Let Grief be her own
mistress
still.
Tennyson
So Xenophon in describing Panthea
emphasises her tallness, 'Cyroped. ', v. ]
[Footnote 9: 1883. Sovran lady. ]
[Footnote 10: As the old men say, 'Iliad', iii. , 156-8. ]
[Footnote 11: The one is Iphigenia. ]
[Footnote 12: Aulis. ]
[Footnote 13: It was not till 1884 that this line was altered to the
reading of the final edition, 'i. e. ', "Which men called Aulis in
those iron years". For the "iron years" of that reading 'cf. '
Thomson, 'Spring', 384, "'iron' times". ]
[Footnote 14: From 1833 till 1853 this stanza ran:--
"The tall masts quivered as they lay afloat,
The temples and the people and the shore,
One drew a sharp knife thro' my tender throat
Slowly,--and nothing more".
It is curious that Tennyson should have allowed the last line to stand
so long; possibly it may have been to defy Lockhart's sarcastic
commentary: "What touching simplicity, what pathetic resignation--he cut
my throat, nothing more! " With Tennyson's picture should be compared
AEschylus, 'Agamem. ', 225-49, and Lucretius, i. , 85-100. For the bold and
picturesque substitution of the effect for the cause in the "bright
death quiver'd" 'cf. ' Sophocles, 'Electra', 1395,
[Greek: 'neakonaeton aima cheiroin ech_on,']
"with the newly-whetted blood on his hands". So "vulnus" is frequently
used by Virgil, and 'cf. ' Silius Italicus, 'Punica', ix. ,
368-9:--
Per pectora 'saevas'
Exceptat 'mortes'. ]
[Footnote 15: She expresses the same wish in 'Iliad', iii. , 73-4. ]
[Footnote 16: Cleopatra. The skill with which Tennyson has here given us,
in quintessence as it were, Shakespeare's superb creation needs no
commentary, but it is somewhat surprising to find an accurate scholar
like Tennyson guilty of the absurdity of representing Cleopatra as of
gipsy complexion. The daughter of Ptolemy Aulates and a lady of Pontus,
she was of Greek descent, and had no taint at all of African
intermixtures. See Peacock's remarks in 'Gryll Grange', p. 206, 7th
edit. , 1861. ]
[Footnote 17: After this in 1833 and in 1842 are the following stanzas,
afterwards excised:--
"By him great Pompey dwarfs and suffers pain,
A mortal man before immortal Mars;
The glories of great Julius lapse and wane,
And shrink from suns to stars.
"That man of all the men I ever knew
Most touched my fancy.
O! what days and nights
We had in Egypt, ever reaping new
Harvest of ripe delights.
"Realm-draining revels! Life was one long feast,
What wit! what words! what sweet words, only made
Less sweet by the kiss that broke 'em, liking best
To be so richly stayed!
"What dainty strifes, when fresh from war's alarms,
My Hercules, my gallant Antony,
My mailed captain leapt into my arms,
Contented there to die!
"And in those arms he died: I heard my name
Sighed forth with life: then I shook off all fear:
Oh, what a little snake stole Caesar's fame!
What else was left? look here! "
"With that she tore her robe apart," etc. ]
[Footnote l8: This stanza was added in 1843. ]
[Footnote 19: 1845-1848. Lybian. ]
[Footnote 20: Added in 1845 as a substitute for
"What nights we had in Egypt! I could hit
His humours while I crossed them:
O the life I led him, and the dalliance and the wit,
The flattery and the strife,
which is the reading of 1843. Canopus is a star in Argo, not visible in
the West, but a conspicuous feature in the sky when seen from Egypt, as
Pliny notices, 'Hist. Nat. ', vi. , xxiv. "Fatentes Canopum noctibus
sidus ingens et clarum". 'Cf. ' Manilius, 'Astron. ', i. ,
216-17, "Nusquam invenies fulgere Canopum donec Niliacas per pontum
veneris oras," and Lucan, 'Pharsal. ', viii. , 181-3. ]
[Footnote 21: Substituted in 1843 for the reading of 1833 and 1842. ]
[Footnote 22: Substituted in 1845 for
the reading of 1833, 1842, 1843, which ran as recorded 'supra'.
1845 to 1848. Lybian. And for the reading of 1843
Sigh'd forth with life I had no further fear,
O what a little worm stole Caesar's fame! ]
[Footnote 23: A splendid transfusion of Horace's lines about her, Ode I. ,
xxxvii.
Invidens Privata deduci superto
Non humilis mulier triumpho. ]
[Footnote 24: 1833 and 1842. Touched. ]
[Footnote 25: For the story of Jephtha's daughter see Judges, chap. xi. ]
[Footnote 26: All editions up to and including 1851. In his den. ]
[Footnote 27: For reference see Judges xi, 33. ]
[Footnote 28: 1833.
Ere I saw her, that in her latest trance
Clasped her dead father's heart, or Joan of Arc.
The reference is, of course, to the well-known story of Margaret Roper,
the daughter of Sir Thomas More, who is said to have taken his head when
he was executed and preserved it till her death. ]
[Footnote 29: Eleanor, the wife of Edward I. , is said to have thus saved
his life when he was stabbed at Acre with a poisoned dagger. ]
[Footnote 30: The earliest and latest editions, 'i. e. ', 1833 and
1853, have "tho'," and all the editions between "though". "Though
culled," etc. ]
MARGARET
First printed in 1833.
Another of Tennyson's delicious fancy portraits, the twin sister to
Adeline.
1
O sweet pale Margaret,
O rare pale Margaret,
What lit your eyes with tearful power,
Like moonlight on a falling shower?
Who lent you, love, your mortal dower
Of pensive thought and aspect pale,
Your melancholy sweet and frail
As perfume of the cuckoo-flower?
From the westward-winding flood,
From the evening-lighted wood,
From all things outward you have won
A tearful grace, as tho' [1] you stood
Between the rainbow and the sun.
The very smile before you speak,
That dimples your transparent cheek,
Encircles all the heart, and feedeth
The senses with a still delight
Of dainty sorrow without sound,
Like the tender amber round,
Which the moon about her spreadeth,
Moving thro' a fleecy night.
2
You love, remaining peacefully,
To hear the murmur of the strife,
But enter not the toil of life.
Your spirit is the calmed sea,
Laid by the tumult of the fight.
You are the evening star, alway
Remaining betwixt dark and bright:
Lull'd echoes of laborious day
Come to you, gleams of mellow light
Float by you on the verge of night.
3
What can it matter, Margaret,
What songs below the waning stars
The lion-heart, Plantagenet, [2]
Sang looking thro' his prison bars?
Exquisite Margaret, who can tell
The last wild thought of Chatelet, [3]
Just ere the falling axe did part
The burning brain from the true heart,
Even in her sight he loved so well?
4
A fairy shield your Genius made
And gave you on your natal day.
Your sorrow, only sorrow's shade,
Keeps real sorrow far away.
You move not in such solitudes,
You are not less divine,
But more human in your moods,
Than your twin-sister, Adeline.
Your hair is darker, and your eyes
Touch'd with a somewhat darker hue,
And less aerially blue,
But ever trembling thro' the dew [4]
Of dainty-woeful sympathies.
5
O sweet pale Margaret,
O rare pale Margaret,
Come down, come down, and hear me speak:
Tie up the ringlets on your cheek:
The sun is just about to set.
The arching lines are tall and shady,
And faint, rainy lights are seen,
Moving in the leavy beech.
Rise from the feast of sorrow, lady,
Where all day long you sit between
Joy and woe, and whisper each.
Or only look across the lawn,
Look out below your bower-eaves,
Look down, and let your blue eyes dawn
Upon me thro' the jasmine-leaves. [5]
[Footnote 1: All editions except 1833 and 1853. Though. ]
[Footnote 2: 1833. Lion-souled Plantagenet. For songs supposed to have
been composed by Richard I. during the time of his captivity see
Sismondi, 'Litterature du Midi de l'Europe', vol. i. , p. 149, and
'La Tour Tenebreuse' (1705), which contains a poem said to have
been written by Richard and Blondel in mixed Romance and Provencal, and
a love-song in Norman French, which have frequently been reprinted. See,
too, Barney's 'Hist. of Music', vol. ii. , p. 238, and Walpole's
'Royal and Noble Authors', sub. -tit. "Richard I. ," and the fourth
volume of Reynouard's 'Choix des Poesies des Troubadours'. All
these poems are probably spurious. ]
[Footnote 3: Chatelet was a poet-squire in the suite of the Marshal
Damville, who was executed for a supposed intrigue with Mary Queen of
Scots. See Tytler, 'History of Scotland', vi. , p. 319, and Mr.
