die.
his milk-white
brightens
heart
came.
ere
Hesperian gold,
palm
22
(Enone
smelt
That
I look'd
of speech
ambrosially,and while
listened,the full-flowingriver
And
Came
down
upon
heart.
my
*
"
My
(Enone,
own
Beautiful -brow'd
soul,
(Enone, my own
this fruit,whose
Behold
gleaming rind engrav'n
it thine,
to award
For the most
fair,'would
seem
'
As
lovelier
knolls
The
Of
than
Ida,
of
and
movement,
'Dear
He
mother
prest
And
the
"
added
When
loveliest
in all grace
Ida, harken
This
I die.
ere
of his
lipsto mine,
cast
was
the
upon
full-faced presence
in the halls of Peleus ;
Rose
board,
of the
all the
Ranged
brows."
of married
the charm
blossom
haunt
Oread
whatever
Gods
whereupon
feud, with
'twere
question unto whom
But light-foot
Iris brought it yester-eve,
voice
Delivering,that to me, by common
Elected umpire, Here
comes
to-day,
Pallas and Aphrodite,claiming each
due
:
This
meed
of fairest. Thou, within
the cave
Behind
whispering tuft of oldest pine,
yon
Hear
'
It
behold
well
Mayst
all,and
Dear
thy
see
unbeheld,
Paris
deep
midnoon
Had
lost his way
between
Of this long glen. Then
Naked
to that
they came
And
at
their
judge
Ida, harken
mother
the
was
them
feet the
ere
asphodel,
a
This
arose,
wandering ivy
and
vine,
wild festoon
a
that, in many
way
riot, garlandingthe gnarled boughs
With
On
wind
and
Ran
'
the
bower,
like fire,
brake
crocus
and
overhead
came,
smooth-swarded
Lotos
And
I die.
one
and
lilies:
of Gods.'*
silverycloud
the piney sides
to the bower
they
:
Violet,amaracus,
and
unheard
bunch
and
berry and
flower
thro'
O mother
Ida, harken ere I die.
the tree-topsa crested peacock lit,
and
thro*.
24
(Enone
"
Self-reverence,
self-control,
self-knowledge,
These three alone
Yet not for power
Would
lead
life to
sovereignpower.
of herself
(power
for),but to live by law,
Acting the law we live by without fear ;
And, because
right is right,to follow right\
wisdom
in the scorn
of consequence."}
Were
'
uncalPd
come
Dear
Ida, harken
mother
"
I woo
Again she said :
Sequel of guerdon could
To fairer. Judge thou
shalt thou
So
find
me
thee
by
gifts.
with
not
alter
not
me
I die.
ere
me
I am,
what
fairest.
Yet, indeed,
divinitydisrobed
If
gazing on
Thy mortal eyes are frail to judge of fair,
oh ! rest thee sure
Unbiass'd
by self-profit,
That I shall love thee well
So that my
vigour, wedded
and
to
cleave
to
thee,
thy blood,
Shall strike within thy pulses,like a
To push thee forward
thro' a life of
God's,
shocks,
Dangers, and
deeds, until endurance
grow
with action, and the full-grownwill,
Sinew'd
Circled thro* all experiences,
pure law,
Commeasure
perfectfreedom."
'
And
ponder'd,and
Paris
"
I cried,
he heard
but
Give it to Pallas !
Or hearing would
not hear
'
0
mother
Dear
Mali
woe
"
she
not,
me
is
me
!
Ida, many-fountain'd Ida,
I die.
ere
Ida, harken
mother
Aphrodite beautiful,
an
Fresh
With
From
me,
ceased,
0 Paris,
Here
foam, new-bathed
the
as
rosy
her
slender
in
fingersbackward
Paphian wells,
drew
her deep hair
brows
and bosom
Ambrosial, golden round her lucid throat
And
shoulder : from the violets her lightfoot
form
Shone
rosy-white,and o'er her rounded
Between
Floated
warm
the
the
shadows
glowing
vine-bunches
she moved.
as
sunlights,
of the
(Enone
25
Dear mother
Ida, barken ere I die.
She with a subtle smile in her mild eyes,
The herald of her triumph, drawing nigh
I promise thee
Half-whisper'din his ear,
The
fairest and most
loving wife in Greece."
She spoke and laugh'd : I shut my
sight for fear
'
"
:
look'd, Paris had raised his arm,
I beheld great Here's angry
And
eyes,
into the golden cloud,
As she withdrew
the bower;
I was
And
left alone within
from that time to this I am
And
alone,
But
I
when
I shall be
And
'
Yet,
Fafrest
"
love
My
I die.
until
alone
Ida, barken
mother
fairest wife
why
told
hath
?
am
a
so
me
ere
I die.
I not fair ?
thousand
times.
I must
be fair,for yesterday,
Methinks
I past by, a wild and wanton
When
pard,
Eyed like the evening star, with playfultail
Most loving is she ?
Crouch'd
fawning in the weed.
Ah
me,
my
wound
Were
Oose,
close
shepherd, that
mountain
about
to
thee, and
in that
thine
my
arms
hot
lipsprest
dew
quick-falling
my
rains
fruitful kisses,thick as Autumn
Flash in the pools of whirlingSimois.
Of
'
0
mother, hear
me
yet before I die.
tallest pines,
They came, they cut away
my
My dark tall pines,that plumed the craggy ledge
the blue gorge, and all between
High over
cataract
The
peak and snow-white
snowy
beneath
Foster'd the callow eaglet from
thick mysterious boughs in the dark morn
Whose
The panther'sroar
came
muffled, while I sat
Low
in the valley. Never, never
more
the
Shall lone (Enone
see
morning mist
them
overlaid
see
Sweep thro' them ; never
moon-lit
With
narrow
slipsof silver cloud,
the trembling stars.
and
the loud stream
Between
"
f
0
I wish
mother, hear
that
me
somewhere
yet before I die.
in the ruin'd folds,
(Enone
26
Among
the
Or
dry thickets,I
the
fragments
the
from
tumbled
could
bred
And
tell her
Her
presence,
'
0
this
to
hear
he
not
his love
sworn
I die.
times,
valley,under this green hill,
hand, and sittingon this stone
In
this green
this
Ev'n on
mind,
men.
thousand
a
my
I hate
and
of Gods
yet before
me
board,
might speak
much
how
both
hated
mother,
Hath
face
her
I
that
change ;
her,
with
meet
came
The Abominable, that uninvited
Into the fair Pelei'an banquet-hall,
the
cast the golden fruit upon
And
And
glena,
?
it with
tears ?
Seal'd it with kisses ? water'd
unlike to these !
0 happy tears, and how
face ?
thou
canst
see
0 happy Heaven, how
my
0
0
happy earth,
how
weight !
cloud,
ever-floating
thou
death, death, death,
bear
thou
canst
my
enough unhappy on this earth,
Pass
by the happy souls, that love to live
1 pray
thee, pass before my lightof life,
There
are
I may
die.
heart within,
soul, that
all my
shadow
And
weighest heavy on the
Weigh heavy 9n my eyelids:
Thou
'
mother, hear
0
I will not
Do
shape
Dead
sounds
Like
at
it is born
me
Unblest,
*
Hear
Lest
0
:
to
vex
me
mother, hear
0
me,
their
Walking
child !
"
me
as
a
a
child
shudder
comes
born
yet before
I will not
and
see
mother
starless
die
road
!
I die.
happy laughter come
cold
more,
inmost
of me,
his father's eyes
be
with
dimly
of her
features
earth.
shrill
the
purpose,
child
never
I
wool.
her
:
the
from
night come
My far-oS doubtful
Conjecturesof the
Across
I die.
I hear
issue, as
the
footstepsupon
Ere
die.
me
die alone, for fierythoughts
and
within
themselves
more
me,
I catch
Whereof
let
yet before
me
:
alone,
to
me
of Death
hills,
27
(Enone
Uncomforted,
Down
into
woman.
Troy,
with
Talk
A
Greek
the
With
and
in her
go
the
forth
stars
her, and
before
fire dances
ere
I will rise and
come
for she
Cassandra,
wild
the
love
ancient
leaving my
a
says
sound
of armed
Rings
ever
What
be I know
this may
not, but I know
I am
wheresoe'er
by night and day,
That,
and
All earth
air
ears
only burning
seem
daughters of
two
were
fire.'
SISTERS
THE
WE
men.
:
race
one
the fairest in the face :
She was
The wind is blowing in turret and
together,and she fell ;
They were
well.
became
me
Therefore
revenge
0
Earl
the
fair to
was
tree.
!
see
to burning flame :
died : she went
blood with shame.
She mix'd her ancient
The
wind
is howling in turret and tree.
and months, and early and late,
Whole
weeks
She
To
O
the
I made
I
I
his love
win
Earl
a
won
his
The
wind
was
feast ;
I kiss'd his
wind
him
and
lap he
my
the Earl was
The
I bad
!
see
roaringin
is
Upon
ruddy
fair to
:
;
home.
after supper,
His
in wait
love, I brought him
And
O
lay
on
a
is
turret
fair to
upon
raging
tree.
bed,
laid his head
eyelidsinto
cheek
come
!
see
rest
:
:
breast.
my
in turret and
tree.
the hate of hell,
with
I hated him
But I loved his beauty passing well.
fair to see !
0 the Earl was
Sisters
The
28
night :
I made
dagger sharp and bright.
my
and
is raving in turret
tree.
The
wind
he drew,
As half-asleephis breath
I
rose
Three
the
Earl
I curl'd
He
so
wind
The
wrapt his
I
0
at
Earl
the
comely head,
his
his mother's
fair to
was
thro*
!
see
dead.
grand when he was
is blowing in turret
body in the sheet,
laid him
And
fair to
was
and
thro*
him
comb'd
and
look'd
silent
I stabb'd
times
O
the
in
up
and
tree.
feet.
!
see
TO
I
SEND
here
you
a
of
sort
will understand
(For
you
sinful
POEM
FOLLOWING
THE
WITH
allegory
it) of
soul,
a
gifts,
possess'dof many
A spacious garden full of floweringweeds,
and
A gloriousDevil, large in heart
brain,
That
did love Beauty only (Beauty seen
and
In all varieties of mould
mind),
And
Knowledge for its beauty ; or if Good,
Good
only for its beauty, seeing not
That
Beauty, Good, and Knowledge, are three
A
That
soul
doat
each
upon
other, friends
Living together under
And
never
And
he
Shut
can
out
Howling
Was
common
on
darkness.
clay
ta'en
tears.
shall
out, in turn
Love, and
outer
without
from
her
Not
the
threshold
be
lie
for this
common
by God, and tempered with
angels to the perfectshape of man.
Moulded
Of
from
in
Love
man,
roof,
same
sunder'd
be
shuts
that
the
to
sisters
the
earth,
tears
PALACE
THE
I
BUILT
soul
my
Wherein
I
at
'
said,
0
A
ART
lordly pleasure-house,
a
for
ease
dwell.
to
ay
make
Soul,
Dear
OF
merry
all is well.'
soul, for
i
and
carouse,
burnish'd
as
crag-platform, smooth
The
chose.
ranged ramparts bright
level
meadow-bases
of deep grass
Suddenly scaled the light.
huge
I
From
Thereon
The
I
rose
clear,
'
And
her
thou
Still as,
which
*
In
this
So
Four
In
The
on
soul
each
round
made
and
round,' I said,
I made,
shall
that
abide
is built
for
And
me,
wide.'
East, West
and
South
squared lawn, wherefrom
of dragons spouted
golden gorge
A
shade
readily :
answer
I
great mansion,
royal-rich and
courts
there.
a
bliss
in
me,
stair.
quiet king,
Saturn
whirls, his steadfast
his luminous
ring.'
my
Trust
shelf
or
herself
unto
runs
apart,
while
Sleeps
ledge
winding
alone
world
the
Of
or
high palace
while
Reign
To
live
would
In
*
it firm.
rock
soul
My
built
brass,
and
North,
a
flood
round
of
the
forth
fountain-foam.
cool
green
courts
there
ran
a
row
Of
like mighty
woods,
cloisters,branch'd
flow
Echoing all night to that sonorous
Of
spouted fountain-floods.
And
round
That
Far
as
the
lent
the
Dipt
broad
wild
down
gilded gallery
distant
to
lands,
verge
the
sky
wings, to where
roofs
swan
to
sea
a
and
sands.
Palace of Art
The
30
From
those
Across
In
four
the
jetafour
in
below
currents
stream'd
mountain
misty folds,that floatingas
Lit up
And
high on
hang on
To
A
cloud
While
a
golden
And
that
bow
sweet
will
incense
For
incense
that sweet
And, while day sank
The
rose
or
who
shall gaze
Would
eyes,
in the
waver
rise ?
and
fail'd,
never
mounted
sun,
'
higher,
the
seem
traced,
deep-setwindows, stain'd and
slow-flamingcrimson fires
shadow'd
grots of arches interlaced,
And
tipt with frost-like spires.
long-soundingcorridors it was,
That
over-vaulted
gratefulgloom,
soul
the livelongday my
Thro* which
to room.
Well-pleased,from room
Full
upon
lightaerial gallery,golden-rail'd,
Burnt
like a fringeof fire.
Likewise
From
cup.
'
great
steam'd
of all odour
she
this
seem'd
peak a statue
tiptoe,tossingup
every
thought, And
palace with unblinded
that
My
out
fell
torrent-bow.
of incense
From
So
a
they
swell
one
of
Full of
great
rooms
and
small
the
did
pass,
palace stood,
All various, each a perfectwhole
From
livingNature, fit for every mood
And
change
of my
still soul.
hung with arras
green and blue,
Showing a gaudy summer-morn,
blew
the belted hunter
Where
with puff'dcheek
His wreathed
bugle-horn.
For
One
some
were
all dark
seem'd
and red" a tract
And
some
one
pacing there alone,
Who
paced for ever in a glimmering
Lit with a low large moon.
of
sand,
land,
Palace of Art
The
"
"
Or
fair
some
Lay, dozing
by weeping
list
And
king
to hear
peaky tops engrail'd,
of palm and
rice,
Indian Cama
slowly sail'd
fann'd with spice.
of
summer
Europa's
sweet
From
From
Ausonian
tract
a
many
throne
A
Or
saw
hills with
over
The
ear,
of law.
and
wisdom
he
stay'd the
wood-nymph,
Of
Or
foot-fall,ere
a
queens.
against his
hand
hollowing one
To
The
vale of Avalon,
in the
watch'd
And
Or
deeply-wounded son
of sloping greens
space
Uther's
mythic
In
"
off her
hand
one
The
mild
blew
unclasp'd,
backward
borne
mantle
shoulder
droop*d
bull's
a
crocus
golden
:
:
hand
one
grasp'd
horn.
Ganymede, his rosy thigh
in the Eagle's down,
Half-buried
Sole as a flyingstar shot thro' the sky
the nillar'd
Above
town.
j*^rt"
else flush'd
Or
Nor
these
alone
:
but
the
legend fair
every
Caucasian
mind
Which
supreme
for itself,was
of Nature
Carved
out
Not less than life,design'd.
there,
I placed great bells that swung,
in the towers
Then
of themselves, with silver sound ;
Moved
I hung
with
And
choice paintingsof wise men
The royal dais round.
C-*^M**
jjU-tfXjLfc*
For
there
Beside
-
And
v
there
-
And
was
him
Milton
like
Shakespeare
a
seraph strong,
bland
and
Dante
world-worn
somewhat
grimly smiled.
the
mild
;
grasp'd his song,
father of the rest ;
A million wrinkles
carved his skin ;
his breast,
snow'd
A hundred
winters
upon
cheek
From
and throat and chin.
And
there
the
Ionian
The
Palace
of Art
33
Above, the fair hall-ceiling
stately-set
arch
did
an
lift,
Many
high up
And
angels risingand descending met
With
interchangeof gift.
Below
all mosaic
was
choicelyplann'd
With
tale
cyclesof the human
this wide world, the times of every
So wrought, they will not fail.
Of
land
The people here, a beast of burden
slow,
ToU'd
with
onward, prick'd
goads and stings;
Here
and
play'd,a tiger,rollingto
The
heads
and
of
crowns
\
fro
kings;
v
Here
an
rose,
athlete,strong
But
Began
She
she
these
over
to
chime.
like
trod
She
declined,
man
:
and
took
those
her
great bells
throne
:
shining Oriels,
betwixt
the
To
sing her
songs
thro' the
sick
some
cure.
sat
And
bind
or
might endure,
that
All force in bonds
And
here once
more
And
trusted any
to break
alone.
topmost Oriels' colour'd flame
godlike faces gazed below ;
the wise, and large-brow'dVerulam,
Two
Plato
first of those
The
who
know.
that in their motion
were
fountain -heads of change,
Full-welling
blazon'd fair
the slender shafts were
Betwixt
And
all those
In
diverse
names,
raiment
strange
:
lights,rose, amber, emerald, blue,
temples and her eyes,
drew
from Memnon,
lips,as morn
the
Thro' which
Flush'd in her
And
from
Rivers
No
her
of melodies.
nightingaledelightethto prolong
Her
low preamble all alone,
More
than
Throb
my
soul
thro* the
to
hear
ribbed
her
stone
echo'd
;
song
^
Singing and murmuring in her
Joying to feel herself alive,
feastful
the
visible
Lord
the
of
"Tis
when
"
or
earth,
mine,
are
wars,
night
young
with
dying day
d
Crown*
these
All
:
have^peace
She
me.'
to
one
'
herself
world
let the
mirth,
five ;
senses
with
Communing
And
of
Nature, Lord
over
Lord
i
of Art
Palace
The
34:
divine
stars,
Making sweet close of his delicious toils
and anadems,
Lit lightin wreaths
And
quintessencesof precious oils
pure
"
hollo w'd
In
'
if my
this great house
flatter'd to
Be
0
things fair to
shapes and hues
That
mine,
of swine
filthysloughs they roll a prurient skin,
They graze and wallow, breed and sleep;
oft
drives
of
And
As
by
And
at
I take
I
the
hers
care
I sit
as
But
them
moral
of the
Then
to
God
the
right of
the
she
prate,
dead,
Fate
full-accomplish'd
last she
what
deep.*
the
risingfrom
in,
enters
would
instinct
possessionof
not
devil
brainless
some
And
'
art
perfectgain,
the darkening droves
yonder plain.
on
range
Wise,
I dwell !
In
jAnd
I
and
Great
thee
count
I watch
time
What
please me
isolation which
but
can
that
cried,
eyes !
well !
various
my
whom
with
Gods,
God-like
0
1
1
sate
of the
silent faces
My
*
clapt her hands and
still delight
so
royal-rich,and wide,
the height.
and
all
0
0
;
I marvel
In
'
heaven
mimic
To
of gems,
moons
the
said
man's
sects
:
mind
may
of
form
holding no
contemplating all.1
j
and
deed.
brawl.
creed,
The
Palace of Art
Full oft the riddle of the
Flash'd thro' her as she
Yet
And
And
intellectual
she
so
She
Like
less held
the
not
throve
prosper'd
Herod,
Struck
the
when
solemn
fourth
shout
thro' with
alone,
sat
prosper'd:
the
on
:
painfulearth
she her
throne.
and
she should fail and
ever
God, before whom
so
she
mirth,
three
yeara
fell,
in his ears,
was
of hell.
pangs
Lest
35
perish utterly,
lie bare
abysmal deeps of Personality,
Plagued her with sore despair.
The
airy hand
The
*
Wrote
The
kingdom
dread
Deep
confusion
mene,'
Mene,
and
she
think, where'er
would
she
When
and
of her
turn'd
her
sight,
wrought,
quite
thought.
divided
her
loathingof
solitude
born
Fell on
was
her, from which mood
out that mood
Scorn of herself ; again, from
Laughter at her self-scorn.
'What!
