ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON. 427 



In mosses mixt with violet 



Her cream-white mule his pastern set: 



And fleeter now she skimmed the plains 

 Than she whose elfin prancer springs 

 By night to eery warblings, 

 "When all the glimmering moorland rings 



With jingling bridle-reins. 



" As she fled fast thro' sun and shade, 

 The happy winds upon her play'd, 

 Blowing the ringlet from the braid: 

 She looked so lovely, as she sway'd 



The rein with dainty finger-tips, 

 A man had given all other bliss, 

 And all his worldly worth for this, 

 To waste his whole heart in one kiss 



Upon her perfect lips." 



Compare with this the Lullaby from "The Princess," which 

 derives no interest from narrative, but appeals simply to the ear 

 and the poetic sense : 



" Sweet and low, sweet and low, 



Wind of the western sea, 

 Low, low, breathe and blow, 



Wind of the western sea! 

 Over the rolling waters go, 

 Come from the dying moon, and blow, 



Blow him again to me : 

 While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps. 



" Sleep and rest, sleep and rest, 



Father will come to thee soon; 

 Rest, rest, on mother's breast, 



Father will come to thee soon ; 

 Father will come to his babe in the nest, 

 Silver sails all out of the west 



Under the silver moon ; 

 Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep." 



From the lyrics we pass to an even more important part of 

 Tennyson's work, to what our fathers might have called " Poems 

 of Sentiment and Reflection," to the embodiment of the po 

 social, political, and religious ideas, to his philosophy of Life. 

 Alfred Tennyson was generous in his aspirations for humanity, 

 he was a liberal in the best Bense, a devout Christian, a natural 

 optimist. He believed in progress, with a faith never really 