Swinburne's tragedy. ]
[Footnote 4: 1833.
And more aerially blue,
And ever trembling thro' the dew. ]
[Footnote 5: 1833. Jasmin-leaves. ]
THE BLACKBIRD.
Not in 1833.
This is another poem placed among the poems of 1833, but not printed
till 1842.
O blackbird! sing me something well:
While all the neighbours shoot thee round,
I keep smooth plats of fruitful ground,
Where thou may'st warble, eat and dwell.
The espaliers and the standards all
Are thine; the range of lawn and park:
The unnetted black-hearts ripen dark,
All thine, against the garden wall.
Yet, tho' I spared thee all the spring, [1]
Thy sole delight is, sitting still,
With that gold dagger of thy bill
To fret the summer jenneting. [2]
A golden bill! the silver tongue,
Cold February loved, is dry:
Plenty corrupts the melody
That made thee famous once, when young:
And in the sultry garden-squares, [3]
Now thy flute-notes are changed to coarse,
I hear thee not at all, [4] or hoarse
As when a hawker hawks his wares.
Take warning! he that will not sing
While yon sun prospers in the blue,
Shall sing for want, ere leaves are new,
Caught in the frozen palms of Spring.
[Footnote 1: 1842. Yet, though I spared thee kith and kin. And so till
1853, when it was altered to the present reading. ]
[Footnote 2: 1842 to 1851. Jennetin, altered in 1853 to present
reading. ]
[Footnote 3: 1842. I better brook the drawling stares. Altered, 1843. ]
[Footnote 4: 1842. Not hearing thee at all. Altered, 1843. ]
THE DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR
First printed in 1833.
Only one alteration has been made in this poem, in line 41, where in
1842 "one' was altered to" twelve ".
Full knee-deep lies the winter snow,
And the winter winds are wearily sighing:
Toll ye the church-bell sad and slow,
And tread softly and speak low,
For the old year lies a-dying.
Old year, you must not die;
You came to us so readily,
You lived with us so steadily,
Old year, you shall not die.
He lieth still: he doth not move:
He will not see the dawn of day.
He hath no other life above.
He gave me a friend, and a true, true-love,
And the New-year will take 'em away.
Old year, you must not go;
So long as you have been with us,
Such joy as you have seen with us,
Old year, you shall not go.
He froth'd his bumpers to the brim;
A jollier year we shall not see.
But tho' his eyes are waxing dim,
And tho' his foes speak ill of him,
He was a friend to me.
Old year, you shall not die;
We did so laugh and cry with you,
I've half a mind to die with you,
Old year, if you must die.
He was full of joke and jest,
But all his merry quips are o'er.
To see him die, across the waste
His son and heir doth ride post-haste,
But he'll be dead before.
Every one for his own.
The night is starry and cold, my friend,
And the New-year blithe and bold, my friend,
Comes up to take his own.
How hard he breathes! over the snow
I heard just now the crowing cock.
The shadows flicker to and fro:
The cricket chirps: the light burns low:
'Tis nearly twelve [1] o'clock.
Shake hands, before you die.
Old year, we'll dearly rue for you:
What is it we can do for you?
Speak out before you die.
His face is growing sharp and thin.
Alack! our friend is gone.
Close up his eyes: tie up his chin:
Step from the corpse, and let him in
That standeth there alone,
And waiteth at the door.
There's a new foot on the floor, my friend,
And a new face at the door, my friend,
A new face at the door.
[Footnote 1: 1833. One. ]
TO J. S.
First published in 1833.
This beautiful poem was addressed to James Spedding on the death of his
brother Edward.
The wind, that beats the mountain, blows
More softly round the open wold, [1]
And gently comes the world to those
That are cast in gentle mould.
And me this knowledge bolder made,
Or else I had not dared to flow [2]
In these words toward you, and invade
Even with a verse your holy woe.
'Tis strange that those we lean on most,
Those in whose laps our limbs are nursed,
Fall into shadow, soonest lost:
Those we love first are taken first.
God gives us love. Something to love
He lends us; but, when love is grown
To ripeness, that on which it throve
Falls off, and love is left alone.
This is the curse of time. Alas!
In grief I am not all unlearn'd;
Once thro' mine own doors Death did pass; [3]
One went, who never hath return'd.
He will not smile--nor speak to me
Once more. Two years his chair is seen
Empty before us. That was he
Without whose life I had not been.
Your loss is rarer; for this star
Rose with you thro' a little arc
Of heaven, nor having wander'd far
Shot on the sudden into dark.
I knew your brother: his mute dust
I honour and his living worth:
A man more pure and bold [4] and just
Was never born into the earth.
I have not look'd upon you nigh,
Since that dear soul hath fall'n asleep.
Great Nature is more wise than I:
I will not tell you not to weep.
And tho' mine own eyes fill with dew,
Drawn from the spirit thro' the brain, [5]
I will not even preach to you,
"Weep, weeping dulls the inward pain".
Let Grief be her own mistress still.
She loveth her own anguish deep
More than much pleasure. Let her will
Be done--to weep or not to weep.
I will not say "God's ordinance
Of Death is blown in every wind";
For that is not a common chance
That takes away a noble mind.
His memory long will live alone
In all our hearts, as mournful light
That broods above the fallen sun, [6]
And dwells in heaven half the night.
Vain solace! Memory standing near
Cast down her eyes, and in her throat
Her voice seem'd distant, and a tear
Dropt on the letters [7] as I wrote.
I wrote I know not what. In truth,
How _should_ I soothe you anyway,
Who miss the brother of your youth?
Yet something I did wish to say:
For he too was a friend to me:
Both are my friends, and my true breast
Bleedeth for both; yet it may be
That only [8] silence suiteth best.
Words weaker than your grief would make
Grief more. 'Twere better I should cease;
Although myself could almost take [9]
The place of him that sleeps in peace.
Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace:
Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul,
While the stars burn, the moons increase,
And the great ages onward roll.
Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet.
Nothing comes to thee new or strange.
Sleep full of rest from head to feet;
Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.
[Footnote 1: Possibly suggested by Tasso, 'Gerus. ', lib. xx. , st.
lviii. :--
Qual vento a cui s'oppone o selva o colle
Doppia nella contesa i soffi e l' ira;
Ma con fiato piu placido e piu molle
Per le compagne libere poi spira. ]
[Footnote 2: 1833.
My heart this knowledge bolder made,
Or else it had not dared to flow.
Altered in 1842. ]
[Footnote 3: Tennyson's father died in March, 1831. ]
[Footnote 4: 1833. Mild. ]
[Footnote 5: 'Cf. ' Gray's Alcaic stanza on West's death:--
O lacrymarum fons tenero sacros
'Ducentium ortus ex animo'. ]
[Footnote 6: 1833. Sunken sun. Altered to present reading, 1842. The
image may have been suggested by Henry Vaughan, 'Beyond the Veil':--
Their very memory is fair and bright,
. . .
It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast Like stars
. . .
Or those faint beams in which the hill is drest
After the sun's remove. ]
[Footnote 7: 1833, 1842, 1843. My tablets. This affected phrase was
altered to the present reading in 1845. ]
[Footnote 8: 1833. Holy. Altered to "only," 1842. ]
[Footnote 9: 1833. Altho' to calm you I would take. Altered to present
reading, 1842. ]
"YOU ASK ME WHY, THO' ILL AT EASE. . . "
This is another poem which, though included among those belonging to
1833, was not published till 1842. It is an interesting illustration,
like the next poem but one, of Tennyson's political opinions; he was, he
said, "of the same politics as Shakespeare, Bacon and every sane man".