*
this my
spacious mansion
is not
My
Whereof
the
Since
for me,
foundation-stones
built
1
first memory
my
in dark
But
strong
she said,
place of strength,'
corners
of her
laid
were
*
palace stood
shapes ; and unawares
white-eyed phantasms weeping
And
horrible nightmares,
Uncertain
On
tears
of
blood,
hollow shades enclosing hearts of flame,
And, with dim fretted foreheads all,
she came,
at noon
On corpses three-months-old
And
stood
That
A
spot
Or
'Mid
of dull
against the wall.,
stagnation,without
light
seem'd
of movement,
my
infinite
motions
onward-sloping
power
Making
for
one
sure
goal.r
soul,
The
36
of Art
Palace
A
still salt pool, lock'd in with bars of sand ;
Left on
the shore ; that hears all night
The plunging seas
from the land
draw
backward
Their
A
moon-led
that
star
with
white.
waters
starry dance
the choral
Join'd not, but stood, and standing saw
The hollow orb of moving Circumstance
Roll'd
Back
'
'
No
by
herself her
on
No
round
voice,' she
One
serpent pride had
shriek'd
breaks
voice
fix'd law.
one
thro'
deep, deep
in that
Lost
stillness of this world
the
And
death
And
But
her
and
dreadful
No
place and
life she
nothing
name
;
equally,
despair,
eternity,
time, dreadful
comfort
mouldering sod,
hated
for her
saw,
:
silence all ! *
the dull earth's
tenfold in slothful shame,
exiled from
eternal God,
to
hall,
lone
She, mouldering with
Inwrapt
Lay there
curl'd.
anywhere
;
Remaining utterlyconfused with fears,
with growing time,
And
ever
worse
And
unrelieved
ever
by dismal tears,
And
all alone
in crime
:
up as in a crumbling tomb, girt round
blackness
With
solid wall,
as
a
the dully sound
Far off she seem'd
to hear
Shut
Of
As
in
human
footstepsfall.
strange lands
walking slow,
great perplexity,
In
A
traveller
a
doubt
and
little before moon-rise
of
Moan
And
knows
rocks
Of
Of great
A
new
unknown
sea
if it be
thunder
an
not
thrown
wild
the
hears
down,
beasts
land, but
;
or
then
I die.1
low
;
one
or
a
sound
deep
thinketh,
cry
*
I have
found
The
She
howl'd
And
So
'
She
Make
four
me
I
am
37
fire within.
on
of
murmur
reply.
will take
away
lest I die ? *
sin,
my
wholly finished,
years were
her royal robes away.
cottage
a
Where
Yet
no
me
threw
'
'
save
when
'
aloud,
There comes
What
is it that
of Art
Palace
I may
vale/ she said,
in the
and
mourn
pray.
that
pull not down my palace towers,
beautifullybuilt :
lightly,
So
Perchance
When
CLARA
LADY
LADY
me
de
win
thought to break
For pastime, ere you
You
At
me
I
you
the
saw
Clara
you
pride is
Your
proud
Too
Nor
would
A
heart
yet
to
Is worth
a
For
were
I could
you
not
bear
to
your
name,
for mine,
I
whence
from
care
came.
sake
sweet
charms.
truer
for your
on
flower
in her
coats-of-arms.
hundred
Clara Vere
meeker
Some
Lady
town.
unbeguiled
mate
doats
that
to
went
Vere,
no
I break
simple maiden
A
de
proud
I know
:
and I retired :
hundred
Earls,
to be desired.
snare,
Vere
renown
country heart
a
smiled, but
The daughter of a
not
You
one
are
Lady
VERB
Vere,
shall not
you
guilt.'*
DE
VERB
Vere
Clara
Of
there
others^
.with
return
I may
I have purged my
de
Vere,
pupil you
must
queen
of all that
stoop
to
such
a
find,
is,
mind.
are
Lady Clara
38
Vere
Vere de
You
sought to prove how I could love,
And
disdain is my
reply.
my
old
The lion on
stone
gates
your
cold to you than
I.
Is not more
Clara
Lady
You
Vere
de
Vere,
put strange
memories
Not
thrice your
Since I beheld
Oh
sweet
your
A
But
great
eyes,
enchantress
there
was
Which
Clara
Lady
When
She had
She
Indeed
that
Vere
thus
the
across
certain
I heard
see.
his mother's
met
some
to
Vere,
passionsof her
spake
:
replies
be ;
may
his throat
you
de
he
low
your
blown
dead.
Laurence
hardly cared
had
you
have
branching limes
young
head.
in my
view,
kind,
truths
of you.
bitter word
That
is fit for you
to hear ;
scarce
Her manners
had not that repose
Which
stamps the caste of Vere de
Clara
Lady
There
The
one
Vere
stands
Vere,
spectre hi
a
changed
You
held
Trust
slew
me,
From
Kind
And
without
fix'd
a
his modest
vacant
Clara
Vere
de
Vere,
heavens
above
at
it
only
hearts
old
worth,
noble
birth.
us
bent
the
gardener and his wife
claims of long descent.
be,
it
noble
are
simple
to
seems
to
more
faith
be
me,
good.
than
than
gall.
stare,
your
blue
to
:
remorse,
with
grand
'Tis
heart
him
yon
Smile
Howe'er
hall
your
door :
your
wholesome
a
trust
And, last, you
And
is at
course
your
make
him
To
The
de
guiltof blood
You
Vere.
coronets,
Norman
blood.
40
I
The
sleepso
sound
all
Queen
May
night,mother,
that
I shall
never
wake,
If you
do
break
But I must
call
not
loud
me
when
the
day begins to
:
gather knots
of
flowers,and
and
buds
lands
gar-
gay,
For I'm to be Queen o' the
o' the May.
As
But
He
I
I'm to be
May, mother,
Queen
think ye should I see,
valleywhom
Robin
leaningon the bridgebeneath the hazel-tree ?
thought of that sharp look, mother, I gave him
yesterday,
I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen
o' the May.
came
the
up
"
But
thought I was a ghost,mother, for I was all in white,
And
I ran
by him without speaking,like a flash of light.
but I care
not what they say,
They call me cruel-hearted,
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen
o* the May.
He
They
They
say
he's
say
his
to
There
And
dying all for love,but that
heart is breaking,mother
"
can
be
never
:
is that
what
?
me
's many
I'm
a
be
to
bolder lad 'illwoo
Queen
o' the
me
any
day,
summer
May, mother,
I'm
to
be
Queen o' the May.
Little Effie shall go with me
to-morrow
And
you'llbe there, too, mother, to
Queen
For
the
to the green,
see
me
the
made
;
shepherd lads
on
every
side 'illcome
from
far
away,
And
I'm
be
to
Queen o' the May, mother, I'm
to
be
Queen o' the May.
The
honeysuckle round
the
porch
has
wov'n
its wavy
bowers,
And
by the
meadow-trenches
;
blow the faint sweet
flowers
cuckoo-
The
And
the wild
and
And
marsh-marigold shines
hollows
I'm
be
to
Queen o'
the
grass,
the happy
will not
like fire in swamps
May, mother,
I'm
be
to
May.
And
There
o' the
Queen
night-windscome
pass
41
gray,
The
they
Queen
May
and go,
above
stars
the meadow-
mother, upon
them
to
seem
brighten as
;
be
drop of
a
rain the whole
of the
livelong
day,
And
I'm
be
to
Queen o' the May, mother, I'm
to
be
Queen o' the May.
valley,mother, 'illbe fresh and green and still,
all the hill,
the cowslip and the crowfoot
are
over
the rivulet in the flowery dale 'ill merrily glance
and
play,
I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen
o' the May.
All the
And
And
For
So
'illbe the
To-morrow
early,
me
of all the
glad New-
the maddest
merriest
happiesttime
'illbe of all the year
To-morrow
to be
o' the
Queen o' the May, mother,
I'm
to be
Queen
May.
n.
IF
early,call
me
:
year
I'm
call
dear,
mother
For
and
wake
must
you
you're waking
NEW-YEAE'S
call
EVB
early,call
me
me
early,mother
dear,
For
I would
It is the
Then
you
more
last
may
of
see
the
sun
rise upon
the glad New-year.
that I shall ever
see,
New-year
lay me low
me.
i' the mould
and
think
no
42
The
the sun
To-night I saw
The good old year, the
of mind
And
the
set
dear
old
New-year's coming
never
set
left behind
and
time, and
all my
peace
mother, but
up,
I shall
see
blossom
Last
May
merry
the
on
we
made
day
;
blackthorn, the leaf
a
the hawthorn
Queen of May ;
danced
of
crown
Beneath
we
he
:
;
The
And
Queen
May
the
on
the
about
flowers
:
and
had
we
a
made
they
green
may-pole
the tree.
upon
me
in the hazel
copse,
Till Charles's
Wain
above
out
came
the
tall white
chimney-tops.
There's
not
flower
a
on
all the hills: the
the pane :
I only wish to live till the
melt
I wish the snow
would
snowdrops
and
the
frost is
again :
come
sun
on
out
come
on
high:
I
long to
see
a
flower
before
so
the
I die.
day
And
buildingrook 'illcaw from the windy tall elm-tree,
the tufted plover pipe along the fallow lea,
the swallow
o'er
'illcome
back again with summer
But
the wave,
I shall lie
The
And
alone, mother, within
the
mouldering
grave.
Upon
the
chancel -casement, and
that
upon
of
grave
mine,
In the
earlyearlymorning
the
from
summer
sun
the farm
Before the red cock crows
When
you are warm-asleep,mother, and
is still.
When
the
flowers
come
'illshine
upon
the
hill,
all the world
again, mother,
beneath
the
waning light
You'll
never
see
me
more
in the
long gray
fields at
night;
airs blow cool
from the dry dark wold the summer
When
and the bulrush
On the oat-grassand the sword-grass,
in th" pool.
The
You'll
bury
me,
43
Queen
May
mother, just beneath
my
the hawthorn
shade,
sometimes
and
you'll come
lowly laid.
shall not forgetyou, mother, I
And
I
see
where
me
shall hear
I
am
when
you
you
pass,
your feet above
With
head
my
long and pleasant
in the
grass.
I have
been wild and
You'll
kiss
me,
but
you'llforgiveme
mother, and forgiveme
wayward,
own
my
now;
ere
I go;
Nay,
You
should
child.
If I
Tho'
must
you
nay,
place;
you'llnot
mother,
another
have
you
from
again,mother,
see
griefbe wild,
let your
nor
weep,
fret for me,
not
I'll come
can
not
out
resting-
my
mother, I shall look upon
me,
your
face ;
Tho'
I cannot
And
be
I shall harken
speak a word,
often, often
with
when
you
what
you
I'm
think
you
say,
far
away.
said
I have
Good-night,good-night,when
good-nightfor
evermore,
And
you
door
Don't
see
;
let Effie
come
to
me
see
tillmy
She'll be
a
better
than
child to you
She'll find my
garden-toolsupon
hers
Let her take 'em : they are
growing
I have
ever
the
floor
granary
I shall
:
been.
:
garden
never
:
more
tell
that
About
be
grave
:
green
But
of the
the threshold
from
carried out
me
her, when
I'm
gone,
to
train
the
box
the
rose-bush
I set
the
parlour-window and
Good-night,sweet mother
All night I lie awake,
:
but
call
me
I fall
of
before the
mignonette.
day
is born.
asleep at morn
;
the
the
rise
I would
But
sun
see
glad New-year,
upon
call
if
call
me
early,mother dear.
So, you'rewaking,
me,
The
4:4:
III.
I
to
THOUGHT
And
pass
Queen
May
CONCLUSION
before, and
away
fields all round
in the
I hear
yet alive I
the
am
bleatingof
;
the
lamb.
How
To
sadly,I remember, rose
die before the snowdrop
the
morning
and
came,
of the
year
!
the violet 's
now
here.
0 sweet is the new
violet,that comes
is the young
And
lamb's
sweeter
voice
the
skies,
me
that
to
rise,
cannot
And
beneath
is all the land
sweet
about, and all the flowers that
blow,
And
far is death
sweeter
It seem'd
hard
so
than
life to
at
first,
mother,
as
hard
that
me
to leave
long to
go.
the blessed
sun,
And
now
done
it
seems
stay,and
to
yet His will be
!
But
still I think
And
that
good
it can't
the
man,
be
long before
clergyman, has
I find release ;
told me
words
of peace.
his kindly voice and on
O blessings
his silver hair !
on
And
blessingson his whole life long, until he meet me
there
!
0
blessingson
A
thousand
He
his
times
kindly heart
I blest
him,
all the mercy,
taught me
as
and
on
his silver head
he knelt beside my
for he show'd
me
tho' my
in :
me
Nor
be well,mother, again,if that could
would I now
desire is but to pass to Him
that died for
my
For
1
did
hear
not
came
meet
lightedlate,there's
dog howl, mother,
or
One
the
will let
be,
me.
death-
beat,
watch
There
the
was
bed.
all the sin.
Now,
lamp
!
a
:
sweeter
token
when
the
night and morning
The
sit beside
But
Queen
May
bed, mother, and
my
45
put
hand
your
in
mine,
Effie
And
sign.
March-morning I heard the angels call ;
the moon
was
setting,and the dark was
when
was
I will tell the
wild
All in the
It
side, and
other
the
on
all ;
over
began to whisper,and
the wild March-morning I
The
trees
And
in
the wind
heard
began
them
to
call my
roll,
soul.
lyingbroad awake I thought of you and Effie dear ;
I saw
sittingin the house, and I no longer here ;
you
all my
With
strength I pray'd for both, and so I felt
resign'd,
swell of music
the wind.
And
on
a
up the valleycame
For
I thought that it was
fancy, and I listen'd in my bed,
I know
not what
And then did something speak to me
said ;
was
For great delightand shuddering took hold of all my
"
mind,
And
up
the
sleeping; and
you were
it's mine.'
But
And
if it
a
And
three
comes
sign.
once
again
I
the
the music
on
said,'It's
not
again
valleycame
wind.
for them
:
times, I thought, I take it for
it came,
and
close
window-
the
beside
bars,
seem'd
Then
to
go
rightup
to Heaven
and
die among
the stars.
So
The
And
time is near.
my
that way
blessed music went
for myself, indeed, I care
But, Effie,you
And
I trust
I think
now
comfort
soul will have
my
if I go
I am
her when
not
kind word, and tell him
make
worthier than I, would
to Robin
say
There's
must
many
I know
it is.
a
to go.
to-day.
past
away.
to fret ;
not
him
happy
yet.
If I had
But
lived
wife ;
all these
of life.
"
I cannot
things have
tell
"
ceased
I
might
to
have
be, with
been
my
his
desire
46
The
0
look ! the
Queen
May
begins to rise,the
sun
heavens
in
are
a
glow;
He
shines
hundred
a
upon
fields,and
all of them
I
know.
And
there I
no
longernow,
and
shine
Wild flowers
in the
valleyfor
other
hands
O
strange it
to me,
that
move
there his
lightmay
"
and
sweet
seems
than
mine.
this
day
beyond
the
ere
is done
The
voice, that
sun
For
And
For
And
is
now
be
speaking, may
"
and
ever
for
that
life,
what
is
such
ado
ever
and
those
just souls and true
? why make
moan
we
"
should
we
?
for ever,
to wait
a
there
come
with
ever
all in
blessed
a
little while
home
"
and
till you
Effie
"
To
lie within
And
breast
the wicked
light of God,
the
as
I lie upon
your
"
at
are
cease
and
troubling,
from
the
weary
rest.
THE
'
HESPERIDES
Hesperus and his daughters three,
That
sing about the golden tree.
Comus.
THE
North-wind
fall'n,in the new-starred
night
Hanno, voyaging beyond
hoary promontory of Soloe
Zidonian
The
Past
Thymiaterion, in
Between
Heard
Nor
Blown
1
had
neither
seaward
in
a
from
conversation
with this poem
away
restored from
here
It is
done
and
warbling of
melody o' the Lybian
Tennyson,
i. 61).
southern
the
calmed
the
Horn,
western
the
nightingale,
lotus-flute
shore
with
from
bays,
the
his
among
from
; but
son,
his
a
slope
regretted that he
Juvenilia (Life,
the edition of 1833.
'
'
The
48
Hesperides
Father, twinkle not thy steadfast sight;
Kingdoms lapse,and climates change, and
Honour
Hoarded
with
comes
die;
;
brings delight.
wisdom
tell them
Number,
mystery
races
number.
and
over
the mystic fruit-tree holds,
many
d dragon slumber
the red-comb'
How
Lest
togetherin purple folds.
Roird
Look
him, father,lest he wink, and
to
be
and
Sing away,
his
For
he
If he
with
over-watchingsnight
day,
fruit-tree curl'd
in the wind, without
the hallow'd
about
Lest
goldenapple
stol'n
;
away
is drunk
heart
For his ancient
Round
the
"
singaloud evermore
scaled eyeliddrop,
is older
waken,
stop,
the world.
than
waken,
we
Rapidly levelling
eager eyes.
we
sleep,
sleep,
the
the
eyelidover
Dropping
If the golden apple be taken
If he
world
The
will be
overwise.
links,a golden chain,
Five
Hesper,
the
and
about
Bound
eyes.
dragon,
the golden
are
we,
sisters
three,
tree.
HI
Hesper, watch, watch, night and
Hesper, Father
day,
Father
Lest
the
The
glory unsealed,
golden apple stol'n
The
And
Look
the
ancient
from
Father, old
Out
Comes
All
secret
to
west
world
be
away,
along :
east
weakens, Caucasus
Himla
the
waters
Half-round
unto
bliss of secret
things are
the
not
told
healed,
revealed.
wandering
and
them
clash together,foam
of watchings,out of wiles,
Wandering
Let
of the
old wound
to
is bold and
waters
fall.
smiles.
all.
mantling night is drawn,
call ;
strong.
The
49
Hespendes
and
dawn.
Purple-fringed with even
Hesper hateth Phosphor, evening hateth
morn.
IV
Of
this
every
sea-wind
warm
the
But
land-wind
the
Two
the
western
the
And
Make
the
Holy
and
in
Mellow'd
land
a
of
rest
warily day
good things are in
But
when
Stays
luscious
The
Sunset-ripen'd
world
the
;
light
east
of
tall hill-brow
the
Bound
All
;
yellowly
sunset
bough,
mellowly,
the
golden-cored,
above
is wasted
the
blest,
west.
on
with
the
tree.
fire and
sword,
the
apple of gold hangs over
Five
links, a golden chain, are we,
Hesper, the dragon, and sisters three,
Daughters three,
But
and
;
flowering arch of
fruitage clustereth
Golden-kernell'd,
The
star,
western
night
round
full-fac'd
the
the
on
the
by
out
and
cool
the
Till mid-noon
Is shut
the
wind,
west
it
Watch
All
and
sun
:
breathing afar,
of day and
beginning of night
apple holy and bright ;
and
full, bright
bright, round
low
end
The
wandereth,
highland-steep,
the
violet
deep
upon
streams
For
ripeneth,
his sleep ;
the
by
Broken
in
billow
Arching
breath
redolent
fruit the
and
flower
Every
sea.
about
round
about
tree.
gnarled bole of the charmed
The
golden apple, the golden apple,the hallow'd
it well, guard it warily,
Guard
it warily,
Watch
Singing airily,
root.
the charmed
Standing about
The
fruit.
"*L*A^^"r"^u
LOTOS-EATERS
THE
'
COURAGE
'
This
the
In
which
like
Full-faced
above
like
land
that
one
the
streams
!
thro'
some
the
land
the
inner
Three
silent
Stood
sunset-flush'd
the
Up-clomb
charmed
the
red
And
meadow,
land
where
many
slender
all
things always
with
the
faces
pale,
round
Dark
pale against that rosy flame,
came.
mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters
Branches
Laden
Far
On
His
same
faces
The
And
vale
seem'd
And
To
dale
galingale;
with
about
copse.
the
clefts
yellow down
a
winding
the
keel
woven
adown
mountain
set
the
showery drops,
the
above
pine
thro'
:
mountain-tops,
with
linger'dlow
sunset
flow
snow,
and, dew'd
:
shadowy
West
seaward
aged
far inland, and
with
palm, and
seen
Border'd
A
pinnacles
of
smoke,
go ;
shadows
broke,
below.
far off, three
:
seem.
did
lawn,
foam
river
gleaming
stream
downward
a
lights and
of
;
fall did
and
thinnest
sheet
From
Was
soon.'
moon
slender
the
like
wavering
slumbrous
Rolling a
They saw
In
land,
dream.
weary
stood
the
pause
some,
veils of
Slow-dropping
The
shoreward
us
a
smoke,
fall and
cliff to
of
hath
valley
downward
a
the
Along
And
the
unto
a
land,
they came
afternoon.
seemed
it
always
the languid air did swoon,
the coast
Breathing
A
will roll
wave
toward
pointed
afternoon
round
And
said, and
he
mounting
In
All
"
!
they
each, but
taste, to
did
away
alien shores
;
far
was
seem
and
thin,
And
deep-asleep
And
music
in
the
him
his
he
as
receive
gushing
to
of
they
from
yet
gave
them,
the
wave
and
fellow
voices
his
of
mourn
if his
seem'd,
ears
stem,
fruit, whereof
did
whoso
enchanted
that
and
flower
with
voice
of
bore
rave
spake,
the
grave
;
all awake,
beating
heart
did
make.
!
Lotos-Eaters
The
They
the
Between
And
Of
them
sat
sun
it
sweet
Then
the
wife, and
'
the shore j
upon
of Father-land,
slave ; but
evermore
the oar,
weary
foam.
fields of barren
the
sea,
will return
no
more';
sang, 'Our island home
will no longer roam.1
; we
they
once
the
beyond
wave
SONG
CHORIC
here
music
is sweet
There
yellow sand,
said, 'We
one
all at
Is far
dream
the
moon
wandering
some
And
to
seem'd
weary
Weary
upon
was
child,and
Most
down
and
51
that
softer
falls
petalsfrom blown roses on the grass,
still waters
walls
between
Or night-dews on
Of shadowy granite,in a gleaming pass ;
that gentlieron
Music
the spiritlies,
tir'd eyes ;
tir'd eyelidsupon
Than
that brings sweet
Music
from the
sleep down
Than
blissful
skies.
Here
are
cool
thro'
And
And
And
in the
the
moss
the
stream
the
from
deep,
mosses
the
craggy
ivies creep,
long-leavedflowers weep,
ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.
ii
Why
are
weigh'd
we
with
upon
heaviness,
with sharp distress,
utterlyconsumed
all things else have
weariness
?
rest from
things have rest : why should we toil alone,
only toil,who are the first of things,
make
perpetual moan,
And
While
All
We
And
Still from
fold
Nor
And
ever
Nor
steep
Nor
harken
'
sorrow
one
cease
our
from
our
There is no
Why should
another
thrown
:
wings,
wanderings,
brows
what
to
the
holy balm
spiritsings,
in slumber's
inner
joy but calm !
we
only toil,the
;
*
roof and
crown
of
things!
