TENNYSON, ALFRED. 



729 



mii-ieal-iiietallie, lit for loud laughter and 

 pin-. -ini: wail. :nnl all tluit may lie between: speech 

 and -peculation five ami pleiitemis. I do not meet 

 in t)ie-e late 'lerudes such company over a pipe. 



Mr. Wemyss Reid, in his life of Lord Hough- 



JfANOR HOUSE, SOXERSBY : "THE MOATED GRANGE. 



ton, gives the following story of the granting of 

 a pension to Tennyson, which Mr. Milnes was 

 expected to secure. He was one day visiting 

 Carlyle, when the latter said : " Richard Milnes, 

 when are you going to get that pension for Alfred 

 Tennyson ? " " My dear Carlyle," replied Milnes, 

 " the thing is not so easy as you suppose. What 

 will my constituents say if I do get a pension for 

 Tennyson ? They know nothing about him or his 

 poetry, and they will probably think he is some 

 poor relation of my own. and that the whole 

 affair is a job." " Richard Milnes," answered 

 Carlyle, " on the day of judgment, when the 

 Lord asks you why you didn't get that pension 

 for Alfred Tennyson, it will not do to lay the 

 blame on your constituents; it is you that will 

 be damned." Peel was prime minister, and after 

 a time asked Lord Houghton whether he should 

 L, r i\e a pension of a thousand dollars a year to 

 Tennyson or to Sheridan Knowles. adding, "I 

 don't know either of them." "What," said Milnes, 

 "have you never seen the name of Knowles on a 

 play-bill?" "No." " And never read one poem 

 of Tennyson's?" "No." Milnes sent him 

 " Locksley Hall " and " Ulysses," with a letter in 

 which he gave it as his opinion that if the pen- 

 sion were a charitable bestowment, it should be 

 given to Knowles, but if it were to be used in 

 the interests of English literature, then certainly 

 Tennyson should receive it. Peel gave it to 

 Tennyson. 



While in college, in 1820, Tennyson won the 

 Chancellor's medal for a poem entitled "Tim- 

 buctoo," and in a college paper, called "The 

 Snob," Thackeray published a parody of it. 



Two years previous to the writing of this poem 

 ii lit lie volume had appeared bearing the title 

 "Poems by Two Brothers," the work of Charles 

 anil Alfred Tennyson. Coleridge preferred the 

 elder brother's productions, and Wordsworth 

 told Emerson that he had been of that impres- 

 sion. In 1845 Wordsworth wrote to Prof. Henry 

 Reed : " I saw Tennyson in London several 



times. lie is decidedly tho first of our living 

 poets, and 1 hope will give the world still Letter 

 things. You will be pleased to hear that he 

 expressed, in the strongest terms, his gratitude 

 to my writings." 



In 1830 appeared Tennyson's next 

 work, " Poems, Chiefly Lyrical." In 

 ^ later editions he omitted some of these 

 poems, which he once more included in 

 still later issues, with the comment : 

 , .- " " The Ppems which follow include all 

 those winch have been omitted by the 

 author from his latest revised editions, 

 or never acknowledged by him. They 

 are here printed, because, although 

 unsanctioned by Mr. Tennyson, they 

 have recently been collected from vari- 

 ous sources, and printed in America." 

 In that little volume may be seen the 

 promise of much that is best in the 

 finished work of the great poet. The 

 most notable instance is the suggestion 

 of the " Lotos-Eaters," to be found in 

 the " Sea-Fairies" : 



Slow sail'd the weary mariners and saw, 

 Betwixt the green brink and the running 



foam, 

 Sweet faces, rounded arms, and bosoms 



prest 



To little harps of gold ; and while they mused, 

 Whispering to each other half in fear, 

 Shrill music reach'd them on the middle sea. 



TENNYSON'S HOUSB AT TWICKENHAM. 



Whither away, whither away, whither away ? fly no 



more. 

 Whither away from the high green field, and the 



happy blossoming shore ? 