He was either ignorant of the politics of Shakespeare and Bacon or did
himself great injustice by the remark. It would have been more true to
say--for all his works illustrate it--that he was of the same politics
as Burke. He is here, and in all his poems, a Liberal-Conservative in
the proper sense of the term. At the time this trio of poems was written
England was passing through the throes which preceded, accompanied and
followed the Reform Bill, and the lessons which Tennyson preaches in
them were particularly appropriate. He belonged to the Liberal Party
rather in relation to social and religious than to political questions.
Thus he ardently supported the Anti-slavery Convention and advocated the
measure for abolishing subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles, but he
was, as a politician, on the side of Canning, Peel and the Duke of
Wellington, regarding as they did the new-born democracy with mingled
feelings of apprehension and perplexity. His exact attitude is indicated
by some verses written about this time published by his son ('Life', i. ,
69-70). If Mr. Aubrey de Vere is correct this and the following poem
were occasioned by some popular demonstrations connected with the Reform
Bill and its rejection by the House of Lords. See 'Life of Tennyson',
vol. i. , appendix.
You ask me, why, tho' [1] ill at ease,
Within this region I subsist,
Whose spirits falter in the mist, [2]
And languish for the purple seas?
It is the land that freemen till,
That sober-suited Freedom chose,
The land, where girt with friends or foes
A man may speak the thing he will;
A land of settled government,
A land of just and old renown,
Where Freedom broadens slowly down
From precedent to precedent:
Where faction seldom gathers head,
But by degrees to fulness wrought,
The strength of some diffusive thought
Hath time and space to work and spread.
Should banded unions persecute
Opinion, and induce a time
When single thought is civil crime,
And individual freedom mute;
Tho' Power should make from land to land [3]
The name of Britain trebly great--
Tho' every channel [4] of the State
Should almost choke with golden sand--
Yet waft me from the harbour-mouth,
Wild wind! I seek a warmer sky,
And I will see before I die
The palms and temples of the South.
[Footnote 1: 1842 and 1851. Though. ]
[Footnote 2: 1842 to 1843. Whose spirits fail within the mist. Altered
to present reading in 1845. ]
[Footnote 3: All editions up to and including 1851. Though Power, etc. ]
[Footnote 4: 1842-1850. Though every channel. ]
"OF OLD SAT FREEDOM ON THE HEIGHTS. . . "
First published in 1842, but it seems to have been written in 1834. The
fourth and fifth stanzas are given in a postscript of a letter from
Tennyson to James Spedding, dated 1834.
Of old sat Freedom on the heights,
The thunders breaking at her feet:
Above her shook the starry lights:
She heard the torrents meet.
There in her place [1] she did rejoice,
Self-gather'd in her prophet-mind,
But fragments of her mighty voice
Came rolling on the wind.
Then stept she down thro' town and field
To mingle with the human race,
And part by part to men reveal'd
The fullness of her face--
Grave mother of majestic works,
From her isle-altar gazing down,
Who, God-like, grasps the triple forks, [2]
And, King-like, wears the crown:
Her open eyes desire the truth.
The wisdom of a thousand years
Is in them. May perpetual youth
Keep dry their light from tears;
That her fair form may stand and shine,
Make bright our days and light our dreams,
Turning to scorn with lips divine
The falsehood of extremes!
[Footnote 1: 1842 to 1850 inclusive. Within her place. Altered to
present reading, 1850. ]
[Footnote 2: The "trisulci ignes" or "trisulca tela" of the Roman
poets. ]
"LOVE THOU THY LAND, WITH LOVE FAR-BROUGHT. . . "
First published in 1842.
This poem had been written by 1834, for Tennyson sends it in a letter
dated that year to James Spedding (see 'Life',, i. , 173).
Love thou thy land, with love far-brought
From out the storied Past, and used
Within the Present, but transfused
Thro' future time by power of thought.
True love turn'd round on fixed poles,
Love, that endures not sordid ends,
For English natures, freemen, friends,
Thy brothers and immortal souls.
But pamper not a hasty time,
Nor feed with crude imaginings
The herd, wild hearts and feeble wings,
That every sophister can lime.
Deliver not the tasks of might
To weakness, neither hide the ray
From those, not blind, who wait for day,
Tho' [1] sitting girt with doubtful light.
Make knowledge [2] circle with the winds;
But let her herald, Reverence, fly
Before her to whatever sky
Bear seed of men and growth [3] of minds.
Watch what main-currents draw the years:
Cut Prejudice against the grain:
But gentle words are always gain:
Regard the weakness of thy peers:
Nor toil for title, place, or touch
Of pension, neither count on praise:
It grows to guerdon after-days:
Nor deal in watch-words overmuch;
Not clinging to some ancient saw;
Not master'd by some modern term;
Not swift nor slow to change, but firm:
And in its season bring the law;
That from Discussion's lip may fall
With Life, that, working strongly, binds--
Set in all lights by many minds,
To close the interests of all.
For Nature also, cold and warm,
And moist and dry, devising long,
Thro' many agents making strong,
Matures the individual form.
Meet is it changes should control
Our being, lest we rust in ease.
We all are changed by still degrees,
All but the basis of the soul.
So let the change which comes be free
To ingroove itself with that, which flies,
And work, a joint of state, that plies
Its office, moved with sympathy.
A saying, hard to shape an act;
For all the past of Time reveals
A bridal dawn of thunder-peals,
Wherever Thought hath wedded Fact.
Ev'n now we hear with inward strife
A motion toiling in the gloom--
The Spirit of the years to come
Yearning to mix himself with Life.
A slow-develop'd strength awaits
Completion in a painful school;
Phantoms of other forms of rule,
New Majesties of mighty States--
The warders of the growing hour,
But vague in vapour, hard to mark;
And round them sea and air are dark
With great contrivances of Power.
Of many changes, aptly join'd,
Is bodied forth the second whole,
Regard gradation, lest the soul
Of Discord race the rising wind;
A wind to puff your idol-fires,
And heap their ashes on the head;
To shame the boast so often made, [4]
That we are wiser than our sires.
Oh, yet, if Nature's evil star
Drive men in manhood, as in youth,
To follow flying steps of Truth
Across the brazen bridge of war--[5]
If New and Old, disastrous feud,
Must ever shock, like armed foes,
And this be true, till Time shall close,
That Principles are rain'd in blood;
Not yet the wise of heart would cease
To hold his hope thro' shame and guilt,
But with his hand against the hilt,
Would pace the troubled land, like Peace;
Not less, tho' dogs of Faction bay, [6]
Would serve his kind in deed and word,
Certain, if knowledge bring the sword,
That knowledge takes the sword away--
Would love the gleams of good that broke
From either side, nor veil his eyes;
And if some dreadful need should rise
Would strike, and firmly, and one stroke:
To-morrow yet would reap to-day,
As we bear blossom of the dead;
Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed
Raw haste, half-sister to Delay.
[Footnote 1: 1842 and so till 1851. Though. ]
[Footnote 2: 1842. Knowledge is spelt with a capital K. ]
[Footnote 3: 1842. Or growth. ]
[Footnote 4: 1842. The boasting words we said. ]
[Footnote 5: Possibly suggested by Homer's expression, [Greek: ana
ptolemoio gephuras], 'Il'. , viii. , 549, and elsewhere; but Homer's
and Tennyson's meaning can hardly be the same. In Homer the "bridges of
war" seem to mean the spaces between the lines of tents in a bivouac: in
Tennyson the meaning is probably the obvious one. ]
[Footnote 6: All up to and including 1851. Not less, though dogs of
Faction bay. ]
THE GOOSE
This was first published in 1842. No alteration has since been made in
it.
This poem, which was written at the time of the Reform Bill agitation,
is a political allegory showing how illusory were the supposed
advantages held out by the Radicals to the poor and labouring classes.
The old woman typifies these classes, the stranger the Radicals, the
goose the Radical programme, Free Trade and the like, the eggs such
advantages as the proposed Radical measures might for a time seem to
confer, the cluttering goose, the storm and whirlwind the heavy price
which would have to be paid for them in the social anarchy resulting
from triumphant Radicalism. The allegory may be narrowed to the Free
Trade question.
I knew an old wife lean and poor,
Her rags scarce held together;
There strode a stranger to the door,
And it was windy weather.