The
52
Lotos-Eaters
in
Lo
in the
!
The
folded
With
middle
of the wood,
leaf is woo'd
out
from
winds
Grows
green
Sun-steep'dat
Nightly
dew-fed
Falls,and
Lo
broad, and
and
noon,
;
and
with
there
takes
in the
bud
no
care,
moon
turning yellow
floats adown
sweeten'd
!
branch, and
the
upon
and
the
the
the
air.
light,
summer
The
full-juiced
apple,waxing over-mellow,
in
silent
autumn
a
Drops
night.
All its allotted length of days,
The flower ripens in its place,
Ripens and fades, and falls,and hath no toil,
Fast-rooted
in the
fruitful soil.
IV
Hateful
is the
dark-blue
sky,
Vaulted
o'er the dark-blue
sea.
Death
is the end of life ; ah, why
Should
life all labour be ?
Time
Let us alone.
driveth onward
fast,
And
in a little while our
dumb.
lipsare
Let
alone.
What
things are
taken
us
All
is it that
from
us,
will last ?
and
become
Portions and
Let us alone.
parcelsof the dreadful
What
pleasurecan we
To
war
evil ?
In
ever
with
Is there
any
Past.
have
peace
climbing up the climbing wave
things have rest, and ripen toward
In silence ; ripen,fall and
cease
:
Give us long rest or death, dark death, or
All
How
sweet
With
half-shut
it were,
hearing the
downward
?
the
grave
dreamful
ease.
stream,
to seem
eyes ever
Fallingasleepin a half-dream !
yonder amber light,
the height;
Which
leave the myrrh-bush on
To hear each other's whisper'
d speech ;
Eating the Lotos day by day,
the beach,
To watch
the crispingrippleson
To
and
will not
dream
dream,
like
The
Lotos-Eaters
58
tender
And
To lend our
To
the
To
muse
With
curving lines of creamy
spray ;
hearts and
spiritswholly
influence of mild-minded
melancholy ;
and
brood and
old faces of
those
Heap'd
Two
with
over
handfula
live
in memory,
again
infancy
our
mound
a
of grass,
dust, shut in
of white
an
of brass!
urn
VI
Dear
is the
of our
memory
the last embraces
And
dear
And
their
For
surely now
Our
And
Or
tears
warm
sons
should
we
else the
Have
And
us
:
come
hearths
our
looks
like
ghosts to
change ;
cold
are
strange
are
of the
confusion
what
trouble
:
:
joy.
in
Gods
'Tis hard
remain.
so
hard
are
little isle ?
in the
is broken
The
to reconcile
to settle order
is confusion
Trouble
suffered
all hath
princesover-bold
substance, and the minstrel
our
our
There
wives
our
island
them
Is there
Let
but
:
lives,
sings
ten-years'war
Troy,
things.
great deeds, as half-forgotten
eat
Before
of
household
our
inherit
wedded
again.
once
than
worse
:
death,
trouble, pain on pain,
Long labour unto aged breath,
Sore
And
on
task
to
hearts
eyes
grown
worn
dim
with
with
out
gazing
many
the
on
wars
pilot-stars.
VII
But, propt
beds
on
and
of amaranth
moly,
blowing lowly)
airs lull us,
(whilewarm
With
half-dropteyelidsstill,
dark
and
Beneath
heaven
a
holy,
To watch
the long bright river drawing slowly
His waters
from
the purple hill
To hear the dewy echoes
calling
How
sweet
"
From
To
to
cave
watch
Thro*
Only
Only
the
many
to hear
to hear
a
thro'
cave
the
emerald-colour'd
wov'n
and
were
see
thick-twined
water
acanthus- wreath
the
far-off
sweet, stretch'd
vine
"
falling
divine
!
sparklingbrine,
the pine.
out beneath
The
54
Lotos-Eaters
vin
blooms
Lotos
The
below
barren
the
peak
:
blows by every winding creek :
tone :
All day the wind
breathes low with mellower
and
lone
Thro*
hollow cave
alley
every
the yellow Lotosand
round
the spicy downs
Round
Lotos
The
is blown.
dust
have
had enough of action, and of motion
We
we,
the surge
Roll'd to starboard, roll'd to larboard, when
was
Where
seethingfree,
the wallowing monster
in the
Let
us
swear
an
tains
his foam-foun-
spouted
sea.
oath, and
it with
keep
an
equal mind,
lie reclined
to live and
Lotos-land
On the hills like Gods
together,careless of mankind.
For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl'd
and the clouds are lightly
in the valleys,
Far below them
In
the
hollow
curl'd
Round
their
golden houses, girdledwith
the
gleaming
world :
Where
they smile in secret,lookingover wasted lands,
Blightand famine, plagueand earthquake,roaringdeeps
fierysands,
Clanging fights,and flaming towns, and sinkingships,
and
praying hands.
But
they smile, they find a music centred in a doleful
and
song
Steaming up,
a
lamentation
and
an
ancient
tale of wrong,
Like a tale of little meaning tho' the words
are
strong ;
of men
that cleave the soil,
Chanted
from an ill-used race
with enduring toil,
Sow the seed, and reap the harvest
Storingyearly little dues
Till they perishand they
of
wheat,
suffer
"
down
in hell
Suffer endless anguish,others in
and
some,
wine
and
oil ;
d
'tis whisper'
"
Elysianvalleysdwell,
beds of asphodel.
Resting weary limbs at last on
the
than toil,
sweet
Surely,surely,slumber is more
labour in the deep mid-ocean, wind
and wave
Than
oar
Oh
;
rest ye, brother
mariners,we
will not wander
more.
shore
and
Rosalind
56
Too
Too
long
long
But
we
That
And
Is
you
keep
you
roam
hood
must
sparklingfresh
brilliant hue
keep
bind
must
wings, and
lured
have
we
We
Rosalind,
wild-eyed Rosalind,
clipyour
make
from
you
delightof frolic
that
dew,
in the
fast, my
you
Fast, fast, my
And
When
And
view,
to
red heath-flower
Some
Touched
with sunrise.
And
eyes,
they kill,
cheek, whose
your
so
random
your
whom
not
care
the upper
skies ;
and wheel at will ;
love
you
:
above,
flight,
by day
or
night,
to South ;
North
We'll bind you fast in silken cords,
kiss away
the bitter words
And
off your rosy mouth.
From
From
DREAM
A
I BEAD,
The
before
FAIR
OF
eyelidsdropt
my
WOMEN
their
shade,
Legend of Good Women, long ago
Sung by the morning star of song, who made
His
Dan
music
Chaucer,
Preluded
The
for
Held
Hold
the
those
sounds
a
Brimful
warbler, whose
of
that
sweet
bursts, that
melodious
both
clouds
breath
fill
great Elizabeth
echo
still.
wild
of those
mine
downward
raining,tho'
from
eyes
my
heart,
tales,
with
tears.
In
every
lightillumineth,
walking hand in hand
slope to death.
I saw,
wherever
Beauty and anguish
The
;
while, the knowledge of his art
above
the subject,as strong gales
me
swollen
Charged
below
first
spacious times
With
And,
heard
land
A
Those
Dream
far-renowned
I heard
of ancient
sounds
for
wars
;
clanginghoofs
clatteringflints batter'd
And
And
I
Of
with
in column'd
crowds
saw
forms
that
marble
song
dark, like burning stars,
of insult, shame, and wrong,
trumpets blown
And
And
brides
57
hollow
the
Peopled
And
Women
of Fair
sanctuaries
and
windows
pass'd at
:
;
roofs
on
palaces;
the threshold ; heroes tall
Corpses across
Dislodgingpinnacle and parapet
Upon the tortoise creeping to the wall ;
And
Lances
in ambush
set ;
high
shrine-doors
burst
before the
That
run
surf wmd-scatter'd
White
And
with
heated
fluttering
tongues
sails and
over
blasts
of fire ;
masts,
climbing higher;
ever
Squadrons
thro'
and
of
squares
in brazen
men
plates,
Scaffolds, still sheets
of water, divers woes,
vaults with iron grates,
of glimmering
hush'd seraglios.
And
Ranges
So
shape
chased
shape
winds
scud
the
Bluster
Crisp foam-flakes
Torn
from
the
I started
once,
or
Resolved
As
when
a
And
And
A
That
And
a
and
tides
to
self-same
the
land
way,
along the level sand,
fringeof spray.
seem'd
to
start
in
pain,
things,and strove to speak,
great thought strikes along the brain,
my
cavalier
bore
swift as, when
noble
on
all the
flushes
once
as
was
arm
from
lady
lifted to
off his
from
then, I know
cheek.
a
not
hew
down
saddle-bow,
d
leaguer'
town
;
how,
sharp fancies, by down-lapsing thought
Streain'd onward, lost their edges, and did creep
Roll'd on each other, rounded, smoothed, and brought
Into the gulfsof sleep.
All those
A
58
The
Women
far
I had wander'd
in coolest
old wood
fresh-wash'd
In an
:
maiden
splendours of the morning star
Shook
in the steadfast blue.
last
At
of Fair
Dream
that
methought
boles did stoop and lean
underneath
dusky brushwood
elm-tree
Enormous
the
Upon
Their broad curved branches, fledgedwith
from its silken sheath.
New
dim
The
red
had
morn
And
with dead
the
Half-falPn across
Never
There
to
was
rise
lips smiled
threshold
And
wide forest.
Their humid
arms
the
red
The
I knew
the
The
On
The
root
And
*
dead
sound
sepulchre
jasmine turn'd
festooningtree to tree,
Growths
lush
of
green
grasses
burn'd
anemone.
tearful
the leaves, I knew
knew
glimmer
of
the
languid dawn
those
long,rank, dark wood-walks
Leading from lawn to lawn.
smell
air,
of rill;
drench'd
violets,hidden in the green,
back
into my
empty soul and
in
dew,
of
times
when
Joyful and
to have
I remember
free from blame.
frame
been
from
within me
clear undertone
a
in that unblissful
Thrill'd thro' mine
ears
Pass freelythro' : the wood
is all thine own,
Until the end of time.1
At
A
thro*
flowers,I
Pour'd
The
of the sun,
dumb
in the
that
at
twilightplain,
the
at
again.
motion
no
clearest green,
died, her journey done,
Not any song of bird or
of the inner
Gross darkness
Is not so deadly still
As
dew.
length I
lady
within
clime,
call,
Stiller than chisell'd marble, standing there ;
daughter of the Gods, divinelytall,
And
most
saw
a
divinelyfair.
A
loveliness with
Her
Froze
The
my
Spoke
1
1 had
I
'
No
one
My
her
full
name
my
than
died.
:
destiny.
Where'er
I
came
Which
father
The
to
'
looks
averse,
in that
hope
my
with
draws
a
;
curse
:
cause.
name
with
blasted
was
sad
place,
spiritloathes
my
his hand
held
and
fears
:
his face ;
upon
tears,
speak : my voice was thick with sighs
As in a dream.
Dimly I could descry
black-bearded
stern
kings with wolfish eyes,
Waiting to see me die.
Still strove
The
scornful
the
was
yet
beside.
and
off from
cut
turning I appeal'd
said,
woman
I, blinded
to
they lay afloat ;
The crowds, the temples,waver'd, and the shore;
bright death quiver'd at the victim's throat ;
high
*
by
the
the
with
white
a
I left my
when
slow
full words
sank
thunder-drops fall
I heard
Sudden
I may
That
more.'
no
downward
brow
heavy-plungingfoam,
roll'd me
deep below,
home.'
thro' the
on
a
silence drear,
sleepingsea
*
a
:
cold
wind, had
Then
As
as
I knew
other
I would
Whirl'd
and
;
the
Whereto
flickered
masts
Touch'd
Her
not
height her statelystature
she
youth/
was
My
The
face
eyes,
thou
wise
and
sick
she, with
This
*
ask
free ; and
that stood
one
To
*
surprise
she, turning on my
marvel, sovereignlady : in fair field
Myself for such a face had boldly died,'
But
1
with
brought calamity.'
To
I
59
place.
more
swords
I answer'd
'
be
can
Women
of immortal
sorrows
slowly in her
drew
Many
speech :
great beauty :
No
Fair
and
shame
swift
star-like
of
Dream
voice that cried, Come
thee."
look on
:
here,
A
60
.""
I
!
.."!."!
I..
Dream
I
II.
!"
I
|
She, flashingforth
All
'The
no
That
""!,""""!""""
Nay
to
men
makes
yet
"
The
the
man,
ebb and
in this wood
govern
it chafes
:
I could not bend
tutor with mine
eye
that
me
lover, with
the
drank
We
Prythee, friend,
whom
I rode
Sun
outburn'd
Libyan
sleep,and
Canopus. 0
to
Lamps which
Egypt ! 0 the dalliance and the wit,
and
the strife,
The flattery
And
sublime
leapt into
Bacchus
Contented
And
lit
my
life
wild
mailed
My
:
kiss,when fresh from war's alarms,
Hercules, my Roman
Antony,
the
My
Of
flow.
only woe.
my
my
blood
neck : we
sat as
On Fortune's
God
by God
Nilus would
have risen before his time
flooded at our
nod.
And
The
In
eyes,
I made
moon,
and
One will ; nor
tame
That dull cold-blooded
Caesar.
is Mark
Where
Antony !
1
"
a
of
currents
ever-shifting
According to my humour
I have
'
".
I
Once, like the
'
I
l|
I,
haughty smile, began :
govern'd men
by change, and so I sway'd
moods.
*Tis long since I have seen
a
man.
'
'
Women
turningsaw, throned on a flowery rise,
crimson
One sittingon
scarf unroll'd j
a
queen, with swarthy cheeks and bold black
Brow-bound
with burning gold.
A
1
of Fair
there
to
my
arms,
die !
when
I heard my
name
brook
life I would
not
my
the other : with a worm
I balk'd his fame.
else was
left ? look here !
What
there
he
died :
Sigh'd forth with
and
*
that she tore her robe apart, and half
The polish'dargent of her breast to sight
Thereto
Laid bare.
she pointed with a laugh,
(With
Showing
the
aspick'sbite.)
fear
A
'I died
Queen. The
lying dead, my
for
name
Worthy
Her
Of
When
she
She
made
her
I knew
sudden
their
for
not
motion
from
filPd
piercingorbs, and
interval
Still with
delight;
the ground
with light
of sound.
fires Love
tipt his keenest darts
As once
they drew into two burning rings
of Love, melting the mighty hearts
beams
Of captains and of kings.
All
Slowly
A
And
undazzled.
sense
my
noise
of
some
Then
torrent
From
Sound
all
night long, in
balmy
The
lawn
Of
Within,
To
music
To
the
moon.
of blessed
moon
that
museth
the
by
holy
sound
on
Hearing
bird,
Israel
where
he
her
sunshine
laves
rollingwaves
organ
roof and floor
anthem
save
the
divine
dell
cathedral, thro' the door
some
and
left the
broad
where
beams
wall
splintered
crags
of
silver
shine.*
spires
that
lawn,
pouring, late and soon,
fallingthro* the dell,
the
With
one
beneath
the
Israel
all the deep-bluegloom with
Floods
night
crested
dawn.
of hallow'd
hollows
craggy
Far-heard
The
brooks
;
I heard
thro'
coming
one
singingclearer than the
That
claps his wings at
'The
Of
brows,
crown'd,
my
and
spouse/
pause
with
raised
The
As
Roman
a
about
crown
liveliest utterance.
Because
All
"
61
soldier found
lying robed
!
ever
Women
warbling voice, a lyre of widest range
Struck
by all passion,did fall down and glance
tone to tone, and
glided thro* all change
From
'
Roman
a
Me
A
of Fair
Dream
sung,
stands
"
lipsof
father's
is charm'd
so
stood
her
that
vow
;
and
I, when
died
tied
that
flow
:
A
62
daughter
The
My
Not
God,
My
times
die.
The
ere
to
"
cord
threefold
a
fruit
death.
these did
father
my
bliss of life,that Nature
my
to
flower
my
ripe for
softlywith
Down
And
but
;
land,
my
from
Me
Lower'd
'
high:
answer
plant,whose roofc
green
Single I grew, like some
Creeps to the garden water-pipesbeneath,
Feeding the flower
Changed, I was
'
rendered
thousand
a
;
and
born
be
I would
1
alone
once
nor
so,
of crimes
the count
heads
She
wild oath.'
that
along
light,
song.
'Heaven
leaptforth:
words
With
"
with
went
welcome
with
gate
and
timbrel
With
she
when
as
;
pure
Mizpeh's tower'd
From
Gileadite,
of the warrior
maiden
A
Women
of Fair
Dream
move
gave,
of love
silent grave.
a
I went
mourning,
Shall smile away
my
Hebrew
mothers
Leaving
the
"
"
fair Hebrew
boy
blame
maiden
among
all
joy,
emptied of
"
No
and
dance
song,
Leaving the olive-gardensfar below,
Leaving the promise of my bridal bower,
The valleysof grape-loadedvines that glow
'
the
Beneath
'
We
heard
saw
the
Saw
And
I heard
'
Him,
solemn
A
the
When
on
for He
next
beautiful
For
God
a
and
stars
rise
one
his den
by
;
one,
glen,
of ills.
scorn
Strength came
How
roaring from
Anon
night with flyingflame,
hills.
the everlasting
spake, and griefbecame
the
thunder
us.
over
swam
darken'd
the
divide
God
tower.
large white
Or, from
'
cloud
the lion
lightwhite
The
We
battled
moon
to
roll'd into the
was
me
thing it
for my
equall'dmy
that
was
to die
sire !
sky,
desire.
A
64:
Or
her, who
that
knew
Women
of Fair
Dream
vanquish Death,
her king,
about
arm
her balmy breath,
Spring.
Love
Who
kneeling,with one
forth the poison with
Drew
buds in
Sweet
as
new
can
labours longer from the deep
memory
of thought to lift the hidden
Gold-mines
ore
than
from
I
That
sleep
glimpses,moving up,
tell
o'er
To gather and
No
little sound
Each
Compass'd,
Into
sight. With what dull pain
eagerly I sought to strike
track of dreams
again !
and
how
wondrous
that
dreams
like.
But
no
two
As
when
a
soul
In
Desiring what is mingled with past years,
be exprest
yearnings that can never
By signs or groans or tears ;
all
Because
are
laments, which
words,
tho*
Failingto give
culPd
hath
with
been
blest,
choicest
art,
bitter of the sweet,
palate,and the heart
the
the
beneath
Faints, faded by its heat.
Wither
MARGARET
What
O
SWEET
O
rare
pale Margaret,
pale Margaret,
lit your
Like
moonlight
Who
lent
on
a
tearful power,
fallingshower
love, your
mortal
?
dower
Of pensive thought and
aspect pale,
Your
melancholy sweet and frail
perfume of the cuckoo-flower ?
As
From
From
the
the
From
A
you,
with
eyes
tearful
westward-winding flood,
evening-lightedwood,
have
all things outward
you
grace,
the
Between
you stood
and the
rainbow
as
tho*
sun.
won
65
Margaret
The
That
senses
Of
transparent cheek,
heart, and feedeth
with
still
dainty
a
tender
Which
the
moon
Moving
thro*
delight
sound,
round,
without
sorrow
the
Like
speak,
you
your
all the
dimples
Encircles
The
before
smile
very
amber
her
about
spreadeth,
fleecynight.
a
love, remaining peacefully,
of the strife,
To hear the murmur
You
But
toil of life.
the
not
enter
sea,
spiritis the calmed
of the fight.
Laid by the tumult
the evening star, alway
You
are
Remaining betwixt dark and bright:
of laborious day
echoes
LulFd
to you, gleams of mellow
Come
light
the verge of night.
Float by you on
Your
m
What
it matter, Margaret,
songs below the waning stars
can
What
lion-heart,Plantagenet,
The
Sang looking thro* his prison bars ?
Exquisite Margaret, who can tell
last wild thought of Chatelet,
did part
the fallingaxe
Just ere
the true heart,
The burning brain from
in her sight he loved so well ?
Even
The
IV
A
fairyshield
And
Your
You
real
more
Than
Your
not
move
You
But
only
sorrow,
Keeps
on
you
gave
are
human
your
hair is
your
sorrow's
sorrow
in such
not
made
Genius
your
less
natal
day.
shade,
far away.
solitudes.
divine,
in your
moods,
twin-sister,Adeline.
darker, and
your
eyes
Margaret
66
with
Touch'd
darker
somewhat
a
aeriallyblue,
But
ever
trembling thro* the
dainty-woefulsympathies.
less
And
Of
O
O
sweet
rare
Come
hue,
dew
pale Margaret,
pale Margaret,
down,
hear
and
down,
come
speak :
me
ringletson your cheek :
is just about
to set,
tall and
The arching limes are
shady,
And
faint,rainy lightsare seen,
Moving in the leavy beech.
Rise from the feast of sorrow,
lady,
all day long you sit between
Where
Joy and woe, and whisper each.
the lawn,
Or only look across
up the
The
sun
Tie
Look
Look
down,
Upon
your bower-eaves,
and
let your blue eyes dawn
thro* the jasmine-leaves.
below
out
me
SONNET
ON
RESULT
THE
OF
OF
How
And
Of
To
The
long, 0 God,
trampled under
men
?
LATE
THE
POLAND
shall
by
quiver,tho*
her
men
the
sacred
ridden down,
last and least
hath
blood
and out of every
Thee, lest brute Power
fields ;
Cries to
Till that
be
of Poland
heart
The
INVASION
RUSSIAN
not
doth
ceased
drown
smouldering town
be
increased,
in the East
o'ergrown Barbarian
crown
:
new
Transgresshis ample bound to some
Cries to Thee, Lord, how long shall these thingsbe ?
How
long shall the ice-hearted Muscovite
Oppress the region? Us, 0 Just and Good,
in three ;
she was
torn
Forgive, who smil'd when
Us, who stand now, when we should aid the right
"
*
'
"
A
matter
to
be
wept
with
tears
of blood
!
SONNET
when
As
And
with
ebb
into
To
lapse
To
states
If
Ever
All
in
wonder
say,
hath
know
not
when
first I
had
either
look'd
each
what
I had
often
each,
in the
true,
place,
with
other's
so
"
or
met
face,
your
to
time
where.'
or
reflectingeach
in
lived
before,
upon
each
answer,
chair,
more,
I
not
And
and
more
been
thought gave
Opposed mirrors
that
his
hath
Our
Methought
or
this
been,
I knew
;
stirs
'All
So, friend, when
Altho*
dream
similitude
waxeth
brood,
seem
confused
hems
and
muse
life,or
a
mystical
speaks or
we
this
back
we
eyes
former
a
of
the
that
So
far
but
one
downcast
mind
you,
and
speech.
BLACKBIRD
THE
sing me
something well :
thee
While
all the neighbours shoot
round,
I keep smooth
plats of fruitful ground,
thou
Where
may'st warble, eat and dwell.
O
BLACKBIRD
The
thine
The
unnetted
;
the
range
tho*
I
sole
Thy
that
With
fret
the
the
all
standards
of
lawn
black-hearts
thine, against
Yet,
To
the
espaliers and
Are
All
A
!
garden
and
park
:
ripen dark,
wall.
spared thee all the spring,
delight is, sitting still,
gold dagger of thy bill
summer
jenneting.
golden bill ! the silver tongue,
Cold
February loved, is dry :
Plenty corrupts the melody
That
made
thee
famous
once,
when
young
:
Blackbird
The
68
in the
And
sultrygarden-squares,
are
changed to
thy
flute-notes
Now
thee
I hear
As
when
his
hawks
hawker
a
hoarse
all,or
at
not
coarse,
wares.
Take
warning ! he that will not sing
While
sun
prospers in the blue,
yon
Shall sing for want, ere leaves are
new,
Caught in the frozen palms of Spring.
OF
DEATH
THE
YEAR
OLD
THE
FULL
knee-deep lies the winter snow,
the winter winds
are
And
wearily sighing:
sad and slow,
Toll ye the church-bell
For
lies
the
old year
Old
You
You
Old
year, you
to
came
readily,
steadily,
so
die.
shall not
doth not move
:
of day.
the dawn
he
He
will not
see
He
hath
no
other
He
gave
me
a
so
us
year, you
lieth still:
the
us
die ;
not
must
lived with
He
And
speak low,
a-dying.
softlyand
tread
And
life above.
friend, and
a
will take
New-year
must
Old
not
true
'em
true-love,
away.
go ;
year, you
So long as you have been with us,
with us,
Such joy as you have seen
Old year, you shall not go.
froth'd
He
A
his
jollier
year
bumpers
we
But
tho' his eyes
And
tho'
He
was
his foes
a
shall
to
not
the
brim
;
see.
waxing dim,
speak ill of him,
are
friend to
me.
shall not die ;
year, you
did so laugh and
We
cry with you,
to die with
I've half a mind
you,
Old
Old
year,
if you
must
die.
The
He
joke and jest,
quips are o'er.
merry
all his
To
him
see
His
the
die, across
and
son
But
69
full of
was
But
of the Old Year
Death
heir
he'll be
doth
dead
waste
ride
post-haste,
before.
Every one for his own.
The night is starry and cold, my
friend,
And the New-year blithe and bold,my friend,
Comes
his
to take
up
own.
the snow
hard he breathes ! over
I heard just now
the crowing cock.
fro :
The shadows
flicker to and
The cricket chirps: the lightburns low
How
:
'Tis nearly twelve
o'clock.
Shake
hands, before you die.
for you
Old year, we'll dearly rue
do for you ?
is it we
What
can
Speak out before you die.
His face is
Alack ! our
growing sharp
Step
That
friend is gone.
waiteth
And
There's a new
And
A
a
foot
face
new
wind,
Or
In
these
Even
friend,
friend,
floor,my
door,
my
that
J. S.
beats
softlyround
the
gently comes
me
the
the
at
More
And
on
face at the door.
new
That
door.
the
at
TO
And
thin.
up his eyes : tie up his chin :
let him
from
the corpse, and
in
standeth
there alone,
Close
THE
and
:
cast
are
this
in
mountain, blows
the open
wold,
the
world
to
those
gentle mould.
bolder made,
dared to flow
invade
you, and
knowledge
else I had
words
with
not
toward
a
verse
your
holy
woe.
70
J. S.
To
'Tis
strange that
in whose
Those
Fall into
love.
gives us
lends
lost
first
most,
on
limbs
our
soonest
love
we
lean
we
laps
shadow,
Those
God
those
:
taken
are
nursed,
are
first.
to love
Something
love is grown
ripeness,that on which it throve
Falls off,and love is left alone.
He
To
is the
This
In
griefI
One
but, when
;
Alas
of time.
curse
thro*
Once
us
am
mine
!
all unlearn'd
not
doors
own
went, who
pass
will not smile
not speak to me
Once
Two
more.
years his chair is
he
That
was
Empty before us.
life I had not been.
Without
whose
He
"
Your
loss is
Of
heaven,
Shot
I knew
rarer
with
Rose
Was
I have
thro*
a
little
aro
wander* d far
into dark.
sudden
and
pure
dust
his mute
his livingworth :
:
and
look'd
bold
into
born
never
not
for this star
brother
more
upon
the
you
and
just
earth.
nigh,
Since that dear soul hath
fall'n
Great Nature
is more
wise than I :
I will not tell you not to weep.
And
tho'
mine
Drawn
I will not
'
Let
More
seen
having
the
on
your
man
;
you
nor
I honour
A
;
returned.
hath
never
;
did
Death
own
from
eyes
fill with
asleep.
dew,
the
spiritthro' the brain,
even
preach to you,
Weep, weeping dulls the inward pain.*
Grief be her own
She loveth her
than
Be
much
done
"
mistress
still.
anguish deep
pleasure. Let her will
own
to weep
or
not
to
weep.
YOU
ASK
ME,
ask
And
AT
EASE
me,
is the
land
That
that
where
man
may
A
land
of settled
land
of
Where
From
Where
Hath
till,
Freedom
chose,
girt with friends
speak the thing he will ;
land,
A
A
freemen
sober-suited
The
and
Freedom
old
precedent
to
:
seldom
banded
unions
individual
Thof
persecute
Tho1
Should
freedom
should
Power
The
time
a
is civil
mute
me
Wild
wind
and
The
Above
eat
her
She
a
before
of
temples
heard
on
the
sand
"
sky,
warmer
I
die
the
the
breaking
the
shook
State
golden
ON
Freedom
thunders
the
harbour-mouth,
seek
see
land
to
"
FREEDOM
SAT
old
the
I
!
I will
palms
OLD
from
land
trebly great
Britain
channel
of
every
almost
choke
with
waft
crime,
;
from
make
of
name
And
OF
down
slowly
gathers head,
But
by degrees to fullness wrought,
The
diffusive thought
strength of some
time
and
and
to work
spread.
space
faction
And
The
renown,
broadens
Opinion, and induce
When
single thought
Yet
foes
or
government,
just
precedent
Should
OF
ILL
why, tho* ill at ease,
this region I subsist,
Within
Whose
spiritsfalter in the mist,
languish for the purple seas ?
You
It
THO'
WHY,
South.
HEIGHTS
THE
heights,
at
her
feet
starry lights:
torrents
meet.
:
Of old
There
But
sat Freedom
the
on
Heights
73
place she did rejoice,
in her prophet-mind,
Self-gather'd
fragments of her mighty voice
Game
rollingon the wind.
in her
Then
stept
mingle with the
part by part to men
human
To
And
fullness of her
The
field
and
thro' town
down
she
race,
reveaPd
face
"
majesticworks,
her isle-altar gazing down,
From
Who, God-like, grasps the tripleforks,
the crown
:
And, King-like,wears
mother
Grave
Her
open
The
of
eyes desire the truth.
of a thousand
wisdom
years
May perpetualyouth
Keep dry their lightfrom tears
Is in them.
fair form
her
That
The
to
scorn
falsehood
of extremes
!
LOVE
WITH
LAND,
THY
THOU
LOVE
days and
with lipsdivine
brightour
Make
Turning
shine,
lightour dreams,
and
stand
may
;
FAR-BROUGHT
thy land,
thou
LOVE
From
out
love
storied Past, and used
Present, but transfused
turn'd
Love, that
For
Thy
far-brought
the
the
Within
Thro' future time
True
love
with
by
power
round
endures
on
not
of
thought.
fixed poles,
sordid ends,
English natures, freemen, friends,
brothers
But
pamper
feed
Nor
not
with
herd, wild
The
That
every
souls.
immortal
and
hasty time.
crude
imaginings
a
hearts
sophistercan
and
feeble
lime.
wings,
74
Love thou
Deliver
not
the
of
tasks
far-brought
Love
thyLand, with
might
weakness, neither hide the ray
From
those, not blind, who wait for day.
To
doubtful
sittinggirt with
Tho'
Make
knowledge
let her
But
circle with
light.
the winds
;
herald, Reverence, fly
Before her to whatever
sky
Bear
and
seed of men
growth of minds.
Watch
what
draw
main-currents
the
:
years
Prejudiceagainst the grain:
But
gentle words are always gain :
of thy peers :
Regard the weakness
Cut
toil for
Nor
touch
title,place,or
pension,neither count on praise:
to guerdon after-days
:
grows
Of
It
Nor deal
Not
clingingto
ancient
some
mastered
Not
overmuch
in watchwords
by
Not swift nor
in its season
And
saw
;
term
modern
some
slow
;
to
change,
but
;
firm
law ;
bring the
fall
from Discussion's lip may
That
With
Life, that, working strongly,binds
Set in all lightsby many
minds,
To close the interests of all.
For
Nature
And
moist
Thro*
Our
individual
form.
changes should
being, lest we rust
all are
changed by
We
All but
the
basis of the
And
control
in
Its office,moved
with
ease
still
:
degrees,
soul.
change which comes
ingroove itself with that
work, a jointof state
let the
To
warm,
dry, devisinglong,
agents making strong,
is it
Meet
So
and
"
and
many
the
Matures
also, cold
:
be
free
which
that
sympathy.
flies,
plies
thyLand, with
Love thou
A
saying,hard
all the
For
Love
in
shape
to
act;
of Time
past
far-brought
reveals
of thunder-peals,
bridal dawn
Wherever
Fact.
Thought hath wedded
A
Ev'n
now
A
hear
we
with
inward
strife
toilingin the gloom
The Spiritof the years to come
Yearning to mix himself with Life.
A
motion
slow-develop'dstrength awaits
Completion in a painfulschool
of other
Phantoms
The
warders
But
vague
round
And
With
great
wind
And
rule,
States
"
growing hour,
hard
in vapour,
to mark
j
them
and
air are
dark
sea
of Power.
contrivances
That
the
race
risingwind
;
puff your idol-fires,
heap their ashes on the head
to
shame
To
Oh
;
changes, aptly join'd,
many
forth the second
whole.
Is bodied
Regard gradation,lest the soul
Of Discord
A
of the
of
forms
Majestiesof mighty
New
Of
"
are
we
the
boast
wiser
than
often
so
;
made,
sires.
our
yet, if Nature's evil star
in manhood, as in youth,
Drive
men
To follow flyingsteps of Truth
Across
the
If New
and
Must
ever
And
That
Not
brazen
true, till Time
Principlesare
the
war
"
Old, disastrous feud
foes,
shock, like armed
this be
yet
bridge of
wise
rain'd
of heart
shall
in blood
would
close,
;
cease
and
hold his hope thro' shame
guilt,
with his hand
But
against the hilt,
Would
pace the troubled land, like Peace ;
To
75
76
thou
Love
Love
thyLand, with
Not less,tho*
Would
serve
bay,
of Faction
dogs
in deed
his kind
word,
sword,
and
Certain, if knowledge bring the
takes
knowledge
That
the
love
Would
either
From
And
if
some
To-morrow
As
we
of
good
veS
dreadful
need
yet
away
stroke
one
well the thriftymonths, nor
Haste, half-sister to Delay.
Her
There
And
lean
and
poor,
held
together;
rags scarce
strode a stranger to the door,
it
windy
was
weather.
his arm,
goose upon
He
utter'd rhyme and reason,
Here, take the goose, and keep you
It is a stormy season.'
held
He
'
wed
GOOSE
old wife
an
KNEW
She
a
white
caught
the
goose
'twas
A
"
let fall
goose
cackle and
With
The
She
dropt
And
:
reap to-day,
of the dead ;
would
THE
I
broke
that
Earn
Flaw
"
his eyes :
rise
should
firmly,and
blossom
bear
sword
side, nor
strike, and
Would
the
gleams
far-brought
ran
the
to
no
a
goose
great
golden
with
by
the
warm,
leg,
matter.
egg
clatter.
caught the
goose, and
tell her neighbours;
cursed
bless'd herself, and
And
her labours.
rested from
And
pelf,
herself,
And
feeding high, and livingsoft,
Grew
plump and able-bodied ;
churchwarden
doff'd.
Until the grave
The parson amirk'd and nodded.
The
So
served
sitting,
She
felt her
Goose
by
77
and
man
maid,
heart
prouder :
grow
the more
the white goose laid
It clack'd and
cackled louder.
ah
But
!
It clutter'd
here, it chuckled
there j
old wife's mettle :
It stirr'd the
She
shifted in her
And
'
A
hurFd
quinsy
Then
1
elbow-chair,
the
choke
wax'd
kettle.
and
pan
cursed
thy
note
!
her
anger stronger.
Go, take the goose, and wring her
I will not bear it longer.'
Then
'
yelp'd the
throat,
and yawl'd the cat ;
Ran
Gammer.
Gaffer, stumbled
The goose flew this way
and
flew that,
And
fill'd the hous"
with clamour.
and
head
As
strode
it
all
He
So
It
the goose
utter'd words
door,
:
his arm,
upon
of
or
wild
wind
round
And
Till all the
And
half
from
rang
the
attics
the
blast
hard
blew
cap
And
a
warm,
and
plain.
rumbled,
chimneys
in, the
was
park
danced
tables
glassblew
The
Her
the
scorning;
keep you cold,
keep you
is a stormy morning.*
The
The
floor
together,
weather
windy
was
the
stranger to
a
took
He
'
heels upon
flounder'd
They
There
And
cur,
again,
tumbled.
fire blew
and
out,
harder.
blew
gown
up,
clear'd the larder ;
off, her
whirlwind
all sides breaking loose
while on
fled the danger,
household
Her
Quoth she, The Devil take the goose,
And
*
And
God
forgetthe stranger!
'
Versions
Earlier
80
Hear
for I will
with
my
me,
My
build
and
speak,
up all
walls
sorrow
song, as yonder
Rose
slowly to a music slowly breathed,
A cloud
that gathered shape : for it may
while I speak of it, a
wander
from
heart may
little while
its deeper
That,
My
'
0
mother
be
woe.
Ida, manyfountained Ida,
I die.
Ida, hearken
ere
Dear
mother
Aloft the mountain
lawn
was
dewydark,
And
dewydark aloft the mountain
pine ;
Beautiful
Paris, evilhearted Paris,
Leading
Came
'
0
up
a
jetblack goat whitehorned, whitehooved,
reedy Simois all alone.
from
mother
I sate
Ida, hearken
alone:
the
ere
I die.
goldensandalled morn
the scornful
hills : I sate alone
Rosehued
like a star
With
downdropt eyes : whitebreasted
the
he
dawn
came
a
:
Fronting
leopard skin
From
his white
shoulder
hair
drooped : his sunny
Clustered about
his temples like a God's :
And
his cheek
brightened, as the foambow
brightens
When
the wind
the foam
blows
and
I
called
out,
;
Welcome
home
Apollo, welcome
Apollo,
loved
Apollo, my Apollo,
Apollo."
"
'
Dear
mother
Ida, hearken
ere
I die.
mildly smiling,in his milkwhite
palm
Close-held
a
golden apple,lightningbright
With
changeful flashes, dropt with dew of Heaven
his lip,
Ambrosially smelling. From
Curved
crimson, the fullflowingriver of speech
He,
Came
down
upon
my
heart.
'
"
My
own
(Enone,
Beautifulbrowed
own
soul,
(Enone, mine
this fruit, whose
Behold
rind
gleaming
ingrav'n
For the most
breed
fair,'in aftertime
may
and sere
Deep evilwilledness of heaven
Ilion ;
Heartburning toward hallowed
And
all the colour of my
afterlife
Will be the shadow
of today. Today
*
Here
and
and
the floatinggrace
Pallas
Of laughterloving Aphrodite meet
In manyfolded Ida to receive
hand
of beauty, she to whom
This meed
my
the palm.
the green
Award
Within
hillside,
Under
whispering tuft of oldest pine,
yon
Is an
with
ingoing grotto, strown
spar
at
And
the mouth,
wherein
ivymatted
(Enone
Thou
unbeholden
Hear
all, and
81
may'st behold, unheard
thy Paris judge of Gods."
see
*
I die.
Dear
mother
Ida, hearken
ere
It was
the deep midnoon
one
:
silvery cloud
Had
the piney hills.
lost his way
between
three
the
all
came
They
Olympian goddesses :
Naked
to the smoothswarded
bower,
they came
"
"
Lustrous
with lilyflower,
violeteyed
Both
white and blue, with lotetree-fruit thickset,
with
Shadowed
singing pine; and all the while,
the
Above,
and
vine
in
wild
festoon
a
way
many
Ean
riot, garlanding the gnarled boughs
With
bunch
and
berry and flower thro' and thro'.
On
the treetops a golden glorious cloud
ambrosial
dew.
Leaned, slowly dropping down
too
How
beautiful
beautiful
they were,
To look upon
to me
! but Paris was
More
lovelier than all the world
beside.
This
'
overwandering ivy
that
and
0
Ida, hearken
mother
I die.
ere
spake the imperial Olympian
arched
eyebrow smiling sovranly,
to Paris
She
made
Fulleyed Here.
rule
Proffer of royal power,
ample
Unquestioned, overflowing revenue
First
With
Wherewith
"
embellish
from
vale
a
state,
many
And
riversundered
champaign clothed with corn,
Or upland glebe wealthy in oil and
wine
Honour
and
homage, tribute, tax and toll,
From
inland
and
haven
town
an
large,
many
Mast-thronged below her shadowing citadel
In glassy bays among
her tallest towers."
to
"
4
0
mother
Ida, hearken
ere
I die.
still she spake of power
and
Which
of all.
in all action is the end
measured
fitted to the season,
Power
by
The height of the general feeling,wisdomborn
all neighbour crowns
throned
of wisdom
from
And
Still she
spake
on
"
"
Alliance
and
allegiance
evermore.
to thee kingborn,
Queen
A shepherd
thy
yet kingborn,
Should
in this
most
come
welcome, seeing men,
Only are likest gods, who have attained
Rest
in a happy place and
quiet seats
Above
the thunder, with undying bliss
In knowledge of their own
;
supremacy
Such
boon
from
all
me
Heaven's
life and
Versions
Earlier
82
The
The
changeless calm
highestheight
1
Dear
mother
ceased, and
She
at
Out
Flattered
of
and
Ida, hearken
held
Paris
so
arm's-length,
his
undisputed right,
topmost strength of power."
heart
:
I die.
costly fruit
ere
the
the thought of power
Pallas where
she stood
much
but
Somewhat
apart, her clear and bared limbs
with the brazenheaded
O'erthwarted
spear
her
pearly shoulder leaning cold,
Upon
earnest
The while, above, her full and
eye
cheek
breast
and
her snowcold
Over
angry
reply.
Kept watch, waiting decision, made
"
Selfreverence, selfknowledge, selfcontrol
the three hinges of the gates of Life,
Are
That
into power,
everyway
open
cloud.
shadow
Without
or
or
horizon, bound
not
Yet
for power
(power of herself
Will come
uncalled-for) but to live by law
fear,
Acting the law we live by without
follow
is
to
because
And,
right
right
right,
of consequence.
Were
wisdom, in the scorn
'
(Dear mother
Ida, hearken
ere
I die.)
it tricks
value
men
gold because
Life with
outward
blazons
ornament,
the miser, for itself.
But rather
as
half destroy selfgood.