He held a goose upon his arm,
He utter'd rhyme and reason,
"Here, take the goose, and keep you warm,
It is a stormy season".
She caught the white goose by the leg,
A goose--'twas no great matter.
The goose let fall a golden egg
With cackle and with clatter.
She dropt the goose, and caught the pelf,
And ran to tell her neighbours;
And bless'd herself, and cursed herself,
And rested from her labours.
And feeding high, and living soft,
Grew plump and able-bodied;
Until the grave churchwarden doff'd,
The parson smirk'd and nodded.
So sitting, served by man and maid,
She felt her heart grow prouder:
But, ah! the more the white goose laid
It clack'd and cackled louder.
It clutter'd here, it chuckled there;
It stirr'd the old wife's mettle:
She shifted in her elbow-chair,
And hurl'd the pan and kettle.
"A quinsy choke thy cursed note! "
Then wax'd her anger stronger:
"Go, take the goose, and wring her throat,
I will not bear it longer".
Then yelp'd the cur, and yawl'd the cat;
Ran Gaffer, stumbled Gammer.
The goose flew this way and flew that,
And fill'd the house with clamour.
As head and heels upon the floor
They flounder'd all together,
There strode a stranger to the door,
And it was windy weather:
He took the goose upon his arm,
He utter'd words of scorning;
"So keep you cold, or keep you warm,
It is a stormy morning".
The wild wind rang from park and plain,
And round the attics rumbled,
Till all the tables danced again,
And half the chimneys tumbled.
The glass blew in, the fire blew out,
The blast was hard and harder.
Her cap blew off, her gown blew up,
And a whirlwind clear'd the larder;
And while on all sides breaking loose
Her household fled the danger,
Quoth she, "The Devil take the goose,
And God forget the stranger! "
THE EPIC
First published in 1842; "tho'" for "though" in line 44 has been the
only alteration made since 1850.
This Prologue was written, like the Epilogue, after "The Epic" had been
composed, being added, Fitzgerald says, to anticipate or excuse "the
faint Homeric echoes," to give a reason for telling an old-world tale.
The poet "mouthing out his hollow oes and aes" is, we are told, a good
description of Tennyson's tone and manner of reading.
At Francis Allen's on the Christmas-eve,--
The game of forfeits done--the girls all kiss'd
Beneath the sacred bush and past away--
The parson Holmes, the poet Everard Hall,
The host, and I sat round the wassail-bowl,
Then half-way ebb'd: and there we held a talk,
How all the old honour had from Christmas gone,
Or gone, or dwindled down to some odd games
In some odd nooks like this; till I, tired out
With cutting eights that day upon the pond,
Where, three times slipping from the outer edge,
I bump'd the ice into three several stars,
Fell in a doze; and half-awake I heard
The parson taking wide and wider sweeps,
Now harping on the church-commissioners, [1]
Now hawking at Geology and schism;
Until I woke, and found him settled down
Upon the general decay of faith
Right thro' the world, "at home was little left,
And none abroad: there was no anchor, none,
To hold by". Francis, laughing, clapt his hand
On Everard's shoulder, with "I hold by him".
"And I," quoth Everard, "by the wassail-bowl. "
"Why, yes," I said, "we knew your gift that way
At college: but another which you had,
I mean of verse (for so we held it then),
What came of that? " "You know," said Frank, "he burnt
His epic, his King Arthur, some twelve books "--[2]
And then to me demanding why? "Oh, sir,
He thought that nothing new was said, or else
Something so said 'twas nothing--that a truth
Looks freshest in the fashion of the day:
God knows: he has a mint of reasons: ask.
It pleased _me_ well enough. " "Nay, nay," said Hall,
"Why take the style of those heroic times?
For nature brings not back the Mastodon,
Nor we those times; and why should any man
Remodel models? these twelve books of mine [3]
Were faint Homeric echoes, nothing-worth,
Mere chaff and draff, much better burnt. "
"But I," Said Francis, "pick'd the eleventh from this hearth,
And have it: keep a thing its use will come.
I hoard it as a sugar-plum for Holmes. "
He laugh'd, and I, though sleepy, like a horse
That hears the corn-bin open, prick'd my ears;
For I remember'd Everard's college fame
When we were Freshmen: then at my request
He brought it; and the poet little urged,
But with some prelude of disparagement,
Read, mouthing out his hollow oes and aes,
Deep-chested music, and to this result.
[Footnote 1: A burning topic with the clergy in and about 1833. ]
[Footnote 2: 1842 to 1844. "You know," said Frank, "he flung His epic
of King Arthur in the fire! " The present reading, 1850. ]
[Footnote 3: 1842, 1843.
Remodel models rather than the life?
And these twelve books of mine (to speak the truth).
Present reading, 1845. ]
MORTE D'ARTHUR
This is Tennyson's first study from Malory's 'Morte d'Arthur'. We learn
from Fitzgerald that it was written as early as the spring of 1835, for
in that year Tennyson read it to Fitzgerald and Spedding, "out of a MS.
in a little red book," and again we learn that he repeated some lines of
it at the end of May, 1835, one calm day on Windermere, adding "Not bad
that, Fitz. , is it? " ('Life', i. , 184). It is here represented as the
eleventh book of an Epic, the rest of which had been destroyed, though
Tennyson afterwards incorporated it, adding introductory lines, with
what was virtually to prove an Epic in twelve books, 'The Idylls of the
King'. The substance of the poem is drawn from the third, fourth and
fifth chapters of the twenty-first book of Malory's 'Romance', which is
followed very closely. It is called "an Homeric echo," but the diction
bears a much closer resemblance to that of Virgil than to that of Homer,
though the rhythm is perhaps more Homeric than Virgilian. It is
Tennyson's masterpiece in "the grand style," and is indeed as near
perfection as any work of this kind could be. In spite of its singular
mixture of simplicity, purely Homeric, and artificiality, at times
ultra-Virgilian, the incongruity never shocks, so noble and impressive
is the general effect. The text of 1842 was never subsequently altered
except in the spelling of "mere" and "though" in lines 37, 77, 147, 155,
162, 272, and in the insertion in 1853 of the line:--
"Across the ridge and pac'd beside the mere. "
So all day long the noise of battle roll'd
Among the mountains by the winter sea;
Until King Arthur's table, man by man,
Had fall'n in Lyonness about their Lord,
King Arthur: then, because his wound was deep,
The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,
And bore him to a chapel nigh the field, [1]
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land.
On one side lay the Ocean, and on one
Lay a great water, and the moon was full.
Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
"The sequel of to-day unsolders all
The goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep
They sleep--the men I loved. I think that we
Shall never more, at any future time,
Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,
Walking about the gardens and the halls
Of Camelot, as in the days that were.
I perish by this people which I made,--
Tho' Merlin sware that I should come again
To rule once more--but let what will be, be,
I am so deeply smitten thro' the helm
That without help I cannot last till morn.
Thou therefore take my brand [2] Excalibur,
Which was my pride: for thou rememberest how
In those old days, one summer noon, an arm
Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
Holding the sword--and how I row'd across
And took it, and have worn it, like a king:
And, wheresoever I am sung or told
In aftertime, this also shall be known:
But now delay not: take Excalibur,
And fling him far into the middle mere:
Watch what thou seest, and lightly bring me word. "
To him replied the bold Sir Bedivere:
"It is not meet, Sir King, to leave thee thus,
Aidless, alone, and smitten thro' the helm.
A little thing may harm a wounded man.
Yet I thy hest will all perform at full,
Watch what I see, and lightly bring thee word. "
So saying, from the ruin'd shrine he stept
And in the moon athwart the place of tombs,
Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men,
Old knights, and over them the sea-wind sang
Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He, stepping down
By zig-zag paths, and juts of pointed rock,
Came on the shining levels of the lake.