Good
for selfgood doth
and
coiled snakes, infect
The means
end, like two
with
hateful
bound
in
love.
Each
other,
one
the stream
and
So both into the fountain
hearken
to me,
A drop of poison falls. Come
Not
And
as
and
consider
And
look upon
me
me,
So shalt thou
find me
fairest, so endurance,
shall still become
to an
Like
athlete's arm,
with
Sinewed
motion, till thine active will
(As the dark body of the Sun robed round
With
his
own
emanating lights)
ever-
Be
flooded
o'er with her own
And
thereby grow to freedom."
effluences,
c
she ceased
Here
And
Paris pondered. I cried out, " Oh Paris,
Give
but he heard
it to Pallas !
me
not,
hear
is
not
Or hearing would
!
woe
me
me,
"
*
0
mother
Ida, manyfountained
Ida,
I die.
mother
ere
Ida, hearken
Idalian Aphrodite oceanborn,
in Paphian
Fresh as the foam, newbathed
slender
With
fingersupward drew
rosy
Dear
wells,
(En-one'
her
From
hair
her dark
bosom
head
her
on
thick,
upbound
band
below
her lucid neck
:
Fragrant
In a purple
Shone
ivorylike,and
Gleamed
rosywhite,
the
Between
Floated
the
and
brow
warm
and
83
shadows
and
the ground her foot
form
o'er her rounded
from
and
of the
glowing
vinebunches
sunlights,as she moved,
*
Dear
mother
I die.
Ida, hearken
ere
with
mild
smile
subtle
in
her
a
eyes,
of her triumph, drawing nigh
The herald
Half
whispered in his ear, " I promise thee
She
fairest and
The
most
loving wife in Greece."
his arm
I only saw
Paris
raise
:
my
I only saw
great Here's angry
eyes,
As she withdrew
into the golden cloud,
And
the bower
I was
left alone within
;
And
from
that time
to this I am
alone,
And
I shall be alone until I die.
'
Yet, mother
Fairest"
My love
why
Ida, hearken
fairest wife ?
hath
I die.
fair f
am
times.
thousand
ere
I not
told me
a
so
I must
be fair, for yesterday,
When
I past by, a wild and
wanton
pard,
like
the
with
Eyed
playful tail
eveningstar,
Most
Crouched
loving is she
fawning in the weed.
Ah
that
arms
mountain-shepherd,
me,
my
my
hot lips prest
wound
about
Were
thee, and my
to thine in that
Close"close
quickfallingdew
Of fruitful kisses, thick as Autumn-rains
Methinks
Flash
*
the
in
pools
mother
Dear
of
whirling
Ida, hearken
Simois.
I die.
tallest pines
They came,
they cut away
my
that
dark
tall
My
pines,
plumed the craggy
the blue gorge, or lower
down
High over
ere
"
Fillinggreengulphdd Ida,
ledge
all between
The
cataract
peak and snowwhite
snowy
Fostered
the callow eaglet from
beneath
thick mysterious boughs in the dark
Whose
The
muffled, while I sat
came
panther's roar
Low
in the valley. Never, nevermore
Shall lone (Enone
the morning mist
see
them
overlaid
never
see
Sweep thro' them
"
morn
"
With
narrow
the
Between
*
Hath
Oh
!
he
moonlit
slips of silver cloud,
loud
stream
and
the trembling stars.
mother
not
sworn
Ida, hearken
his
love
ere
a
I
die.
thousand
times,
Versions
Earlier
84
In this green
this
Ev'n
on
Sealed it with
valley, under this green hill,
hand, and sittingon this stone
?
tears ?
it with
kisses t watered
to
!
these
unlike
and
how
tears,
face ?
can'st thou
see
how
Heaven,
my
Oh
happy
happy
happy earth, how
Oh
Oh
can'st
thou
death, death, death, thou
0
There
Pass
enough unhappy
are
by
the
happy
on
bear
souls, that
love
die.
within,
die.
I die.
ere
Ida, hear me
alone, for fiery thoughts
Yet, mother
die
I will not
Do
shape themselves
the
I catch
Whereof
within
issue,
night
at
footsteps upon
come
wool.
My far-off doubtful purpose,
Conjectures of the features
I will
it is born.
Ere
'
Dear
Hear
earth.
0
not
and
more
me,
more,
I hear
the inmost
from
I dimly see
as
as
a
mother
child
of her
die alone.
Ida, hearken
mother
me,
:
light of life,
"
sounds
live
to
1 pray
thee, pass
my
all my
And
shadow
soul, that I may
Thou
weighest heavy on the heart
Weigh heavy on my eyelids let me
Dead
Like
I will not
ere
die
their shrill happy laughter come
Walking the cold and starless road
Lest
I die.
alone,
to
me
of Death
love
ancient
I will rise and
the Greek
With
woman.
go
forth
the
stars
and
into Troy,
come
Down
ere
with
the wild Cassandra, for she says
Talk
fire dances
before
A
her, and a sound
of armed
in her ears
men.
Rings ever
I know
but
be
I
know
this
What
not,
may
That, whereso'er I am
by night and day,
air
and
All earth
seem
only burning fire.'
leaving
Uncomforted,
my
TO
WITH
I
SEND
(You
Its many
A sinful
A
A
FOLLOWING
THE
POEM.
sort of allegory,
will understand
artist and
an
lesser meanings) of a soul,
you,
are
Friend,
soul
a
possessed of many
gifts,
spacious garden full of flowering weeds,
glorious Devil, large in heart and brain,
That
did
?
everfloating cloud,
this earth,
before
'
weight
my
love
Beauty
only, (Beauty
seen
hills.
Tlie Palace
of Art
85
and
In all varieties of mould
mind)
for
its
And
beauty ; or if Good,
Knowledge
Good
only for its beauty, seeing not
That
Beauty, Good, and Knowledge, are three sisters
That
doat
each other, friends to man,
upon
the same
under
roof,
Living together
without
And
be sundered
tears.
can
never
turn
in
he that shuts Love
And
shall be
out,
Shut out from
Love, and on her threshold lie
Not
for this
darkness.
outer
in
Howling
Was
earth,
common
clay ta'en from the common
with
and
Moulded
the
tears
by God,
tempered
Of angels to the perfect shape of man.
THE
PALACE
OF
ART.
i.
I
BUILT
my
Wherein
I said, Oh
'
Dear
soul
a
lordly pleasurehouse,
for aye to dwell.
and
Soul, make
carouse,
merry
weU.
for
aU
is
Soul,
at
ease
n.
burnished
brass,
as
crag -platform, smooth
I chose, whose
ranged ramparts bright
of deep grass
meadowbases
From
great broad
the
scaled
light.
Suddenly
huge
A
in.
Of ledge or shelf
I built it firm.
rock
clear, or winding stair.
rose
herself
live alone unto
soul would
In her high palace there.
Thereon
The
My
IV.
*
the
While
great world
round
runs
and
round,' I said,
Reign thou apart, a quiet king ;
whirls, his steadfast
Still,as, while Saturn
his
luminous
ring.
Sleeps on
'
v.
*
And
richly feast within
thy palacehall,
the dainty bird that sups,
Lodged in the lustrous crown-imperial,
Draining the honey cups.'
Like
to
VI.
To
In
soul made
answer
readily.
my
*
abide
I
shall
bliss
in
Trust
me,
that is built for me
this great mansion
wide.'
So royalrich and
which
shade
Versions
Earlier
86
VII.
of long sounding corridors it was
That
overvaulted
gratefulglooms,
and
Roofed
with thick plates of green
orange
Ending in stately rooms.
Full
glass
VIII.
Full
of
All
great
and
rooms
the
small
palace stood,
various, all beautiful,
fitted
all ways,
Looking
And
change
to
mood
every
still soul.
of my
IX.
For
Showing
with
Where
hung
were
some
His
with
arras
green
and
blue
morn,
gaudy summer
cheek
the
belted hunter
puffed
a
wreathed
blew
buglehorn.
x.
showed
an
English home
gray
On dewy pastures, dewy trees,
Softer than sleep all things in order
of ancient
A haunt
Peace.
One
"
"
twilightpoured
stored
"
XI.
Some
all dark
were
Lit
with
a
brown
Among
Went
low
rocks
weeping
and
red, a
round
moon,
man
a
glimmering
upon
the
land
sand
all alone.
XII.
One
seemed
foreground black with stones and
Below
sunsmitten
icy spires
Rose
striped with long white cloud the scornful
Deeptrenched with thunderfires.
a
slags.
crags,
XIII.
Some
showed
far-off thick woods
mounted
with
flood
of
mild sunshine
Nearer, a
Poured
on
long walks and lawns and beds and
Trellised with bunchy vine.
XIV.
Or
the
In
maidmother
by
yellow pastures
Beneath
branchwork
Sat
of
smiling, babe
a
crucifix,
warm,
sunny
costly sardonyx,
in
arm.
xv.
Or
Venus
in
shell alone,
snowy
Deepshadowed in the glassy brine,
Moonlike
glowed double on the blue, and
A
naked
shape divine.
a
shone
towers,
bowers
Earlier
88
Versions
XXV.
Still
From
lighthouse in the night
the gleaming main,
Changeth athwart
red to yellow, yellow to pale white,
to red again.
Then
back
changing,
as
a
xxvr.
'
From
The
'
So
change
thro'
brain
all
the
womb
is moulded,'
she began,
all
of
phases
thought I come
the
Into
within
times
four
change
to
perfect man.
XXVII.
*
All nature
widens
upward :
lower
The simpler essence
More
is
more
Discourse,
more
complex
evermore
lies.
perfect,owning
widely wise.
more
XXVIII.
'
I take possession of men's
minds
I live in all things great and
I dwell
apart, holding no
But
contemplating
forms
all.'
and
deeds.
small.
of
creeds,
XXIX.
Four
courts
ample
there
were,
East, West,
South, North,
each
A
In
a
squared lawn wherefrom
golden-gorged dragon spouted forth
The
fountain's
diamond
foam.
XXX.
All
round
the cool green courts
Of cloisters, branched
like
all
that
to
sonorous
night
Echoing
Of
spouted
fountain
there
ran
row
a
mighty woods,
flow
floods.
XXXI.
From
In
those four jets four currents
rock
Over
the black
streamed
in one
below
swell
steamy folds, that, floatingas they fell,
Lit
a
up
torrentbow
;
XXXII.
And
round
That
Tall
the
ran
gilded galleries
distant
lands,
the
mounds, and close beneath
sands.
lines of amber
gave
and
towns
Long
roofs
large view
to
XXXIII.
Huge
incense-urns
along the balustrade,
of solid amethyst,
with
different odour
a
fuming, made
The
air a silver mist.
Hollowed
Each
skies
The
of Art
Palace
89
XXXIV.
Far-off
Of
wonderful
'twas
look
to
upon
the gleam
towers
between
Those
sumptuous
the
in
that great foambow
trembling
sun,
And
the argent incense-steam
;
XXXV.
And
To
the walls,
and
round
terraces
While
day sank lower or rose higher,
rails with all their knobs
those
and balls,
see
round
the
like
Burn
a
fringe of
fire.
xxxvi.
the
Likewise
and
stained
traced,
crimson
Burned,
fires,
From
shadowed
grots of arches interlaced,
And
topped with frostlike spires.
deepset windows,
like slowflaming
XXXVII.
Up
in the
Moved
And
with
The
I placed great bells that
of themselves
with silver sound
choice
I
paintings of wise men
towers
royal
dais
swung
:
hung
round.
XXXVIII.
There
Grim
angel tall
bland
and
mild,
Shakspeare
pressed his lips,and from the wall
bald
blind
Homer
smiled.
deephaired
Stood
Dante
The
Milton
like
an
limned,
xxxix.
And
The
in cedarwood,
freshcarved
underneath
Somewhat
alike in form
and
face,
Genii of every
climate
stood,
All brothers of one
race
:
XL.
Angels who
And
the seasons
by their art,
sway
And
mould
all shapes in earth
and
sea
;
with great effort build the human
heart
From
earliest infancy.
XLI.
And
the
flame
Michael
Immortal
Angelo
Looked
down, bold Luther, largebrowed Verulam,
The
king of those who know.
in
sunpierced Oriel's coloured
XLII.
the bright face of Calderon,
Robed
David
touching holy strings,
Halicarnassean, and alone,
the flower of kings,
Alfred
Cervantes,
The
Earlier
90
Versions
XLIII.
Isaiah with
Swarth
Ezekiel,
fierce
Moses
by the
Plato, Petrarca, Livy,
And
Coptic sea,
Raphael,
and
Confutzee
eastern
:
XLIV.
And
more,
many
that
lifetime
in their
were
of Change,
Fullwelling fountainheads
Between
the stone shafts glimmered, blazoned
divers
In
raiment
fair
strange.
XLV.
Thro' which
Flushed
And
the
lights,rose,
temples
her lips,as morn
from
in her
Rivers
of
amber,
emerald,
and
her eyes,
from
Memnon,
blue,
drew
melodies.
XLVI.
No
nightingaledelighteth to prolong
Her
More
low
all alone,
hear her echoed
ribbed
stone.
preamble
soul to
than my
Throb
thro' the
song
XLVII.
Singing and
in her feastful mirth
feel
herself
alive,
Joying
Lord
over
nature, lord o' the visible earth,
Lord
of the senses
five
murmuring
to
"
XLVIII.
As
that
rich
some
All
tropic mountain,
change, from flats of
thro' five great
His head
in snows
Sloping
infolds
scattered
palms
of climate, holds
zones
calms
and
"
XLIX.
Full
Sat
of her
delight and nothing else,
soul
My vainglorious,gorgeous
throned
between
the shining oriels,
In pomp
beyond control ;
own
L.
With
piles of flavorous fruits in basket- twine
Of gold, upheaped, crushing down
Muskscented
blooms
all taste
gourd
grape,
In bunch, or singlegrown
"
"
or
"
LI.
Our
growths,
Make
Ambrosial
and
of
such
as
brooding
blossoms
crimson
and
juices, sweets
pulps
when
seawinds
Sunchanged,
out
Indian
heats
deep,
from
sweets
sleep.
pine
"
Palace of Art
The
91
LII.
With
graceful chalices of curious wine,
of art
and
Wonders
costly jars,
boss"d
Ere
salvers.
night divine
young
"
And
Crowned
with
dying day
stars,
LIII.
of his
Making
close
delicious toils,
sweet
lit white streams
of dazzling gas,
soft and
fragrant flames of precious oils
In moons
of purple glass
She
And
LIV.
Ranged
In
fretted woodwork
to the ground.
intense
untold
delight,
vivid colour, smell and
sound,
flattered day and
night.
the
on
Thus
her
deep
or
Was
LV.
thro'
Flashed
her
not the less held
And
intellectual
Yet
painful earth
riddle of the
the
Sometimes
she
she her
as
sat alone,
solemn
mirth,
throne
LVI.
Of
So three years
fourth
she fell,
on
when
in his ears,
the shout was
thro' with pangs
of hell.
fullspheredcontemplation.
She
Like
the
throve, but
Herod,
Struck
LVII.
Lest
should
she
God,
The
before
fail and
perish utterly,
whom
lie bare
ever
abysmal deeps of Personality,
despair.
Plagued her with sore
LVIII.
she would
think, wheree'er she turned
confusion
The airy hand
wrought,
When
Wrote
'
Mene,
The
mene,'
kingdom
her
sight
divided
and
quite
of her thought.
LIX.
her solitude
which
born
mood
from
Fell on
was
her,
that mood
out
Scorn
of herself ; again, from
selfscorn.
her
at
Laughter
Deep
dread
and
loathing of
LX.
*
Who
hath
That
Moved
the
drawn
from
in my
Abode
my
blood
in
dry
deep
and
fountains
heart
dwelt,
Sampson's
of
delight,
everywhere
as
hair ?
power
and
might
Versions
Earlier
92
LXI.
*
What,
'
she said,
of strength,'
built for me,
spacious mansion
laid
the strong foundationstones
were
this my
is not
My
Whereof
Since
place
'
f
first memory
my
LXII.
of her
corners
shapes, and
in dark
Uncertain
But
palace
stood
unawares
tears
white-eyed phantasms weeping
And
horrible nightmares,
On
of
blood
LXIII.
hollow shades enclosinghearts of flame,
fretted foreheads
all,
And, with dim
at
she
came
three-months-old
noon
corpses
the
wall.
stood
That
against
And
On
LXIV.
A
light
stagnation,without
of dull
spot
soul,
seemed
movement,
my
power
downward-sloping motions infinite
of
Or
Mid
for
Making
one
goal.
sure
LXV.
A
in with bars of sand,
that
hears
all night
shore,
on
the land
from
backward
draw
plunging seas
white.
waters
Their moonled
still salt
pool, locked
the
Left
The
LXVT.
A
the choral starry dance
that with
but
Joined
stood, and standing
not,
orb of moving Circumstance
hollow
star
The
round
Rolled
by
fixed
one
saw
law.
LXVII.
Back
on
'
'
No
No
voice
'
herself her
voice,' she
serpent pride had
shrieked
through
breaks
deep, deep
One
in
the
silence
curled.
lone hall,
stillness of this world
that
"
all.'
LXVIII.
She, mouldering with
tenfold
exiled from
Inwrapt
Lay
there
Lost
to
her
the dull earth's
in slothful shame,
mouldering sod,
God,
eternal
place and
name
;
LXIX.
And
death
And
But
and
life she
nothing saw,
hated
for her
dreadful time, dreadful
comfort
No
anywhere
equally,
despair,
eternity,
;
of Art
Palace
The
93
LXX.
utterly confused
Remaining
And
And
ever
with
worse
And
fears,
growing time,
by dismal
unrelieved
ever
with
all alone
crime
in
tears,
;
LXXI.
in a crumbling tomb, girt round
solid wall,
blackness
as
a
to hear the dully sound
off she seemed
Of human
footsteps fall.
Shut
as
up
With
Far
LXXII.
strange lands
in
As
a
walking slow,
traveller
and
In doubt
great perplexity,
hears the low
moonrise
little before
of an
unknown
Moan
sea,
A
LXXIII.
knows
And
Of
great wild
Of
A
the sound
if it be thunder
or
thrown
or
one
down,
deep cry
beasts ; then thinketh,
I have
die.'
but
I
land,
not
stones
new
'
found
LXXIV.
'
fire within.
of reply.
comes
murmur
no
sin
is it that will take
away
my
the
die
I
?
death
Dying
aloud
howled
She
I
am
on
There
What
'
LXXV.
So
'
when
She
Make
four
threw
me
*
years
her
were
Where
robes
away.
in the vale,' she said,
and
mourn
pray.
royal
cottage
a
wholly finished,
I may
LXXVI.
'
Yet
down
pull
palace towers,
my
So lightly,beautifuUy built :
not
that
are
return
I may
Perchance
with others there
I have
When
purged my guilt.'
THE
'
'
COURAGE
This
the
In
In
!
'
he
mounting
LOTOS-EATERS.
said, and
wave
pointed toward
will roll
us
shoreward
afternoon
unto
land,
a
they came
it
seemdd
afternoon.
which
always
the
land,
soon.'
Earlier
94
Versions
the languid air did swoon,
hath
that
dream.
a
one
Breathing
weary
the golden moon
the valley burned
Above
;
And
like a downward
smoke, the slender stream
Along the cliff to fall and pause and fall did
All round
the
coast
like
seem.
n.
like a downward
! some,
smoke,
of
thinnest
veils
did
lawn,
Slowdropping
go ;
And
thro' wavering lightsand
shadows
some
broke,
of
below.
slumbrous
sheet
foam
Boiling{a
the gleaming river's seaward
flow
They saw
From
far off, three mountaintops,
the inner landj
Three
thrones of oldest snow,
thundercloven
with
Stood sunsetflushed : and, dewed
showery drops,
the woven
Upclomb the shadowy pine above
copse.
A
land
of streams
in.
charmed
sunset
lingered low adown
In the red West
thro' mountain
clefts the dale
:
Was
far inland, and
the yellow down
seen
Bordered
with palm, and many
a
winding vale
And
set with slender galingale;
meadow,
all things always seemed
!
A land where
the same
And
round
about
the keel with faces pale,
faces pale against that rosy flame,
Dark
The
mildeyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came.
The
.
IV-.
Branches
stem,
they bore of that enchanted
with
Laden
flower and fruit, whereof
they gave
did receive of them,
To each, but whoso
And
taste, to him the gushing of the wave
to mourn
did seem
and
Far far away
rave
On alien shores ; and if his fellow spake,
His voice was
thin, as voices from the grave ;
And
deep-asleep he seemed, yet all awake.
his beating heart did make.
And
music in his ears
v.
They
down
sat them
upon
and
Between
the sun
moon
to dream
it was
And
sweet
the
yellow sand,
the shore ;
upon
of Fatherland,
Of child, and
wife, and slave ; but evermore
the oar,
the sea, weary
seemed
Most weary
Weary the wandering fields of barren foam.
will return
Then
more
some
no
one
said, We
;
And
Our
island home
all at once
they sang,
Is far beyond the wave
will no
we
longer roam.'
;
'
'
*
Versions
Earlier
IV.
Hateful
is the darkblue
sky,
Vaulted
o'er the darkblue
sea.
Death
is the end of life ; ah ! why
be !
Should
life all labour
Time
driveth onward
Let us alone.
fast,
dumb.
And
in a little while our
lips are
is it that will last t
Let
alone.
What
us
All
things
Portions
Let
us
and
alone.
from
taken
are
parcels
What
and
become
Past.
of the dreadful
have
we
pleasure can
us,
Is there any
peace
In ever
climbing up the climbing wave
All things have
rest, and ripen toward
In silence, ripen, fall and
cease.
To
Give
with
war
us
evil ?
long rest
the
death,
death, dark
or
!
or
grave
dreamful
ease
v.
How
With
it were,
halfshut eyes
the
hearing
sweet
ever
to
downward
stream,
seem
halfdream
!
like
To
dream
dream,
light,
yonder amber
the height;
will not leave the myrrhbush
Which
on
To
hear
each other's whispered speech ;
Falling asleep
in
a
and
Eating the Lotos, day by day,
the beach,
the crispingripples on
To watch
And
tender
curving Snes of creamy
spray :
hearts
and
To
lend our
spiritswholly
To
of mildminded
the influence
melancholy ;
To
and
live
and
brood,
muse
again in memory,
With
the old faces of our
infancy
with
mound
of grass,
a
Heaped over
Two
handfuls
of
white
dust, shut
in
of
urn
an
brass
:
VI.
Or, propt
on
lavish
(while
beds
of amaranth
airs lull us,
How
sweet
With
halfdropt eyelids stiU,
warm
and
moly,
blowing lowly,)
and
heaven
dark
holy,
the long bright river drawing
the purple hill
His waters
from
To hear the dewy echoes
calling
the
thicktwined
thro'
to
From
cave
cave
Beneath
To watch
a
slowly
"
vine
"
hear
the emeraldcoloured
water
To
falling
divine !
acanthus-wreath
Thro'
wov'n
a
many
Only to hear and see the far-off sparkling brine,
the
sweet, stretched out beneath
Only to hear were
pine.
Lotos-Eaters
The
97
VII.
The
The
Lotos
Lotos
Thro'
blows
the
day
All
Tossing
Where
In
At
And
hollow
on
the
yellow Lotos-dust
the
motion,
tossing ocean,
walloweth
seahorse
tusked
calm,
grassgreen
the lee ;
beneath
tide
noon
:
alarm,
wild
stripe of
a
tone
alley lone
spicy downs
of
:
mellower
with
low
and
cave
the
enough
and
the
Weariness
every
breathes
round
is blown.
had
have
We
by
wind
every
and
Round
flowery peak
winding creek :
the
below
blooms
swalloweth
narwhale
the monstrous
in
the
sea.
foamfountains
bark did carry.
our
wave
weary
Long enough the winedark
This is lovelier and
sweeter,
of Ithaca, this is meeter,
Men
In the hollow
rosy vale to tarry,
Like
a
dreamy Lotos- eater, a delirious Lotos -eater !
His
We
As
In
On
And
On
To
At
The
will eat the Lotos, sweet
the yellow honeycomb,
and
the valley some,
some
divine
the ancient
heights
more
the
loud
the
the
melancholy
limit
;
roam,
no
hoar
foam,
home
of the
brine,
the
little isle of Ithaca, beneath
the shattered
lift no
We'll
more
No
With
We
Of
unfurl
more
the
;
blissful Lotoseaters
pale
in the golden vale
will abide
fail;
the Lotos-land, till the Lotos
the
the
the
the
And
And
And
the
dark
lithe
vine creeps,
sleeps
heavy melon
level of the shore :
! islanders
!
bleat
pine weeps,
of Ithaca,
is
Surely, surely slumber
Than
labour
in the ocean,
Oh
decline.
oar,
straining sail
We
will not
wander
more.
the horned
ewes
sweet
Hark
! how
the solitary steeps,
On
lizard leaps,
the merry
And
waters
the foam white
And
pour ;
On
Oh
day's
islanders
of
Ithaca,
more
and
we
wander
more.
than
sweet
toil, the shore
rowing with the oar.
will
we
will
not
return
no
more.
Earlier
A
DREAM
Versions
OF
WOMEN.
FAIR
i.
As
when
that
man,
a
sails in
a
balloon,
the
solid shining ground
from
blue noon,
him in the broad
beneath
Stream
mound
and
Tilth, hamlet, mead
:
Downlooking
sees
"
n.
to the mob,
them
takes
waves
That
shout below, all faces turned
to where
crimson
Glows
rubylike the far-up
globe,
Filled with a finer air :
And
his
flags and
in.
So, lifted
the
Poet
at his will
high,
flit from
Lets the great world
him,
Higher thro' secret splendours mounting
Selfpoised,nor fears to fall,
seeing all,
still,
IV.
apart the
Hearing
While
Sowed
I
echoes
of his fame.
spoke thus, the
seedsman,
deepfurrowed thought
glory will not die.
my
Whose
with
memory,
a
many
name,
v.
I read, before
eyelids dropt their shade,
my
The legend of good women,'
long ago
Sung by the morningstar of song, who made
His music
heard
below,
'
"
VI.
Dan
The
Chaucer, the
first warbler, whose
sweet
breath
Preluded
those melodious
that
fill
bursts,
spacious times of great Elizabeth
sounds
that echo still.
With
VII.
And,
for
awhile, the
Held
me
Hold
swollen
Brimful
above
clouds
of those
knowledge of his art
the subject, as strong gales
from
raining,tho' my heart,
wild
tales,
VIII.
Charged
both mine
I saw,
wherever
Beauty
The
eyes
with
tears.
light illumineth,
anguish walking hand in
downward
slope to death.
and
In
hand
every
land
Women
of Fair
Dream
A
99
IX.
In
land
every
The
The
thought that,
I
stronger
selfish
overbore
by gentleness
softer, uncontrolled
And
less,
or
more
nature
sterner
evermore
:
x.
there
whether
And
In
Might
some
its
reassume
Of
rule
were
whereby,
gentler mind
full degree
means
any
aftertime, the
far
among
and
mankind.
just
XI.
brides
of ancient song
far-renowned
hollow
the
dark, like burning stars,
Peopled
of insult, shame, and
sounds
I heard
wrong,
for wars
blown
And
;
trumpets
Those
And
XII.
And
And
with
clanging hoofs :
clatteringflints battered
in columned
I saw
And
crowds
sanctuaries ;
and
roofs
that screamed
at windows
forms
on
Of
palaces ;
marble
XIII.
the
threshold
Corpses across
Dislodging pinnacle and
Upon the tortoise creeping
ambush
in
Lances
heroes
;
tall
parapet
to
the
wall
;
set ;
XIV.
And
high shrinedoors burst thro' with heated blasts
the flutteringtongues of fire,
before
That
run
sails and
surf windscattered
White
over
masts,
And
climbing higher,
ever
xv.
in brazen
of men
plates,
squares
divers
of
stiU
sheets
water,
woes,
Scaffolds,
Eanges of glimmering vaults with iron grates,
and
Squadrons
And
hushed
seraglios.
XVI.
chased
shape as swift as, when to land
tides the selfsame
and
the winds
Bluster
way,
scud
along the level sand,
Crisp foamflakes
the fringe of spray.
from
Torn
So
shape
XVII.
I started
once,
Resolved
As
when
And
a
or
on
seemed
noble
start
things, and
to
great thought
flushes
all the
strikes
cheek.
in
pain,
speak,
along the brain,
strove
to
Versions
Earlier
100
XVIII.
down
lifted to hew
was
arm
once
my
off his saddlebow,
from
A cavalier
from
bore
That
a
a
leaguered town ;
lady
not how,
And
then, I know
And
XIX.
All those sharp fancies, by downlapsing thought
Streamed
onward, lost their edges, and did creep
Eolled
each
other, rounded, smoothed, and brought
on
Into the gulfs of sleep.
xx.
At
last
In
The
methought
wood
old
an
maiden
Shook
that
:
far
wandered
in coolest
freshwashed
splendours
in
the
I had
of the
dew,
morningstar
blue.
stedfast
XXI.
lean
did stoop and
elm tree-boles
Enormous
underneath
Upon the dusky brushwood
curved
Their broad
branches, fledged with clearest green,
from
New
its silken sheath.
XXII.
dim
The
red
Half-falTn
Never
rise
died, her
lips smiled
dead
across
to
had
morn
with
And
the
threshold
journey done,
twilightplain,
at the
of the
sun,
again.
XXIII.
in the
motion
bird
of
Not
or
any song
of the inner
Gross darkness
Is not so deadly still
There
was
no
dumb
sound
dead
air,
of rill.
sepulchre
XXIV.
As
And
that
wide
forest.
Its twined
arms
at the root thro'
The
red
Clasping jasmine turned
festooning tree to tree,
lush
green
grasses
burned
anemone.
xxv.
the leaves, I knew
I knew
the flowers, I knew
The
tearful glimmer of the languid dawn
drenched
On
those long, rank, dark woodwalks
Leading from lawn to lawn.
xxyi.
The
The
in the green,
of violets, hidden
back
into my
empty soul and frame
to have
I remember
been
when
Joyful and free from blame.
smell
Poured
times
in
dew,
of Fair
Dream
A
Women
101
XXVII.
within me
clear undertone
a
in that unblissful
Thrilled thro' mine
ears
the
wood
Pass
is all thine own,
!
thro'
freely
Until the end of time.'
And
'
from
clime
:
XXVIII.
At
A
a
length I saw
lady within call,
chiselled marble
Stiller than
standing there,
the
of
daughter
gods, divinely tall,
And
most
divinely fair.
XXIX.
Her
loveliness with
The
Froze
my
starlike
shame
and
speech
swift
:
with surprise
she turning on
my
of immortal
sorrows
in her
Spoke slowly
face
eyes,
place.
XXX.
'
I had
No
great beauty
one
and
not
name
my
:
than destiny.
I came
Where'er
wise
died.
more
swords
drew
Many
be
can
thou
ask
:
brought calamity.'
I
XXXI.
'
No
marvel,
Myself
such
a
free, and
I answered
To
one
that
in fair field,
had
boldly died,'
!
face
lady
sovran
for
turning
I
appealed
beside.
stood
XXXII.
her
To
*
sick
she, with
But
full
This
her
height
youth,' she said,
My
scornful
and
averse,
stately stature
blasted
with
'
was
the
was
woman
looks
a
draws
;
curse
:
cause.
XXXIII.
'
I
off from
cut
was
Which
My
yet
to
hope
name
in that
sad place,
spiritloathes and
my
his face ;
upon
fears
:
held his hand
with
blinded
tears,
I,
my
father
xxxiv.
'
voice was
to speak
my
dream.
Dimly I could
Still strove
As
The
in
stern
"
a
blackbearded
Waiting
to
see
me
kings with
thick
with
descry
wolfish
eyes,
die.
XXXV.
*
The
One
tall masts
quivered
as
they lay afloat,
the
the people and
The temples and
drew
a
sharp knife thro' my tender
Slowly, and nothing more.'
"
shore.
throat
sighs
Earlier
102
Versions
XXXVI.
the
Whereto
other
with
a
downward
brow
:
cold heavyplunging foam,
the white
had
rolled me
Whirled
deep below,
by the wind,
home.'
when
I left my
Then
would
'I
XXXVII.
sank thro' the silence drear,
slow full words
a
As thunderdrops fall on
sleeping sea :
that
voice
cried, Come
I heard
here,
Sudden
a
thee.'
look on
That
I may
Her
'
XXXVIII.
turning saw, throned on a flowery rise,
scarf unrolled ;
One
sittingon a crimson
cheeks
and
black
with
bold
swarthy
queen,
with burning gold.
Browbound
I
A
eyes,
XXXIX.
She, flashingforth
a
haughty smile, began
'
All
I governed men
by change, and
'Tis long since I have
moods.
seen
the
made
like
I
Once,
moon,
:
I
so
a
sway'd
man.
XL.
'
The
evershiftingcurrents of the blood
ebb
and
According to my humour
I have
men
no
makes
That
to
my
this
in
govern
only
flow.
wood
:
woe.
XLI.
1
Nay
"
yet it chafes
me
that
I could
One
will ; nor
and
tame
That
Caesar.
dull coldblooded
Where
is Mark
Antony ?
tutor
not
bend
with
mine
eye
Prythee, friend,
XLII.
'
By
him
The
dwarfs
and
suffers
before
immortal
Mars
man
;
gloriesof great Julius lapse and wane,
shrink
to stars.
And
from
suns
A
great Pompey
pain,
mortal
XLIII.
'
That
We
of all the men
I ever
knew,
Most
touched
fancy. 0 ! what days and
my
had
in Egypt, ever
reaping new
Harvest
of ripe delights,
man,
nights
XLIV.
'
Eealmdraining revels ! Life was
wit ! what words
What
! what
Less sweet
by the kiss that broke
To
be
so
richly stayed
!
one
sweet
long
feast.
words, only made
'em, liking best
Versions
Earlier
104
LIV.
'
The
balmy
Floods
All
night
With
moon
Israel
blessed
of
all the deepblue gloom
the splinteredcrags that
spires of silver shine.'
with
beams
wall
the
divine
dell
LV.
laves
sunshine
broad
where
that museth
lawn
cathedral, thro' the door
The
by some
Hearing the holy organ rollingwaves
floor
roof and
Of sound
on
As
one,
LVI.
anthem
Within, and
Of
tied
and
is charmed
stood
I, when
so
stands,
died
lips of her that
sung,
he
To where
left the
music
her father's
To
save
vow
flow
that
"
;
LVII.
The
daughter
maiden
A
Gileadite,
warrior
when
as
of the
pure ;
From
Mizpeh's towered
timbrel and
With
she
with
welcome
with
gate
went
along
light,
song.
LVIII.
My
'
Not
leapt forth
words
With
once
nor
so,
be
I would
heads
Heaven
She
oath.'
wild
that
'
:
alone ;
and
born
a
of crimes
the count
rendered
thousand
high :
answer
times
die.
LIX.
'
like some
the garden
Single I grew,
Creeps
Feeding the
to
flower
Changed, I was
plant, whose
waterpipes beneath,
green
but
ere
ripe
for
;
my
flower
to
root
fruit
death.
LX.
'
My
these did move
bliss of life,that Nature
from
gave,
my
of
love
chord
with
threefold
a
softly
land, my
God, my
Me
Lowered
Down
to
a
silent
father
"
grave.
LXI.
*
And
The
"
I went
boy
mourning, no fair Hebrew
maiden
blame
Shall smile away
among
my
mothers"
Hebrew
emptied of all joy,
Leaving the dance and song,
"
LXII.
'
Leaving
the
bridal
valleys of grapeloaded vines that
the battled tower.
Beneath
Leaving
The
olivegardensfar below,
the
promise
of my
bower,
glow
A
of Fair
Dream
Women
105
LXIII.
*
The
We
lightwhite cloud
We
heard the lion
the large white
saw
over
Anon
us.
in his den
stars rise one
by
darkened
glen,
the
Or, from
swam
roaring
:
one,
LXIV.
'
Saw
God
divide
the
night with flying flame,
the everlastinghills.
spake, and grief became
And
thunder
on
I heard
for
He
Him,
A solemn
of ills.
scorn
LXV
'
When
the
next
Strength
How
was
moon
to
came
beautiful
a
For
God
and
me
thing
for
it
my
rolled into the
that equalled my
to
sire !
was
sky,
desire.
die
LXVI.
'
in this one
It comforts
me
thought to dwell
to my
father's will ;
That
I subdued
me
I fell,
Because
the kiss he gave
ere
me,
the spiritstill.
Sweetens
"
LXVII.
*
Moreover
Hewed
On
Arnon
it is written
Ammon,
Glowed,
hip
Minneth.'
I looked
unto
as
that
my
race
and
thigh, from
her face
Here
at her.
Aroer
LXVIII.
She
locked
'
her
lips: she
to
she
Glory
Thridding the
Toward
God,'
left
me
sang,
sombre
boskage
the morningstar.
I stood
where
and
past afar,
of the wood,
:
LXIX.
I stood
pensively,
leans his head,
from
casement
As
one
a
When
midnight bells cease
ringing suddenly,
the old year
And
is dead.
Losing
her
carol
that
LXX.
*
alas ! ' a low
voice, full of care.
beside
Turn
and
look
Murmured
me
;
whom
call fair,
that Kosamond,
men
I be.
If what
I was
Alas !
'
I
am
on
me
LXXI.
'
been
maiden
I had
coarse
some
r
the
that
I
should
i
!
0 me
see
ever
Those
dragon eyes of angered Eleanor
hunt
Do
day and night.'
me,
Would
and
light!
poor
!
Versions
Earlier
106
LXXII.
in
ceased
She
the
The
clung
dagger
'
0,
:
trust
tamely
you
Fulvia's
to
her
thro'
and
hope
from
Egyptian
have
should
You
tears,
whom
To
fallen
:
died
thrust
and
waist,
!
side.'
LXXIII.
that
With
sharp
Stol'n
Of
to
folded
my
dawn's
the
The
captain of
eastern
sky.
the
in
white
dissolved
brain,
sleep.
Ruled
the
sound
creeping beams,
mystery
dreams
my
LXXIV.
broadened
Morn
Ere
I
A
on
father's
dead
ancient
of
light
her
in
the
of
borders
her, that
saw
her
Clasped
the
dark,
latest
heart,
France
trance
Joan
or
of
Arc,
;
LXXV.
who
her,
Or
forth
Drew
that
knew
Love
with
Who
kneeling,
the
poison
with
buds
in
Sweet
as
new
one
Death,
vanquish
can
her
about
arm
her
king,
breath,
balmy
Spring.
LXXVI.
No
the
longer from
deep
lift
to
the
hidden
thought
ore
I
from
than
glimpses, moving
sleep
up,
To
tell o'er
gather and
labours
memory
Goldmines
That
of
LXXVII.
Each
little
sound
and
how
Compassed,
Into
that
wondrous
But
no
two
As
when
a
soul
In
Desiring
yearnings
By signs
With
sight.
eagerly
dreams
sought
I
of
track
what
dreams
to
dull
pain
strike
again
!
been
blest,
like.
are
LXXVIII.
what
is
that
or
hath
which
laments,
with
mingled
can
groans
never
be
or
tears
past
exprest
years,
;
LXXIX.
Because
all
Failing
Wither
words,
to
culled
the
bitter
give
beneath
Faints,
tho'
faded
the
by
palate,
and
its heat.
with
of
the
the
choicest
sweet,
heart
art,
NOTES
THE
PAGE
as
LADY
OF
PAGE
SHALOTT.
1. 1. 3. the wold, a plainor open country ; the same
word
cf
cf
in
Cotswold
and wald, a forest ;
also
Guinevere,
;
weald
.
.
She
Fled
Almesbury
night long by glimmering waste
all
the
meet
sky, reach
Various
Camelot
the
was
what
Queen's
after
Camp,
a
part
the
few
be
to
that
Again,
north
by.
the
great
bridge
this
and
Song
memories
Hush
!
hill
Arthur's
Cadbury
once
large
a
and
manding
com-
raised
Palace, and Camden
with
the
Saxons
Sherborne
spiritsof the
of the
took
School
mighty
ground.
Camelot,
round,
ghost of Arthur
earthlylight,
Where
By
was
table
are
her.
haunt
'tis hallowed
Yonder
was
well
a
is
is also
heights. The
alludes to the belief of the peasants that the
dead stilllingerround the spot :
Hero
There
and
ramparts,
Dorset
battles
Commemoration
A
says that
there are still
Malory
claimant
;
fosses
fore
music, there-
'.
table.
King Arthur's
as
of the
weald.
to
visitors
another
of Sherborne
is known
one
'
ever
site.
and
Winchester,
as
king.
miles
in the centre
place near
the
to
fort, defended
by four
beautiful views
over
supposes
built for
therefore
round
be the famous
in Somersetshire, where
a
Camel
called
Celtic
same
is said
and
the city built
capital,
claim
places lay
to
the horizon.
to
up
1. 5. Camelot, Arthur's
built at all and
never
shown
1.
the
no
Girt with soundless
Rides o' Christmas
armour,
night.
be that
the whole
to
historical basis
legend seems
leader of the Britons
Arthur
a
was
against their foes, the Angles
and the Saxons, and that the twelve great battles of the story
of
The
represent the temporary
completely conquered
1. 10.
willows
the white
whiten.
under-surface
Wilts
and
The
1. 11.
dusk
ripples.
and
Celts before the invaders
Somerset.
the willow-trees
wind
among
of their leaves.
quiver. The aspen
the trembling of its leaves.
aspens
of the
successes
is
shiver, darken
a
shows
poplarremarkable
kind
of
the
water
by causing
for
little
Notes
108
1. 17. imbowers, shelters within its bowers.
1. 22. shallop,
a lightboat (Fr. chaloupe).
this
mark
1. 33-5. The rhymes weary, airy,fairy,
PAGE
2.
in
sounds never
These doubtful
occur
as
an
earlyone.
poem
work.
for ridingalong paths
1. 56. pad, literally
a horse
with
(Ger.Pfad), then simply a pony
easy paces.
from
for the legbelow the knee, possibly
I. 76. greaves, armour
Latin gravis,heavy, Old Fr. greves.
emblazoned
with this device.