There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,
And o'er him, drawing it, the winter moon,
Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth
And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:
For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks, [3]
Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth-work
Of subtlest jewellery. He gazed so long
That both his eyes were dazzled, as he stood,
This way and that dividing the swift mind, [4]
In act to throw: but at the last it seem'd
Better to leave Excalibur conceal'd
There in the many-knotted waterflags,
That whistled stiff and dry about the marge.
emphasises her tallness, 'Cyroped. ', v. ]
[Footnote 9: 1883. Sovran lady. ]
[Footnote 10: As the old men say, 'Iliad', iii. , 156-8. ]
[Footnote 11: The one is Iphigenia. ]
[Footnote 12: Aulis. ]
[Footnote 13: It was not till 1884 that this line was altered to the
reading of the final edition, 'i. e. ', "Which men called Aulis in
those iron years". For the "iron years" of that reading 'cf. '
Thomson, 'Spring', 384, "'iron' times". ]
[Footnote 14: From 1833 till 1853 this stanza ran:--
"The tall masts quivered as they lay afloat,
The temples and the people and the shore,
One drew a sharp knife thro' my tender throat
Slowly,--and nothing more".
It is curious that Tennyson should have allowed the last line to stand
so long; possibly it may have been to defy Lockhart's sarcastic
commentary: "What touching simplicity, what pathetic resignation--he cut
my throat, nothing more! " With Tennyson's picture should be compared
AEschylus, 'Agamem. ', 225-49, and Lucretius, i. , 85-100. For the bold and
picturesque substitution of the effect for the cause in the "bright
death quiver'd" 'cf. ' Sophocles, 'Electra', 1395,
[Greek: 'neakonaeton aima cheiroin ech_on,']
"with the newly-whetted blood on his hands". So "vulnus" is frequently
used by Virgil, and 'cf. ' Silius Italicus, 'Punica', ix. ,
368-9:--
Per pectora 'saevas'
Exceptat 'mortes'. ]
[Footnote 15: She expresses the same wish in 'Iliad', iii. , 73-4. ]
[Footnote 16: Cleopatra. The skill with which Tennyson has here given us,
in quintessence as it were, Shakespeare's superb creation needs no
commentary, but it is somewhat surprising to find an accurate scholar
like Tennyson guilty of the absurdity of representing Cleopatra as of
gipsy complexion. The daughter of Ptolemy Aulates and a lady of Pontus,
she was of Greek descent, and had no taint at all of African
intermixtures. See Peacock's remarks in 'Gryll Grange', p. 206, 7th
edit. , 1861. ]
[Footnote 17: After this in 1833 and in 1842 are the following stanzas,
afterwards excised:--
"By him great Pompey dwarfs and suffers pain,
A mortal man before immortal Mars;
The glories of great Julius lapse and wane,
And shrink from suns to stars.
"That man of all the men I ever knew
Most touched my fancy.
O! what days and nights
We had in Egypt, ever reaping new
Harvest of ripe delights.
"Realm-draining revels! Life was one long feast,
What wit! what words! what sweet words, only made
Less sweet by the kiss that broke 'em, liking best
To be so richly stayed!
"What dainty strifes, when fresh from war's alarms,
My Hercules, my gallant Antony,
My mailed captain leapt into my arms,
Contented there to die!
"And in those arms he died: I heard my name
Sighed forth with life: then I shook off all fear:
Oh, what a little snake stole Caesar's fame!
What else was left? look here! "
"With that she tore her robe apart," etc. ]
[Footnote l8: This stanza was added in 1843. ]
[Footnote 19: 1845-1848. Lybian. ]
[Footnote 20: Added in 1845 as a substitute for
"What nights we had in Egypt! I could hit
His humours while I crossed them:
O the life I led him, and the dalliance and the wit,
The flattery and the strife,
which is the reading of 1843. Canopus is a star in Argo, not visible in
the West, but a conspicuous feature in the sky when seen from Egypt, as
Pliny notices, 'Hist. Nat. ', vi. , xxiv. "Fatentes Canopum noctibus
sidus ingens et clarum". 'Cf. ' Manilius, 'Astron. ', i. ,
216-17, "Nusquam invenies fulgere Canopum donec Niliacas per pontum
veneris oras," and Lucan, 'Pharsal. ', viii. , 181-3. ]
[Footnote 21: Substituted in 1843 for the reading of 1833 and 1842. ]
[Footnote 22: Substituted in 1845 for
the reading of 1833, 1842, 1843, which ran as recorded 'supra'.
1845 to 1848. Lybian. And for the reading of 1843
Sigh'd forth with life I had no further fear,
O what a little worm stole Caesar's fame! ]
[Footnote 23: A splendid transfusion of Horace's lines about her, Ode I. ,
xxxvii.
Invidens Privata deduci superto
Non humilis mulier triumpho. ]
[Footnote 24: 1833 and 1842. Touched. ]
[Footnote 25: For the story of Jephtha's daughter see Judges, chap. xi. ]
[Footnote 26: All editions up to and including 1851. In his den. ]
[Footnote 27: For reference see Judges xi, 33. ]
[Footnote 28: 1833.
Ere I saw her, that in her latest trance
Clasped her dead father's heart, or Joan of Arc.
The reference is, of course, to the well-known story of Margaret Roper,
the daughter of Sir Thomas More, who is said to have taken his head when
he was executed and preserved it till her death. ]
[Footnote 29: Eleanor, the wife of Edward I. , is said to have thus saved
his life when he was stabbed at Acre with a poisoned dagger. ]
[Footnote 30: The earliest and latest editions, 'i. e. ', 1833 and
1853, have "tho'," and all the editions between "though". "Though
culled," etc. ]
MARGARET
First printed in 1833.
Another of Tennyson's delicious fancy portraits, the twin sister to
Adeline.
1
O sweet pale Margaret,
O rare pale Margaret,
What lit your eyes with tearful power,
Like moonlight on a falling shower?
Who lent you, love, your mortal dower
Of pensive thought and aspect pale,
Your melancholy sweet and frail
As perfume of the cuckoo-flower?
From the westward-winding flood,
From the evening-lighted wood,
From all things outward you have won
A tearful grace, as tho' [1] you stood
Between the rainbow and the sun.
The very smile before you speak,
That dimples your transparent cheek,
Encircles all the heart, and feedeth
The senses with a still delight
Of dainty sorrow without sound,
Like the tender amber round,
Which the moon about her spreadeth,
Moving thro' a fleecy night.
2
You love, remaining peacefully,
To hear the murmur of the strife,
But enter not the toil of life.
Your spirit is the calmed sea,
Laid by the tumult of the fight.
You are the evening star, alway
Remaining betwixt dark and bright:
Lull'd echoes of laborious day
Come to you, gleams of mellow light
Float by you on the verge of night.
3
What can it matter, Margaret,
What songs below the waning stars
The lion-heart, Plantagenet, [2]
Sang looking thro' his prison bars?
Exquisite Margaret, who can tell
The last wild thought of Chatelet, [3]
Just ere the falling axe did part
The burning brain from the true heart,
Even in her sight he loved so well?
4
A fairy shield your Genius made
And gave you on your natal day.
Your sorrow, only sorrow's shade,
Keeps real sorrow far away.
You move not in such solitudes,
You are not less divine,
But more human in your moods,
Than your twin-sister, Adeline.
Your hair is darker, and your eyes
Touch'd with a somewhat darker hue,
And less aerially blue,
But ever trembling thro' the dew [4]
Of dainty-woeful sympathies.
5
O sweet pale Margaret,
O rare pale Margaret,
Come down, come down, and hear me speak:
Tie up the ringlets on your cheek:
The sun is just about to set.
The arching lines are tall and shady,
And faint, rainy lights are seen,
Moving in the leavy beech.
Rise from the feast of sorrow, lady,
Where all day long you sit between
Joy and woe, and whisper each.
Or only look across the lawn,
Look out below your bower-eaves,
Look down, and let your blue eyes dawn
Upon me thro' the jasmine-leaves. [5]
[Footnote 1: All editions except 1833 and 1853. Though. ]
[Footnote 2: 1833. Lion-souled Plantagenet. For songs supposed to have
been composed by Richard I. during the time of his captivity see
Sismondi, 'Litterature du Midi de l'Europe', vol. i. , p. 149, and
'La Tour Tenebreuse' (1705), which contains a poem said to have
been written by Richard and Blondel in mixed Romance and Provencal, and
a love-song in Norman French, which have frequently been reprinted. See,
too, Barney's 'Hist. of Music', vol. ii. , p. 238, and Walpole's
'Royal and Noble Authors', sub. -tit. "Richard I. ," and the fourth
volume of Reynouard's 'Choix des Poesies des Troubadours'. All
these poems are probably spurious. ]
[Footnote 3: Chatelet was a poet-squire in the suite of the Marshal
Damville, who was executed for a supposed intrigue with Mary Queen of
Scots. See Tytler, 'History of Scotland', vi. , p. 319, and Mr.