II.78-9. The shield was
Tennyson'slater
PAGE
3.
bright,studded
1. 82. gemmy,
with gems.
the heavens
misty path across
(Greek yd\a, milk).
Galaxy,the white,
1. 83.
'
'
known
the
milky way
belt worn
1. 87. blazorfd baldric,a richlyornamented
across
the
shoulder
under
the breast from one
oppositearm.
Lat. balteus,a girdle,
baldric,perhaps from
cognate with
O. H. Ger. balderich.
blazon 'd,from Old French blason,a shield ; hence a heraldic
as
term
meaning the
PAGE
paintedon
arms
shield.
1.98. bearded meteor, a meteor
or
like
the
lightacross
sky,something
1. 107. Tirra-lirra,
a musical
That
Tennyson
as
PAGE
he
7.
was
thin lock of
a
like that of
a
SOUTH.
THE
PAGE
that
1. 44.
'
runlets, little streams,
came
to
his
Perpignan.
diminutive
brook.
provincialEnglish for
iii.9.
6.
the idea of this poem
between
Narbonne
and
travelling
says
bright
lark,
tirra-lirra chants.
Shakespeare,Winter's Tale, iv.
IN
MARIANA
note
makes
shootingstar
4.
a line of
hah'.
Lord
father
a
of run,
a small stream
or
1. 53. sere, dry, withered.
insect of the
PAGE
8. 1. 85. cicala,or cicada, harvest fly,
an
order Hemiptera,with a long body and wings : the male makes
Cf. CEnone, 1. 27,
a shrill gratingsound.
'
1. 90.
the
cicala
the
Hesper,Hesperus
"
Venus.
evening star, especially
ELEANORE.
PAGE
9.
1. 34.
presented,e.g.
a
'.
sleeps
PAGE
golden salvers,that
waiter
or
8.
on
which
anything
is
plate.
1. 42. mere, pool or lake.
PAGE 10.
1. 74. ambrosial smile,divine,from Greek dpftpocrios.
Ambrosia
the food of the gods, conferring on
those who
was
eat
of it eternal youth.
The last ten lines of this poem
are
of
partlyan adaptation
one
of
Sappho'sOdes.
The
THE
Miller's
MILLER'S
Daughter
DAUGHTER.
PAGE
109
12.
This poem
first published in 1833.
It was
cized
was
severelycritiby the QuarterlyReview, and appeared in 1842 with considerable
alterations.
is a certain resemblance
There
in the
descriptionto the Mill of Trumpington, near
Cambridge, but
otherwise the scenery and characters are wholly imaginary.
PAGE
14.
1. 80. beck, a small brook : cognate with Ger. Bach.
In the 1833
version of the poem
this stanza
began with the
followinglines :
"
A
water-rat
Plunged
from
in the
off the
bank
stream.
This gave rise to the somewhat
criticism that Tennyson
unkind
had compared the dawning of love in the maiden's
heart to the
dive of a water-rat
!
PAGE
16.
Stanzas 18 to 20 were
in the later edition,and
new
considered
were
by Mr. Spedding a great improvement, as they
of the young
introduce us to the mother
squire,half -reluctant
receive
to
*
the miller's
daughter
FATIMA.
'
as
PAGE
her child.
19.
This poem
in the 1833 edition had no title,but only a quotation
from Sappho prefixed. Its present title is probably taken
The Arabian
celebrated
from
a
Nights. Sappho was
poetess
born at Mytilene,in the island of Lesbos, who, on account
of
her hopelesslove for Phaon, threw herself from the Leucadian
This poem
been inspiredby
to have
rock into the sea.
seems
her
of
Odes.
one
(ENONE.
PAGE
20.
was
a
Phrygian nymph, daughter of the river-god
A later
beloved
Cebren,
by Paris, who deserted her for Helen.
his death-wound
in
Paris received
Greek myth tells that when
which
she
the
to
(Enone
he
the siege,
remedy
apply
besought
She refused him, and he died in agony.
alone knew.
Tennyson
of The Death of (Enone.
tellsthis story in the later poem
Ida is the range which forms the southern
PAGE 20. 1. 1. Mount
boundary of the Troad, the district belonging to the cityof Troy.
Its chief summits
are
Cotylus and Gargarus, 1. 10. Ionia is the
(Enone
neighbouring district to Mysia.
1. 11. takes the morning, catches the firstrays of the risingsun.
1. 15. forlornof Paris, bereft of, deserted by him.
her playmate. Paris, as an
infant, had been cast
1. 16. once
that he
had dreamt
the mountain, because his mother
found and brought up by the
would bring evil to Troy. He was
shepherds,and taught their craft.
away
on
Notes
110
the place where
1. 22. many-fountained,
springs arise :
many
xiii.20.
mentioned
the
in
their names
Iliad,
are
many-fountained
This refrain is imitated from
is Homer's
stock epithetfor Ida.
from Virgil,
the Greek idyllic
Ed. viii.
poet Theocritus,or possibly
Snakes are all coldPAGE
21. 1. 36. the cold crowrfd snake.
blooded
have
animals, and some
hoods,
species
supposed to
Basilisk
resemble
a
crown.
(a little king, Greek (Ba"n\fvs)is
the name
given to a fabulous serpent, also called a cockatrice,
whose very look was
supposed to be fatal.
1. 40. music slowlybreathed. In Ovid we read that the stones
charmed
into their placesby the sweetof the walls of Troy were
ness
lute. Thebes
in the same
of Apollo's
to
the
rose
strains
way
of Amphion's lyre,and Fairy Queens built Camelob
to the music
'
'
of their harps.
the famous rivers of the Troad,
1.51. Simois and Scamander
are
which rise in Mount
Ida.
They are constantlyreferred to in the
Iliad.
1. 56. white-breasted,
stars grow
in the
pale and white-looking
dawn.
1. 60. foam-bow, cf. the word
rainbow : the lightshiningon
the drops of the cataract
causes
prismaticcolours to appear in
the foam.
1. 65. Hesperian gold. The fabled gardens of the Hesperides
were
supposed to be in the far west (Hesperus is the evening
star),on an island beyond Mount Atlas. There the daughtersof
Nox and Erebus, with the help of the sleepless
dragon, guarded
had
w
hich
fruit
cf
of
an
golden
apple-tree,
Tennyson's poem
;
The Hesperides,p. 46.
is the food of the
PAGE
1. 66. ambrosially. Ambrosia
22.
Greek
it
means
divine, or
gods, nectar their drink : hi 1. 174
.
of
heavenly beauty.
1. 69. beautiful-brow'
d, cf. 1. 74; eyebrows which grew across
the forehead tillthey met
in a continuous
line were
very much
admired
also
the
Greeks.
Ovid
tells
of
Roman
ladies,who
by
joined their eyebrows with a pencil-mark,thus artificially
making married brows '.
1. 72. Oread, mountain-nymph, from Greek
mountain.
a
opos,
1. 78. full-faced,
face
not
a
perhaps
being absent, or it may
refer to the dignified
of the gods.
appearance
1. 81. Iris. The
Homeric
epithet for Iris is n68as oWa,
swift of foot : she is the goddess of the Rainbow
and the sister
of the harpies.
1. 83. Here, the wife of Zeus, is Queen of Heaven.
Pallas
Athene is the daughter of Zeus, and goddess of wisdom, sense,
and reflection. Aphroditeis goddess of love and of beauty.
1. 94. the crocus, "c.
See Introduction, p. xiii. In Sophocles
Col.
crocus.
(CEdip.
685) we read of the gold-gleaming
1. 95. amaracus.
be the modern
This may
marjoram, but the
Greek flower was
probably bulbous, and bloomed in the spring.
'
Notes
112
'
the poet. is the embodiment
of my
own
the God-like life is with man
and for man.' x
It should be very carefully
compared with Robert
Art,"1adds
Easter
There,
Day.
of the last Judgement
in
magnificent vision, we
belief that
Browning's
the dawn
man's
soul
soul full of the love
a
a
on
of Nature
but one
who
and Art
had been content, satisfied
with this world.
He finds himself quite alone with the Judge
and hears his doom
a
see
"
"
"
Out
of the
Thy
For
sense
ever
"
Thou
art shut
Heaven
of Spirit: glut
the world : 'tis thine
upon
take it.
At
first the verdict is welcomed
with joy. To be left with the
exquisitebeauties of Nature, the gloryof Art, the splendourof the
human
Mind, could this be Hell ? Then the Voice answers
him,
Yes ; that is hell for a human
soul
for without God the meaning
of it all is gone.
is but as the
Nature
"
*
arras-folds that variegate
'.
earth, God's antechamber
The
Art
only
was
*
for life's first
stage ',
'
While
as
Deficiencygapes
for knowledge, and
every
the
'
To
and drear
side.'
its
of Mind,
highest powers
meant
gleams were
sting with hunger for the light.'
So
at last the man
old life of struggleand
begs
in
despair to be given back
to
the
want,
With
limitation as before,
With
darkness, hunger, toil,distress !
Be all the earth a wilderness !
Only let me
go on, go on,
Still hoping ever
and anon
To reach one
the Better Land.
eve
This
be carefullydistinguished
from
that of
position must
mediaeval
to
whom
some
writers,
Knowledge in itself seems
sinful. In Marlowe's
Doctor
Faustus, for instance, the hero
knowledge, but
viction
spite of the horrible conthat it is longing for the fruit of
the forbidden tree.
Probably the story of the Fall became more
less coloured with
the distinctly
or
heathen
idea that the gods
to
the
were
likely
daring mortals who aspired either to
envy
great knowledge or even
great happiness. So we hark back
to the Prometheus
who
stole immortal
fire
legend,and the man
from
heaven.
The idea of The Palace of Art" and also that of
Easter Day
is not
that we
have
much
too
can
knowledge,
craves
it in
craves
that it will be his ruin
"
"
1
Life of Tennyson,
p. 100.
I
The
Palace
of Art
113
is to put knowledge first. In the story
but that the mistake
the Devil's lie which
of the Fall it was
representedGod as envious
in seeking that
of human
development; the fatal error was
for
from
the
do
this is to eat
to
Creator,
development apart
of the Tree of Knowledge and then be driven by the flaming
the Tree of Life.
Eternal
Life is correspondence
sword
from
Eternal Environment.
an
Herbert
Perfect correspondence,' says
Spencer, ' would be
but
perfectlife. Were there no changes in the environment
it
such as the organism had adapted changes to meet, and were
with which
it met
to fail in the efficiency
them, there
never
with
*
ment
be eternal existence
and eternal knowledge.' This statethe familiar words,
This
forms a curious commentary
on
Thee.' l
is Life Eternal, that they might know
Human
knowledge without the Divine Light is at best no
where
the prisoners,
better
than life in Plato's cave,
cramped
It is
and hear echoes.
with chains, could only look at shadows
the
at
the
of
close
characteristic of the same
thought that,
would
'
the beautiful Palace is not pulled down
: the
repentant
poem,
the
of
for
love
God
and man.
and use it one
soul will return
day
almost
identical with those
29.
1. 3.
The words
PAGE
are
of the rich fool.2 He provided for the bodily needs only this
man
only for the Intellect ; but both aims are vitiated by the
spiritof selfishness.
1. 8. scaled the light,
rose
up into the lightof heaven.
and Webb
1. 15. Rowe
give the followingnote : The shadow
the planet
the brightring that surrounds
of Saturn thrown
upon
the
of
the
motionless, though
body
planet revolves.
appears
"
'
Saturn
hours
rotates
its axis
on
in the
short
period of
ten
and
a
half
of this swiftlywhirlingmass
shows
no
; but the shadow
of a top spinning so
in the shadow
than is seen
motion
more
"
still
be
it
to
that
or
sleeping".'
seems
standing
rapidly
to be
The Culture, as far as it went, was
1. 21. Four courts.
be
should
art
branch
of
or
knowledge
perfectlysymmetrical; no
neglected.
Lat. c"awswra=shut
1. 26. cloisters,
in,passages enclosed, hence
arched passages
like those in abbeys and monasteries.
Ruskin
the lines in
branched like mighty woods.
compares
woods
the summer
at their
roof to
the
arches
of a Gothic
*
fairest '.
lent broad
1. 30.
verge,
presented a
lands.
The
30. 1. 36. torrent bow.
PAGE
showed
the prismatic colours.
water
wide
horizon
reaching to
distant
1. 37.
of the
Milan.
1
sunshine
on
peak, turret, pinnacle. Tennyson speaks
'
statued
St. John
'
pinnacles
xvii. 3.
of the
white
z
marble
St. Luke
the
drops
in The
Daisy
cathedral
xii. 20.
of
at
Notes
114
da
of Mercury by Giovanni
statue
Bologna at
1. 38. The
foot.
is thus poised on
Florence
one
like
I. 39. steam 'd,rising
vapour.
windows
II. 51, 52. The descriptionis of Gothic
deep set in
and
carried
then
the wall, with their arches intersecting
up to
peaks.
pinnacles above like mountain
dim and
vaulted
of
the corridors caused
roofs
1. 54. The
a
restful light.
The highest
1. 58. each a perfectwhole From
livingNature.
Art is thus a perfectrepresentationof natural
scenery.
For some
PAGE
were
32, 1. 128.
hung with arras
30, 1.61
all descriptionsof the
stanzas
are
designed. These seventeen
"
.
.
.
pictureson the tapestry.
1. 61. arras, wall tapestry from
Arras, in Artois
it
firstmade.
where
was
(N. France),
OF. bugle,a wild ox.
1. 64. wreathed bugle-horn,curved.
with jagged
PAGE
31.
The thunder-cloud
1. 75. ragged rims.
edges lies low on the horizon.
The rain-clouds produce fitful shadows
1. 76. shadow-streaks.
PAGE
30.
"
the landscape.
olive trees;
1. 79. prodigal in oil, a country with abundant
it causes
the grey under-side of the leaves
the wind sweeping over
to show.
1. 81. slags,lava, volcanic product.
of
1. 95. Beneath
branch-work, "c., under a carved canopy
The latter is a variety of onyx
sardonyx stone.
consistingof
sard and white chalcedony in alternate layers; sard is of a
rich reddish yellow or
brownish
red.
The Parisian jewellers
heat
the
of
to
graduated
apply
degrees
sardonyx by which
over
the
originalcolour
changed to various
other things,bunches
is
colours.
of grapes
They
tate
imi-
with green
thus, among
tendrils.1
1. 97. clear-walVd, the outline distinct.
of the organ, who
1.99. St. Cecily. St. Cecilia,the inventor
The
220.
was
martyred in A.D.
legend tells that her music
sweet
to
lure
from
so
was
as
heaven, and that at night
an
angel
he used to bring her the white flowers of Paradise.
1. 102. Houris.
The Koran
teaches that the Houris, or virgins
of Paradise, wait to welcome
the faithful Mohammedan.
1. 103. Islamite is from an Arabic word
islam,obedience to the
will of God.
PAGE
32.
1. 105. mythic Uther's deeply-woundedson.
In The
cussed.
Coming of Arthur the various theories as to his origin are disOne was
that he was
the son of Uther, born the night of
the king'sdeath, and delivered over
to the care
of Merlin until
his hour should come.
told of
In The Passing of Arthur we
are
1
Works
of Tennyson, ed. by
his
Son, i, p.
365.
Tlie Palace
how
he embarked
on
a
funeral
of Art
barge,to
115
go with
the three fair
Queens
To the island- valley of Avilion ;
Where
falls not hail,or rain, or any
Nor ever
wind
blows loudly; but
Deep-meadow' d, happy, fair
And
bowery hollows crown' d
Where
I will heal
me
was
a
with orchard-lawns
with summer
sea,
of my
grievous wound.
picture by Burne-Jones
The
beautiful unfinished
Arthur in the vale of Avilion.
1. 111. The
wood
nymph.
Numa
the
second
Pompilius,
nymph
snow,
it lies
represents
Juvenal,
iii. 11-18, speaks of
of
Rome, and the wood
King
Egeria, who instructed him in wisdom
and law.
Auson
of Ulysses,who
the
son
of
Ausonia
to ancient
name
gave
Campania.
1. 113. engrail1
d, heraldic expressionmeaning indented.
1. 115. Indian
Cama.
The
Hindu
God
of Love, sometimes
called Camadev
Camadeo.
is represented as
He
or
sailing
the sky on a parrot or lory.
across
1. 117. Europa. Jupiter,in the form of a gentlebull, is said
to have
carried off the fair maiden
Europa. Moschus, Idyllii.
121-5, describes the girlgrasping in one hand the bull's long
horn, and in the other the purple folds of her garment.
1. 121. Ganymede, a beautiful boy carried off by Jupiter's
d town is probably
eagle to be cup-bearer to the gods, the pillar'
Troy, as, according to one legend,the rape of Ganymede was from
Mount
Ida.
126.
I.
Caucasian
mind.
The Indo-European or Aryan race
is said to have
had its rise in Mount
Caucasus.
It is looked
dominant
the
of
the
as
race
world, hence the expression
upon
Caucasian
mind
the perfection of human
means
supreme
culture.
II. 133-7. Stanzas
34, 35 represent the four great poets,
'
'
Milton, Shakespeare,
Dante, and Homer,
in the
'
choice
paintings
epithetsused for each are peculiarly
apt
of
and
The
Miltonic
burning brightness
suggestive.
genius,1
the broad
gentle Shakespeare', the grim
humanity of the
of
wise
men
'.
The
'
of Dante
the exile,the majesty of the Father of poetry,
well
are
represented.
equally
PAGE
1. 143. angels risingand descending. The ceiling
33.
of the hall depictsJacob's ladder.
I. 145. This mosaic
pavement represents the strugglesof the
and
human
the
lowly position is characteristic of the
race,
of attention
amount
Over these she
they receive from the Soul.
trod.'
is a picture of France, ground down
II. 149-52. This stanza
and tyranny of Louis XIV
and the nobles,
by the taxation
and then springingup as the tigerof the French Revolution.
power
'
1
Seraph means
a
burning one.
Notes
116
the young
By the athlete is probably meant
succeeded
the
of
Terror.
which
Reign
vigorous Republic
and
11. 153-4.
The
Czar Nicholas, in 1853, called
of Europe ', but these lines
the sick man
the Turkish
Empire
succeeded
in
France
which
to the
refer to the disappointment
high hopes of the early Republic.
These great
is one
An oriel window
set in a recess.
11.159-66.
1. 155.
sick
some
man.
*
contain
two
windows
pictures,that of Plato, the greatest of
and that of Francis Bacon
Greek philosophers,
(created Baron
'
in 1618). Between
the
slender shafts ', i.e. the thin
Verulam
of all
columns
of the framework, are portrayedthe names
stone
who
were
pioneers in Learning, and thus opened for mankind
wells of knowledge.
in Egypt there
1. 171. As morn
Near Thebes
from Memnon.
is a colossal statue
of an
Egyptian king, Amenophis, which is
said to utter musical sounds when struck by the firstrays of dawn.
It was
called by the Greeks after Memnon,
the son of Eos, goddess
of the heroes of the Trojan War.
of the Dawn, one
1. 176. the ribbed stone, the song echoes through the rib-like
arches of the roof.
Homeric
PAGE
34.
1. 183. young
night divine. A common
new
expression.
Lit
11.186-8.
of
i.e. the soul lightedup her palace by
light,
lamps arranged hi
wreaths
clusters,and
or
in
means
anadems,
or
crowns.
round
anadems, from Greek dvdfypa,that which is bound
head, usually a chaplet of flowers.1 Quintessences,from
added
quinta essentia,the fifth essence
by the Pythagoreans
to the four material
elements of earth, air,fire,and water
; they
the
said it flew upward at creation and out of it the stars were
made :
hence here it means
the purest extracts.
Cf. Milton, ' Forthwith
lightethereal,first of things,quintessencepure.'
1. 188. moons
formed
out
of gems, lamps shaped like the moon
of
jewels.
1. 197. god-likeisolation,only fitting
to the attitude of such
heathen
divinities as we
in The Lotos-Eaters,155-64 : the
see
Christian ideal is altruistic * he that loveth not, knoweth
not
for
is
God
Love.'
God,
1. 201. sloughs. The soul's attitude is one
for the
of scorn
The word slough
of the world.
simple natural joys and sorrows
is cognate with the Ger. schlucken,to swallow up, hence it means
will swallow up the traveller. Cf. Bunyan's
a miry place which
'
slough of despond '.
"
prurient
=
1. 203.
itching.
Cf. Mark
13.
v.
Their
very
follydrives
them
to
destruction.
1
upon
Shelley,in
him,
like
Adonais
an
xi, writes:
anadem.'
*
Another
.
.
.
threw
the
wreath
The
Palace
of Art
117
I. 209. / take possessionof man's
In this stanza
mind.
we
reach the end to which the Aristotelian ideal of human
life leads
The fully
us.
developed man, according to the idea of ' Culture ',
stands aside independentof any form
of Religion,bound
to no
to the weaker
brother. The
sect, and recognizingno obligation
of
is
him
to
no
pain
mystery
ever-present problem; he shuts
his
ears
as
to the wail
Tennyson shows,
of
sufferinghumanity. But such a position,
is an
Sooner
or
later,
impossible one.
unless a man
fail and perishutterly',comes
the revelation of
the
Angel of Pain '. Even in Nature, effort,suffering,and
'
'
death are
a fancied
PAGE
the conditions
and
Life.
To
live apart in
""
superiorityis to the soul stagnationand moral decay.
35.
1. 227.
Belshazzar's
the wall the doom of utter
Mene,
wrote
mysterious finger
'
of progress
on
mene.
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin
"
At
Numbered,
feast the
sensuality,
numbered,
weighed,
divided.' But none
the less does judgement fall on the soul that
lives only for self-culture. The end of Egotism is Corruption.
II. 237-44. The palace once
beautiful is now
haunted
so
by
the ghosts of corruption and decay. The
soul seems
like the
isolated sea-pool,a spot of stagnation,cut off from the inrushing
tide of life and progress ; or as a lonely star withdrawn
from
the choral dance of the crystal
This allusion
spheres of heaven.
earth
is to the Ptolemaic
that
the
the
centre of the
was
theory
the spheres of the planets and
Universe, round which moved
the fixed stars, each uttering one
of the great Octave
note
of the]heavenly music.
The
cosmography of Paradise Lost
well
is based
this
Dante's
Paradiso.
as
as
on
theory,
By
the spheres which
surround
the earth.
Circumstance, is meant
The Ptolemaic
astronomy describes the Universe as scooped out
of chaos.
36.
PAGE
1. 257. Back
on
herself.The scorpion or serpent
of
conscience.
stingingitself was the emblem
11. 289-96.
Deliverance
with the realization of humble
comes
dependence on God : it is followed by the vision of a return to
the Palace of Art, that is, a consecration
of the splendours of
Culture to the service of others.
LADY
CLARA
VERE
DE
VERE.
First publishedin 1842, although written
drawn
from no particularcharacter.
poem
THE
MAY
QUEEN.
PAGE
early.
37.
A
dramatic
39.
Parts I and II were
first published in 1833.
In 1842 it was
made
more
deeply and tragically
interesting by the addition
of Part III.
Fitzgeraldnotes that the scenery is all Lincolnshire inland,
as
LocksleyHall is seaboard '.
It has been observed
that the gallopingmetre somewhat
de'
'
'
,
PAGE
Notes
118
the poem,
and suggests sentimentality;
which Tennyson was
making in his art is clearly
in the beauty and clearness of the Nature -paint
ing. Aubrey
seen
The May
de Vere says of it :
Queen is an enchanting Idyl
dull by its moral but ennobled
of English Rural Life, not rendered
it.'
by
tracts from the
but the advance
pathos of
'
PART
PAGE
40.
Cf
noted.
specially
The
1. 30.
PAGE
to
which
The
11. 29-32.
.
descriptionof the flowers should be
(Enone,
crocus
I
1. 94
brake
:
like
fire.
cuckoo-flowers.Lady's smock (Cardamine pratensis).
41.
1. 38. the crowfoot. Of the genus
Ranunculus,
the
buttercupand kingcup belong.
PART
H.
PAGE
The
1. 12. Charles's Wain.
42.
stars,
group of seven
called
the
the
constellation
in
Ursa
Dipper,
major or
commonly
Great Bear, or the Plough. Wain means
a wagon
; the Egyptians
called it the Thigh.
1. 18. fallow,uncultured, left unsown
or untilled after ploughing,
so-called from the yellow or fallowcolour of naked
ground.
A.S. fealu,yellow.
sward
land.
lea, a meadow
or
Shakespeare speaks of
'
Plow-torn
leas '.
1. 28. sword-grass,gladen, so called because
of the swordleaf.
shaped
PART
III.
PAGE
1. 21. death-watch,
44.
beetle (Anobium tesseUatum);
a
is supposed to foretell death.
its ticking
PAGE
45.
I was
1. 39. window-bars.
thinking of our old
house where all the upper windows
had iron bars,for there were
*
eleven of us children livingin the upper story.'
'
THE
PAGE
HESPERIDES.
PAGE
46.
1.2. Hanno, a commander
sent by the Carthaginians
of
the
on
Atlantic
coast
a
of Africa,
discoveryalong
voyage
A translation of this account
570.
c. B.C.
from the Punic into
*
Greek has come
down
to us, entitled
The Voyage of Hanno,
of the Carthaginians,
commander
round
the parts of Libya
beyond the Pillars of Heracles,which he depositedin the temple
46.
of Cronos.'
1. 3. Soloe,a cityon the coast of Cilicia,
between
the rivers
Lamus
and Cydnus, or Solois,a promontory
running far out
into the sea, believed by Herodotus
to be the westernmost
land
headof all Libya.
1
Works
of Tennyson, ed. by
his
Son,
p. 372.
Notes
120
from a distance look like a downward
veil of thinnest lawn ',or gauze.
smoke, or a
Down
is a low hill,
from OE. dun, a hill ;
1. 21. yellowdown.
yellow here with the lotos dust.
1. 23. galingale,
sweet-smellingmarsh plant of the sedge
a
tribe ; it has an aromatic root and lightgreen flowers. Tennyson's
I
the
meant
this
note
is,
on
own
Cyprus papyrus of
water
drops, which
into
'
*
Linnaeus.'
1. 33. alien shores.
Before
eating of the fruit the sound
of the
all
now
of Ithaca and home;
them
tidal waves
had reminded
unfamiliar.
this seemed
and
strange
51.
PAGE
1. 49. gleaming. Fragments of mica and quartz
often shine in a graniterock.
PAGE 52. 1. 86. Death is the end oflife. Let us eat and drink,
die.' Death is the inevitable end.
for to-morrow
we
Why, then,
should the short span of life be filled with labour ? The exact
antithesis to this attitude is found in Ulysses,1. 51 :
'
closes all : but something ere the end,
work
of noble note, may
yet be done.
Death
Some
The
fact of death leads to two
oppositeconclusions ; in the
it is we die,therefore let us enjoy rest now
one
; in the other
The reason
die, therefore let us push forward to the end.
we
is that in this last case
of
the life
shocks, dangers, and deeds
has ended in a
will
and
full-grown
'perfectfreedom',1 or, as
to
the
Dante, struggling
Virgilsays
rocky heightsto the skies :
up
"
"
'
When
'
the
going
As
going down
Then
at this
"
up
the
shall be
current
as
in
a
pathway's ending
easy to thee
boat
thou shalt be.
PAGE
53. 1. 113. urn
of brass. The Greeks burned their dead
and preserved the ashes in urns
of gold or brass. Homer
speaks
of the custom
in the Iliad,xxiii. 92.
1. 117. our household hearths are cold, "c.
The siegeof Troy
had lasted for ten years, and much
had happened in Ithaca.
Would
welcome
those
from
whom
they even get a
they had left
long ?
The
island princes,as we
read in the Odyssey i,were
of Ulysseswith their offers
the
faithful
wife
wearying
of marriage, and were
eating up his substance.
1. 132. pilot-stars,
the only guide to the helmsman, who then
had no compass.
1. 133. amaranth, the purple flower of legend,which
could
fade.
never
moly, the magical white flower with the black root, given to
so
even
then
Ulysses by
Hermes
that he might escape the snares
of the
enchantress
Circe. It appears
to defeat the wizard
in Comus
and free the lady : there it is said that in another clime it blooms
with a golden flower.
1. 142. acanthus, a plant with pricklyleaves, found
the
on
1
(Enone, 160,
161.
The
Mediterranean
of the
Lotos-Eaters
121
peculiarlygraceful in shape. The
Corinthian
of
a
capital
pillaris said to have been
suggested to the Greek sculptorCallimachus
by the sight of
these leaves.
PAGE
54.
11. 149-74.
From
viii,line 5, to the end the metre
and
becomes
the first
Trochaic.
The accent
falls on
changes
lines have six,
syllable,instead of the last,of each foot ; some
with
extra
the end, as in
at
some
feet,
seven
a frequent
syllable
1. 160.
coast, and
idea
Tennyson's extraordinary
power
he depicts the
should be noted, as
off their lethargy for
of
suiting sound
dreamy Lotos-eaters
to
sense
shaking
the gods of cruel
resolve to wander
inaction, and to state their own
more.
no
Attention
has already been
the
immense
to
drawn, p. xiv,
in the 1842
this
edition by substituting
improvement made
solemn and suggestivereference to the gods for the earlier somewhat
feeble anti-climax.
in
1. 152. wallowing monster.
found
The whale, occasionally
the south, throws up water
to a great height.
of the Greeks.
1. 189. Elysian valleys,
the heaven
1. 170. asphodel, the heavenly lily mentioned
in Homer,
a
moment
to
accuse
Odyssey ii.539.
ROSALIND.
PAGE
55.
This poem
appeared in the 1833 volume
and not printedagain until 1844, when it was
;
it
suppressed
by some
was
shortened
lines.
thirty-four
A
PAGE
56.
1. 2.
GeoffreyChaucer,
to both is
1. 5. Dan
master.
The
written
FAIR
WOMEN.
Legend of Good
about
1384.
The
PAGE
56.
Women,
the
work
only heroine
common
of
Cleopatra.
Chaucer.
Dan, Spanish Don, from Latin
in whom
refers
to Chaucer
as
one
Spenser
the
PAGE
OF
DREAM
pure
well-head
of poetry did
dominus,
dwell.1
1. 27. the tortoise,
Lat. testudo,so called because
the
shields
of
of the besiegerslocked together
it was
like the shell of a tortoise,under the protectionof which
they
the
could approach
city.
1. 49. Up to this we
have had nothing but the confused dream
of
half
Now
the vision
a
man
shapes
asleep and half awake.
57.
first formed
profound and more
gets more
quiet. The
and
sharply contending
bewildering fancies, like the rough
in a torrent, collect together smoothly in the 'gulfsof
stones
sleep'.
grows
clearer,as
rest
1
Faery Queen,
vii.
vii. 9
Notes
122
58.
PAGE
metaphor
1. 54.
be
may
Faery Queen, where
old wood, the forest of the Past.
The
with
wood
of
Book
I,
compared
Spenser's
to representthe circumstances
the trees seem
an
of Life.
1. 57. boles,trunks, stems.
1. 71. lush, luxuriant.
of Troy, daughter of Zeus and Leda ;
1. 85. a lady. Helen
much
admired
the Greeks.
tallness in women
was
among
100.
PAGE
1.
59.
one.
Iphigenia,daughter of Agamemnon,
offered up as a sacrifice at
the leader of the Greeks ; she was
the
to
her
father,
gods, who were
detaining
Aulis, by
appease
of the
the fleet by adverse winds,
^schylus gives an account
of
11.225-49.
the
in
Agamemnon,
scene
play
immense
The
1. 113. The high masts.
improvement which
stanza
into
in
introduced
this
the
later edition of 1853
Tennyson
See Appendix.
should be noticed.
Lockhart
commented
sarcasticallyon the earlier version :
What
touching simplicity,what pathetic resignation he cut
!
throat,
nothing more
Tennyson himself says that he
my
too ghastlyrealistic.
altered it because the first was
1. 115. the brightdeath, the flashingsacrificialknife.
wishes she had perished
1. 118. In the Iliad, iii. 173, Helen
'
"
'
at Sparta.
she left her home
PAGE
60. 1. 126. One sittingon a crimson
scarf. Cleopatra,
Queen of Egypt, who induced Antony to give up his wife Octavia,
and to fightagainst his country. At Actium, B.C. 31, he was
that
defeated
Caesar ; hearing a false rumour
by Octavius
but
lived
he
stabbed
dead,
himself,
long enough
Cleopatra was
to die in her arms.
Failingin her attempt to fascinate Octavius,
when
Cleopatra is said
an
so
asp,
as
have killed herself by means
avoid
to
gracing a Roman
of the bite of
to
triumph
as
a
captive.
1. 146. Ganopus. An Egyptian god and an Egyptian city were
named
in the
named
a star
Canopus, and from one of these was
The
constellation
southern
of Argo.
lamps at their revels
after
remained
had
set.
burning
Canopus
1. 150. Hercules.
Antony claimed to be descended from Anton,
of Hercules, and his coins were
son
stamped with the figureof
the Nemean
labours '.
lion,which was killed in one of the seven
'
1. 155.
with
the
poisonous asp.
aspick's,the Proven9al form of the old French aspe
(Greek dams).
PAGE
61.
1. 178. some
one
coming. Jephtha'sdaughter ; see
Judges xi for her story.
a
worm,
1. 160.
PAGE
Judges
63.
11. 238, 239.
Aroer
was
on
the
river
Arnon
;
see
xi. 33.
1. 243.
Thridding,passing through.
boskage,brushes,thickets.
1. 251. Rosamond, daughter of Walter
de
Clifford,beloved
A
of
Henry II,
Dream
and
of Fair
poisoned,
it
Women
123
said, by Queen
is
Eleanor
of
Aquitaine.
I. 259.
Fulvia.
to taunt
Antony'sfirstwife. Cleopatra means
her gentlenesstowards
Eleanor : not so would
she have treated Fulvia.
II. 266, 267. her who closed
Her murder1 d father's
head.
Margaret Roper, daughter of Sir Thomas
More, who in 1535
took
down
her father's head from
London
wards
Bridge, and afterdied with it in her arms.
When
her tomb at St. Dunstan's,
Canterbury,was opened in 1715, it is said that she was found
in her coffin stillclaspingthe leaden box containingher father's
head.
Rosamond
with
.
1. 267.
Joan
.
.
ofArc.
The maid of Domremy, who in 1428 raised
the siege of Orleans
the English. She was
and defeated
the
of having Charles VII crowned
means
then was
at Rheims, and
captured by the Englishand burned as a witch at Rouen in 1431.
PAGE
64. 1. 271. her,who knew, "c.
Eleanor
of Castile,
wife
of Edward
I, who sucked her husband's
poisoned wound, and
thus saved his life.
MARGARET.
A
PAGE
64.
first publishedin 1833, and resembling
poem
of
in many
the
earlier
Adeline
one
(published1830).
respects
PAGE
65.
1.34. The lion-heart,
Plantagenet. Richard I, during
fancy portrait,a
is said to have composed various
the time of his captivity,
songs
and Proven9al.
in Romance
1. 37. Chatelet,a poet squire in the suite of Marshal Damville,
executed
for a suspectedintriguewith Mary Queen of Scots.
ON
SONNET
RESULT
THE
INVASION
OF
OF
THE
POLAND.
LATE
PAGE
RUSSIAN
66.
first publishedin 1832.
The earlypart of the nineteenth century
66. 1.3. Poland.
PAGE
At one time
of
the
the suppression
independence of Poland.
saw
seemed
inclined to give the Poles a liberal
the Czar of Russia
of his
and libertyof the Press, but the harshness
Constitution
On Nov. 30,
drove them into insurrection.
brother Constantino
of Warsaw.
Russians
out
driven
and
the
Constantino
were
1830,
This poem
was
From
January 11 to September 8 of 1831 a series of bloody
Poland
in 1832, when
conflicts were
fought,but the end came
declared an integralpart of the Russian (Muscovite)empire.
was
SONNET
'
:
AS
WHEN
PAGE
This
sonnet
reprintedas
was
DOWNCAST
WITH
"c.
67.
suppressedafter
firstof the
EYES,'
Early Sonnets
1833 volume, but was
without alteration in 1872.
the
Notes
124
PAGE
BLACKBIRD.
THE
67.
a railing
or trellisupon
67. 1. 5. espaliers.Fr. espalier,
PAGE
wall.
shrubs
trained,
as
a
are
which fruit trees or
upon
1.12. jenneting,
an
earlyapple.
THE
DEATH
This poem
PAGE
69.
OF
first publishedin 1832.
for you.
rue
for you, mourn
viii. 117 :'
v.
shall make
J. S.
TO
to James
written
70.
PAGE
1. 20.
PAGE
went, who
One
us
68.
in
Shakespeare,
rue.
69.
Spedding
poet'sfather, died
the
Cf.
1. 43.
Nought
poem
Edward.
PAGE
was
King John,
A
YEAR.
OLD
THE
on
the death
of his brother
hath returned.
never
March,
Dr.
son,
Tenny-
1831.
The
1. 45. / will not say, "c.
same
thought is
expressedin In Memoriam, vi.
than your grief. Cf the beautiful sonnet
weaker
1. 65. Words
of Sir PhilipSidney,by Lord Brooke, beginning
to the memory
PAGE
71.
.
"
Silence
'YOU
PAGE
Bacon
72.
writes,
ME
ASK
1. 11. Where
'
augmenteth grief.
Men
in
Freedom
their
example of time itself,which
quietly,and by degrees scarce
'OF
OLD
WHY.'
SAT
PAGE
72.
slowlybroadens down, "c.
innovations
should
indeed
innovateth
be
to
perceived.'
FREEDOM.'
PAGE
So
the
greatly, but
follow
72.
PAGE
1. 15. Who, God-like,grasps the tripleforks. Like
73.
Zeus with his. trisulca fulmina ',the thunderbolts.
'
The
1. 24.
falsehoodof extremes,
of Tennyson's politicalviews.
a
line
characteristic
specially
de Vere relates that on one occasion he recited these two
to Wordsworth.
The
latter listened with deepening
poems
attention, and then said, I must
acknowledge that these two
Aubrey
*
*
poems
are
very
solid and
noble
in
thought. Their diction also
stately.'
singularly
seems
'LOVE
PAGE
73.
THOU
1. 2. storied
THY
LAND.'
PAGE
from
Past, interesting
73
the stories pertaining
to it.
1
You
ask
me
why
'
and
'
Of old sat Freedom
on
the
heights'.
Love
1.
The
11.
herd.
The
PAGE
is
74.
distrust
his
crude
Socialistic
To
is
although
is
it
the
that
the
siastics,
world
and
of
the
'.
'
wild
godfather,
such
*
that
fire, of
this
of
is
', and
He
argues
the
enthu-
whom
sacrificers
question
interesting
an
of
view
passion
rushers,
the
sober
ballast
the
one,
Gaffer,
an
old
76.
fellow,
either
from
probably
more
PAGE
GOOSE.
contracted
for
gramfer
from
grandfather,
with
Gammer,
more
1. 34.
or
correlative
or
of
warriors,
whole
The
the
that
argues
of freedom.
of
to
severe
the
fact,
of
line
especially
keep
to
poetry;
cause
side
views,
a
study.
repay
77.
to
the
on
THE
PAGE
are,
the
Again
writer
in
aspiration,
to
poetry
be
of
insane
of
that
somewhat
The
politicians
damage
beauty,
should
seekers,
would
do
with
Introduction
though
they
"
of the
use
for
Delay.
to
Brooke's
mind.
of
that
they
it
come
as
working
political
Stopford
interesting
an
mind
note
poet
calls
by
produced
comes,
breakage,
a
Tennyson's
important
very
yet
"
the
lowers
is
in
boat'
constantly
continuity.
Mr.
In
attitude
this
considerations
lessens
of
change
half-sister
Haste,
life.
there
of
not
and
Raw
later
Tennyson*
criticism
'
joint,
a
symmetry
1. 96.
his
of
the
as
characteristic
eminently
those
be
in
76.
up
Society
of
If
that.
itself with
ingroove
past
PAGE
'.
views.
should
it
must,
which
knowledge
little
a
Tennyson
disintegration
the
away.
'
puffeth
binds.
strongly,
of
me
For
'Knowledge
and
working
butts
Reverence.
herald,
thing',
shows
1. 46.
beast
125
Coriolanus:
in
Shakespeare
her
1.18.
that,
34.
Cf.
Land
Thy
many-headed
dangerous
a
1.
Thou
an
probably
1
old
either
woman,
from
Stopford
grammer,
Brooke,
from
contracted
for
grandmother.
Tennyson,
p.
42.
godmother,
INDEX
FIRST
OF
LINES
PAGE
when
As
*
with
Courage
knee
Full
How
built
I
knew
I
I
67
land
50
68
snow
be
men
ridden
66
down
.
lordly pleasure-house
a
wife
before
lean
and
29
here
miller
...
their
shade
56
.
12
yet
of
sort
a
.
76
poor
eyelids dropt
my
wealthy
you
....
allegory
28
...
miller's
daughter
Vere
Clara
Lady
the
toward
.
the
is
pointed
winter
shall
God,
old
the
send
It
the
brood
and
muse
...
soul
my
read,
we
eyes
and
said,
lies
O
an
see
downcast
he
-deep
long,
I
I
'
!
17
....
Vere
de
37
....
Love
that
Love
thou
hath
the
in
us
17
net
....
thy
with
land,
far-brought
love
73
.
Rosalind,
My
O
Blackbird
O
Love,
Rosalind
my
!
sing
well
something
O
withering
might
me
Love
Love,
55
....
!
67
.
.
19
.
O
Margaret
pale
sweet
Of
old
Freedom
sat
64
.....
the
on
heights
72
.
On
either
the
side
.
lie
river
1
....
The
The
North-
wind
wind,
that
the
fall'n, in
beats
the
new-starred
night
46
blows
mountain,
69
.
There
is
here
music
sweet
that
softer
falls
51
.
There
lies
a
vale
hi
Ida,
lovelier
20
...
Thy
We
dark
were
open'd
eyes
....
daughters
two
8
not
of
one
27
race
.
With
one
black
shadow
its
at
.
feet
6
...
You
ask
You
must
me,
wake
why,
and
tho'
ill at
72
ease
...
call
me
early,
call
me
early,
mother
dear
39