Swinburne's tragedy. ]
[Footnote 4: 1833.
And more aerially blue,
And ever trembling thro' the dew. ]
[Footnote 5: 1833. Jasmin-leaves. ]
THE BLACKBIRD.
Not in 1833.
This is another poem placed among the poems of 1833, but not printed
till 1842.
O blackbird! sing me something well:
While all the neighbours shoot thee round,
I keep smooth plats of fruitful ground,
Where thou may'st warble, eat and dwell.
The espaliers and the standards all
Are thine; the range of lawn and park:
The unnetted black-hearts ripen dark,
All thine, against the garden wall.
Yet, tho' I spared thee all the spring, [1]
Thy sole delight is, sitting still,
With that gold dagger of thy bill
To fret the summer jenneting. [2]
A golden bill! the silver tongue,
Cold February loved, is dry:
Plenty corrupts the melody
That made thee famous once, when young:
And in the sultry garden-squares, [3]
Now thy flute-notes are changed to coarse,
I hear thee not at all, [4] or hoarse
As when a hawker hawks his wares.
Take warning! he that will not sing
While yon sun prospers in the blue,
Shall sing for want, ere leaves are new,
Caught in the frozen palms of Spring.
[Footnote 1: 1842. Yet, though I spared thee kith and kin. And so till
1853, when it was altered to the present reading. ]
[Footnote 2: 1842 to 1851. Jennetin, altered in 1853 to present
reading. ]
[Footnote 3: 1842. I better brook the drawling stares. Altered, 1843. ]
[Footnote 4: 1842. Not hearing thee at all. Altered, 1843. ]
THE DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR
First printed in 1833.
Only one alteration has been made in this poem, in line 41, where in
1842 "one' was altered to" twelve ".
Full knee-deep lies the winter snow,
And the winter winds are wearily sighing:
Toll ye the church-bell sad and slow,
And tread softly and speak low,
For the old year lies a-dying.
Old year, you must not die;
You came to us so readily,
You lived with us so steadily,
Old year, you shall not die.
He lieth still: he doth not move:
He will not see the dawn of day.
He hath no other life above.
He gave me a friend, and a true, true-love,
And the New-year will take 'em away.
Old year, you must not go;
So long as you have been with us,
Such joy as you have seen with us,
Old year, you shall not go.
He froth'd his bumpers to the brim;
A jollier year we shall not see.
But tho' his eyes are waxing dim,
And tho' his foes speak ill of him,
He was a friend to me.
Old year, you shall not die;
We did so laugh and cry with you,
I've half a mind to die with you,
Old year, if you must die.
He was full of joke and jest,
But all his merry quips are o'er.
To see him die, across the waste
His son and heir doth ride post-haste,
But he'll be dead before.
Every one for his own.
The night is starry and cold, my friend,
And the New-year blithe and bold, my friend,
Comes up to take his own.
How hard he breathes! over the snow
I heard just now the crowing cock.
The shadows flicker to and fro:
The cricket chirps: the light burns low:
'Tis nearly twelve [1] o'clock.
Shake hands, before you die.
Old year, we'll dearly rue for you:
What is it we can do for you?
Speak out before you die.
His face is growing sharp and thin.
Alack! our friend is gone.
Close up his eyes: tie up his chin:
Step from the corpse, and let him in
That standeth there alone,
And waiteth at the door.
There's a new foot on the floor, my friend,
And a new face at the door, my friend,
A new face at the door.
[Footnote 1: 1833. One. ]
TO J. S.
First published in 1833.
This beautiful poem was addressed to James Spedding on the death of his
brother Edward.
The wind, that beats the mountain, blows
More softly round the open wold, [1]
And gently comes the world to those
That are cast in gentle mould.
And me this knowledge bolder made,
Or else I had not dared to flow [2]
In these words toward you, and invade
Even with a verse your holy woe.
'Tis strange that those we lean on most,
Those in whose laps our limbs are nursed,
Fall into shadow, soonest lost:
Those we love first are taken first.
God gives us love. Something to love
He lends us; but, when love is grown
To ripeness, that on which it throve
Falls off, and love is left alone.
This is the curse of time. Alas!
In grief I am not all unlearn'd;
Once thro' mine own doors Death did pass; [3]
One went, who never hath return'd.
He will not smile--nor speak to me
Once more. Two years his chair is seen
Empty before us. That was he
Without whose life I had not been.
Your loss is rarer; for this star
Rose with you thro' a little arc
Of heaven, nor having wander'd far
Shot on the sudden into dark.
I knew your brother: his mute dust
I honour and his living worth:
A man more pure and bold [4] and just
Was never born into the earth.
I have not look'd upon you nigh,
Since that dear soul hath fall'n asleep.
Great Nature is more wise than I:
I will not tell you not to weep.
And tho' mine own eyes fill with dew,
Drawn from the spirit thro' the brain, [5]
I will not even preach to you,
"Weep, weeping dulls the inward pain".
Let Grief be her own mistress still.
She loveth her own anguish deep
More than much pleasure. Let her will
Be done--to weep or not to weep.
I will not say "God's ordinance
Of Death is blown in every wind";
For that is not a common chance
That takes away a noble mind.
His memory long will live alone
In all our hearts, as mournful light
That broods above the fallen sun, [6]
And dwells in heaven half the night.
Vain solace! Memory standing near
Cast down her eyes, and in her throat
Her voice seem'd distant, and a tear
Dropt on the letters [7] as I wrote.
I wrote I know not what. In truth,
How _should_ I soothe you anyway,
Who miss the brother of your youth?
Yet something I did wish to say:
For he too was a friend to me:
Both are my friends, and my true breast
Bleedeth for both; yet it may be
That only [8] silence suiteth best.
Words weaker than your grief would make
Grief more. 'Twere better I should cease;
Although myself could almost take [9]
The place of him that sleeps in peace.
Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace:
Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul,
While the stars burn, the moons increase,
And the great ages onward roll.
Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet.
Nothing comes to thee new or strange.
Sleep full of rest from head to feet;
Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.
[Footnote 1: Possibly suggested by Tasso, 'Gerus. ', lib. xx. , st.
lviii. :--
Qual vento a cui s'oppone o selva o colle
Doppia nella contesa i soffi e l' ira;
Ma con fiato piu placido e piu molle
Per le compagne libere poi spira. ]
[Footnote 2: 1833.
My heart this knowledge bolder made,
Or else it had not dared to flow.
Altered in 1842. ]
[Footnote 3: Tennyson's father died in March, 1831. ]
[Footnote 4: 1833. Mild. ]
[Footnote 5: 'Cf. ' Gray's Alcaic stanza on West's death:--
O lacrymarum fons tenero sacros
'Ducentium ortus ex animo'. ]
[Footnote 6: 1833. Sunken sun. Altered to present reading, 1842. The
image may have been suggested by Henry Vaughan, 'Beyond the Veil':--
Their very memory is fair and bright,
. . .
It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast Like stars
. . .
Or those faint beams in which the hill is drest
After the sun's remove. ]
[Footnote 7: 1833, 1842, 1843. My tablets. This affected phrase was
altered to the present reading in 1845. ]
[Footnote 8: 1833. Holy. Altered to "only," 1842. ]
[Footnote 9: 1833. Altho' to calm you I would take. Altered to present
reading, 1842. ]
"YOU ASK ME WHY, THO' ILL AT EASE. . . "
This is another poem which, though included among those belonging to
1833, was not published till 1842. It is an interesting illustration,
like the next poem but one, of Tennyson's political opinions; he was, he
said, "of the same politics as Shakespeare, Bacon and every sane man".
He was either ignorant of the politics of Shakespeare and Bacon or did
himself great injustice by the remark. It would have been more true to
say--for all his works illustrate it--that he was of the same politics
as Burke. He is here, and in all his poems, a Liberal-Conservative in
the proper sense of the term. At the time this trio of poems was written
England was passing through the throes which preceded, accompanied and
followed the Reform Bill, and the lessons which Tennyson preaches in
them were particularly appropriate. He belonged to the Liberal Party
rather in relation to social and religious than to political questions.
Thus he ardently supported the Anti-slavery Convention and advocated the
measure for abolishing subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles, but he
was, as a politician, on the side of Canning, Peel and the Duke of
Wellington, regarding as they did the new-born democracy with mingled
feelings of apprehension and perplexity. His exact attitude is indicated
by some verses written about this time published by his son ('Life', i. ,
69-70). If Mr. Aubrey de Vere is correct this and the following poem
were occasioned by some popular demonstrations connected with the Reform
Bill and its rejection by the House of Lords. See 'Life of Tennyson',
vol. i. , appendix.
You ask me, why, tho' [1] ill at ease,
Within this region I subsist,
Whose spirits falter in the mist, [2]
And languish for the purple seas?
It is the land that freemen till,
That sober-suited Freedom chose,
The land, where girt with friends or foes
A man may speak the thing he will;
A land of settled government,
A land of just and old renown,
Where Freedom broadens slowly down
From precedent to precedent:
Where faction seldom gathers head,
But by degrees to fulness wrought,
The strength of some diffusive thought
Hath time and space to work and spread.
Should banded unions persecute
Opinion, and induce a time
When single thought is civil crime,
And individual freedom mute;
Tho' Power should make from land to land [3]
The name of Britain trebly great--
Tho' every channel [4] of the State
Should almost choke with golden sand--
Yet waft me from the harbour-mouth,
Wild wind! I seek a warmer sky,
And I will see before I die
The palms and temples of the South.
[Footnote 1: 1842 and 1851. Though. ]
[Footnote 2: 1842 to 1843. Whose spirits fail within the mist. Altered
to present reading in 1845. ]
[Footnote 3: All editions up to and including 1851. Though Power, etc. ]
[Footnote 4: 1842-1850. Though every channel. ]
"OF OLD SAT FREEDOM ON THE HEIGHTS. . . "
First published in 1842, but it seems to have been written in 1834. The
fourth and fifth stanzas are given in a postscript of a letter from
Tennyson to James Spedding, dated 1834.
Of old sat Freedom on the heights,
The thunders breaking at her feet:
Above her shook the starry lights:
She heard the torrents meet.
There in her place [1] she did rejoice,
Self-gather'd in her prophet-mind,
But fragments of her mighty voice
Came rolling on the wind.
Then stept she down thro' town and field
To mingle with the human race,
And part by part to men reveal'd
The fullness of her face--
Grave mother of majestic works,
From her isle-altar gazing down,
Who, God-like, grasps the triple forks, [2]
And, King-like, wears the crown:
Her open eyes desire the truth.
The wisdom of a thousand years
Is in them. May perpetual youth
Keep dry their light from tears;
That her fair form may stand and shine,
Make bright our days and light our dreams,
Turning to scorn with lips divine
The falsehood of extremes!
[Footnote 1: 1842 to 1850 inclusive. Within her place. Altered to
present reading, 1850. ]
[Footnote 2: The "trisulci ignes" or "trisulca tela" of the Roman
poets. ]
"LOVE THOU THY LAND, WITH LOVE FAR-BROUGHT. . . "
First published in 1842.
This poem had been written by 1834, for Tennyson sends it in a letter
dated that year to James Spedding (see 'Life',, i. , 173).
Love thou thy land, with love far-brought
From out the storied Past, and used
Within the Present, but transfused
Thro' future time by power of thought.
True love turn'd round on fixed poles,
Love, that endures not sordid ends,
For English natures, freemen, friends,
Thy brothers and immortal souls.
But pamper not a hasty time,
Nor feed with crude imaginings
The herd, wild hearts and feeble wings,
That every sophister can lime.
Deliver not the tasks of might
To weakness, neither hide the ray
From those, not blind, who wait for day,
Tho' [1] sitting girt with doubtful light.
Make knowledge [2] circle with the winds;
But let her herald, Reverence, fly
Before her to whatever sky
Bear seed of men and growth [3] of minds.
Watch what main-currents draw the years:
Cut Prejudice against the grain:
But gentle words are always gain:
Regard the weakness of thy peers:
Nor toil for title, place, or touch
Of pension, neither count on praise:
It grows to guerdon after-days:
Nor deal in watch-words overmuch;
Not clinging to some ancient saw;
Not master'd by some modern term;
Not swift nor slow to change, but firm:
And in its season bring the law;
That from Discussion's lip may fall
With Life, that, working strongly, binds--
Set in all lights by many minds,
To close the interests of all.
For Nature also, cold and warm,
And moist and dry, devising long,
Thro' many agents making strong,
Matures the individual form.
Meet is it changes should control
Our being, lest we rust in ease.
We all are changed by still degrees,
All but the basis of the soul.
So let the change which comes be free
To ingroove itself with that, which flies,
And work, a joint of state, that plies
Its office, moved with sympathy.
A saying, hard to shape an act;
For all the past of Time reveals
A bridal dawn of thunder-peals,
Wherever Thought hath wedded Fact.
Ev'n now we hear with inward strife
A motion toiling in the gloom--
The Spirit of the years to come
Yearning to mix himself with Life.
A slow-develop'd strength awaits
Completion in a painful school;
Phantoms of other forms of rule,
New Majesties of mighty States--
The warders of the growing hour,
But vague in vapour, hard to mark;
And round them sea and air are dark
With great contrivances of Power.
Of many changes, aptly join'd,
Is bodied forth the second whole,
Regard gradation, lest the soul
Of Discord race the rising wind;
A wind to puff your idol-fires,
And heap their ashes on the head;
To shame the boast so often made, [4]
That we are wiser than our sires.
Oh, yet, if Nature's evil star
Drive men in manhood, as in youth,
To follow flying steps of Truth
Across the brazen bridge of war--[5]
If New and Old, disastrous feud,
Must ever shock, like armed foes,
And this be true, till Time shall close,
That Principles are rain'd in blood;
Not yet the wise of heart would cease
To hold his hope thro' shame and guilt,
But with his hand against the hilt,
Would pace the troubled land, like Peace;
Not less, tho' dogs of Faction bay, [6]
Would serve his kind in deed and word,
Certain, if knowledge bring the sword,
That knowledge takes the sword away--
Would love the gleams of good that broke
From either side, nor veil his eyes;
And if some dreadful need should rise
Would strike, and firmly, and one stroke:
To-morrow yet would reap to-day,
As we bear blossom of the dead;
Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed
Raw haste, half-sister to Delay.
[Footnote 1: 1842 and so till 1851. Though. ]
[Footnote 2: 1842. Knowledge is spelt with a capital K. ]
[Footnote 3: 1842. Or growth. ]
[Footnote 4: 1842. The boasting words we said. ]
[Footnote 5: Possibly suggested by Homer's expression, [Greek: ana
ptolemoio gephuras], 'Il'. , viii. , 549, and elsewhere; but Homer's
and Tennyson's meaning can hardly be the same. In Homer the "bridges of
war" seem to mean the spaces between the lines of tents in a bivouac: in
Tennyson the meaning is probably the obvious one. ]
[Footnote 6: All up to and including 1851. Not less, though dogs of
Faction bay. ]
THE GOOSE
This was first published in 1842. No alteration has since been made in
it.
This poem, which was written at the time of the Reform Bill agitation,
is a political allegory showing how illusory were the supposed
advantages held out by the Radicals to the poor and labouring classes.
The old woman typifies these classes, the stranger the Radicals, the
goose the Radical programme, Free Trade and the like, the eggs such
advantages as the proposed Radical measures might for a time seem to
confer, the cluttering goose, the storm and whirlwind the heavy price
which would have to be paid for them in the social anarchy resulting
from triumphant Radicalism. The allegory may be narrowed to the Free
Trade question.
I knew an old wife lean and poor,
Her rags scarce held together;
There strode a stranger to the door,
And it was windy weather.
He held a goose upon his arm,
He utter'd rhyme and reason,
"Here, take the goose, and keep you warm,
It is a stormy season".
She caught the white goose by the leg,
A goose--'twas no great matter.
The goose let fall a golden egg
With cackle and with clatter.
She dropt the goose, and caught the pelf,
And ran to tell her neighbours;
And bless'd herself, and cursed herself,
And rested from her labours.
And feeding high, and living soft,
Grew plump and able-bodied;
Until the grave churchwarden doff'd,
The parson smirk'd and nodded.
So sitting, served by man and maid,
She felt her heart grow prouder:
But, ah! the more the white goose laid
It clack'd and cackled louder.
It clutter'd here, it chuckled there;
It stirr'd the old wife's mettle:
She shifted in her elbow-chair,
And hurl'd the pan and kettle.
"A quinsy choke thy cursed note! "
Then wax'd her anger stronger:
"Go, take the goose, and wring her throat,
I will not bear it longer".
Then yelp'd the cur, and yawl'd the cat;
Ran Gaffer, stumbled Gammer.
The goose flew this way and flew that,
And fill'd the house with clamour.
As head and heels upon the floor
They flounder'd all together,
There strode a stranger to the door,
And it was windy weather:
He took the goose upon his arm,
He utter'd words of scorning;
"So keep you cold, or keep you warm,
It is a stormy morning".
The wild wind rang from park and plain,
And round the attics rumbled,
Till all the tables danced again,
And half the chimneys tumbled.
The glass blew in, the fire blew out,
The blast was hard and harder.
Her cap blew off, her gown blew up,
And a whirlwind clear'd the larder;
And while on all sides breaking loose
Her household fled the danger,
Quoth she, "The Devil take the goose,
And God forget the stranger! "
THE EPIC
First published in 1842; "tho'" for "though" in line 44 has been the
only alteration made since 1850.
This Prologue was written, like the Epilogue, after "The Epic" had been
composed, being added, Fitzgerald says, to anticipate or excuse "the
faint Homeric echoes," to give a reason for telling an old-world tale.
The poet "mouthing out his hollow oes and aes" is, we are told, a good
description of Tennyson's tone and manner of reading.
At Francis Allen's on the Christmas-eve,--
The game of forfeits done--the girls all kiss'd
Beneath the sacred bush and past away--
The parson Holmes, the poet Everard Hall,
The host, and I sat round the wassail-bowl,
Then half-way ebb'd: and there we held a talk,
How all the old honour had from Christmas gone,
Or gone, or dwindled down to some odd games
In some odd nooks like this; till I, tired out
With cutting eights that day upon the pond,
Where, three times slipping from the outer edge,
I bump'd the ice into three several stars,
Fell in a doze; and half-awake I heard
The parson taking wide and wider sweeps,
Now harping on the church-commissioners, [1]
Now hawking at Geology and schism;
Until I woke, and found him settled down
Upon the general decay of faith
Right thro' the world, "at home was little left,
And none abroad: there was no anchor, none,
To hold by". Francis, laughing, clapt his hand
On Everard's shoulder, with "I hold by him".
"And I," quoth Everard, "by the wassail-bowl. "
"Why, yes," I said, "we knew your gift that way
At college: but another which you had,
I mean of verse (for so we held it then),
What came of that? " "You know," said Frank, "he burnt
His epic, his King Arthur, some twelve books "--[2]
And then to me demanding why? "Oh, sir,
He thought that nothing new was said, or else
Something so said 'twas nothing--that a truth
Looks freshest in the fashion of the day:
God knows: he has a mint of reasons: ask.
It pleased _me_ well enough. " "Nay, nay," said Hall,
"Why take the style of those heroic times?
For nature brings not back the Mastodon,
Nor we those times; and why should any man
Remodel models? these twelve books of mine [3]
Were faint Homeric echoes, nothing-worth,
Mere chaff and draff, much better burnt. "
"But I," Said Francis, "pick'd the eleventh from this hearth,
And have it: keep a thing its use will come.
I hoard it as a sugar-plum for Holmes. "
He laugh'd, and I, though sleepy, like a horse
That hears the corn-bin open, prick'd my ears;
For I remember'd Everard's college fame
When we were Freshmen: then at my request
He brought it; and the poet little urged,
But with some prelude of disparagement,
Read, mouthing out his hollow oes and aes,
Deep-chested music, and to this result.
[Footnote 1: A burning topic with the clergy in and about 1833. ]
[Footnote 2: 1842 to 1844. "You know," said Frank, "he flung His epic
of King Arthur in the fire! " The present reading, 1850. ]
[Footnote 3: 1842, 1843.
Remodel models rather than the life?
And these twelve books of mine (to speak the truth).
Present reading, 1845. ]
MORTE D'ARTHUR
This is Tennyson's first study from Malory's 'Morte d'Arthur'. We learn
from Fitzgerald that it was written as early as the spring of 1835, for
in that year Tennyson read it to Fitzgerald and Spedding, "out of a MS.
in a little red book," and again we learn that he repeated some lines of
it at the end of May, 1835, one calm day on Windermere, adding "Not bad
that, Fitz. , is it? " ('Life', i. , 184). It is here represented as the
eleventh book of an Epic, the rest of which had been destroyed, though
Tennyson afterwards incorporated it, adding introductory lines, with
what was virtually to prove an Epic in twelve books, 'The Idylls of the
King'. The substance of the poem is drawn from the third, fourth and
fifth chapters of the twenty-first book of Malory's 'Romance', which is
followed very closely. It is called "an Homeric echo," but the diction
bears a much closer resemblance to that of Virgil than to that of Homer,
though the rhythm is perhaps more Homeric than Virgilian. It is
Tennyson's masterpiece in "the grand style," and is indeed as near
perfection as any work of this kind could be. In spite of its singular
mixture of simplicity, purely Homeric, and artificiality, at times
ultra-Virgilian, the incongruity never shocks, so noble and impressive
is the general effect. The text of 1842 was never subsequently altered
except in the spelling of "mere" and "though" in lines 37, 77, 147, 155,
162, 272, and in the insertion in 1853 of the line:--
"Across the ridge and pac'd beside the mere. "
So all day long the noise of battle roll'd
Among the mountains by the winter sea;
Until King Arthur's table, man by man,
Had fall'n in Lyonness about their Lord,
King Arthur: then, because his wound was deep,
The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,
And bore him to a chapel nigh the field, [1]
A broken chancel with a broken cross,
That stood on a dark strait of barren land.
On one side lay the Ocean, and on one
Lay a great water, and the moon was full.
Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere:
"The sequel of to-day unsolders all
The goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep
They sleep--the men I loved. I think that we
Shall never more, at any future time,
Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,
Walking about the gardens and the halls
Of Camelot, as in the days that were.
I perish by this people which I made,--
Tho' Merlin sware that I should come again
To rule once more--but let what will be, be,
I am so deeply smitten thro' the helm
That without help I cannot last till morn.
Thou therefore take my brand [2] Excalibur,
Which was my pride: for thou rememberest how
In those old days, one summer noon, an arm
Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
Holding the sword--and how I row'd across
And took it, and have worn it, like a king:
And, wheresoever I am sung or told
In aftertime, this also shall be known:
But now delay not: take Excalibur,
And fling him far into the middle mere:
Watch what thou seest, and lightly bring me word. "
To him replied the bold Sir Bedivere:
"It is not meet, Sir King, to leave thee thus,
Aidless, alone, and smitten thro' the helm.
A little thing may harm a wounded man.
Yet I thy hest will all perform at full,
Watch what I see, and lightly bring thee word. "
So saying, from the ruin'd shrine he stept
And in the moon athwart the place of tombs,
Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men,
Old knights, and over them the sea-wind sang
Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He, stepping down
By zig-zag paths, and juts of pointed rock,
Came on the shining levels of the lake.
There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,
And o'er him, drawing it, the winter moon,
Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth
And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:
For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks, [3]
Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth-work
Of subtlest jewellery. He gazed so long
That both his eyes were dazzled, as he stood,
This way and that dividing the swift mind, [4]
In act to throw: but at the last it seem'd
Better to leave Excalibur conceal'd
There in the many-knotted waterflags,
That whistled stiff and dry about the marge.
