TKNXVSON. AI.FK'KD 



735 



- theheavy-blossom'd bower, hangs the hea\\ 

 fruited tree 



Summer i.-les of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres 

 "f sea. 



There iiiethinks would he enjoyment more than in 



this murcli of mind, 

 In the ~iram>hi|i. in ihe railway, in the thoughts 



that shake munkiud. 



Then- the passions cramp'd no longer shall have 



scope and In cat hi ML; space ; 

 I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my 



dusky race. 



Iron-jointed, supple-sinew'd, they shall dive, and 



they shall run, 

 Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hurl their 



lances in the sun ; 



back the parrot's call, and leap the rain- 

 bows of the brooks, 



Not with blinded eyesight poring over miserable 

 books 



Fool, again the dream, the fancy ! but I know my 



words are wild, 

 But I count the gray barbarian lower than the 



Christian child. 



/, to herd with narrow foreheads, vacant of our 



glorious gains. 

 Like a beast with lower pleasures, like a beast with 



lower pains ! 



Mated with a squalid savage what to me were sun 



or clime? 

 I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost flies of 



time 



I that rather held it better men should perish one 



by one, 

 Than that earth should stand at gaze like Joshua's 



in "on in A j a Ion ! 



Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, for- 



ward let us range. 

 Let the great world spin forever down the ringing 



grooves of change. 



Thro' the shadow of the globe we sweep into the 



younger day : 

 Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. 



In " St. Agnes' Eve " Tennyson has embodied 

 the feeling of religious ecstasy with a wonderful 

 delicacy of touch : 



Deep on the convent-roof the snows 



Are sparkling to the moon : 

 My breath to heaven like vapor goes : 



May my soul follow soon ! 

 The shadows of the convent-towers 



Slant down the snowy sward, 

 Still creeping with the creeping hours 



That lead me to my Lord : 

 Make Thou my spirit pure and clear 



As are the frosty skies, 

 Or this first snowdrop of the year 



That in my bosom lies. 



As these white robes are soiled and dark, 



To yonder shining ground : 

 As this pale taper's earthly spark, 



To yonder argent round ; 

 So shows my soul before the Lamb, 



My spirit before Thee ; 

 So in mine earthly house I am, 



To that I hope to be. 



Break up 'li- heaven*. () Lord '. and far, 



Thro' all yon starlight keen, 

 Draw me, thy bride, a glittering star, 



In raiment white and !-. m. 



He lifts me to the troldi-n doors ; 



The flashes come and go ; 

 All heaven bursts her starry floors, 



And straws her lights below, 

 And deepens on and up ! the gates 



Roll back, and far within 

 Forme the Heavenly Bridegroom waits, 



To make me pure of sin. 

 The sabbaths of Eternity, 



One sabbath deep and wide 

 A light upon the shining sea 



The Bridegroom with his bride ! 



" The Two Voices" is perhaps his most meta- 

 physical poem, but the metaphysics are much 

 more strongly as well as more poetically ex- 

 pressed in the " In Memoriam. '' 



" The Princess : A Medley." was first published 

 in 1847, and was much improved in later edi- 

 tions. In this poem he treats the question of 

 woman's rights, or the equality of the sexes. It 

 is chiefly admired for its songs "As through 

 the land, " " Tears, idle tears," " The splendor 

 falls," "Thy voice is heard," "Home they 

 brought her warrior dead," "Sweet and low, 

 " swallow, swallow," and ' Ask me no more." 

 For pure pathos it is doubtful if the " Tears, idle 

 tears " has ever been equaled : 



Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, 

 Tears from' the depth of some divine despair 

 Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, 

 In looking on the happy Autumn-Welds, 

 And thinking of the days that are no more. 



Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, 

 That brings our friends up from the underworld, 

 Sad as the last which reddens over one 

 That sinks with all we love below the verge ; 

 So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more : 



Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns 

 The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds 

 To dying ears, when unto dying eyes 

 The casement slowly grows a glimmering square ; 

 So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. 



Dear as remember'd kisses after death, 

 And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd 

 On lips that are for others ; deep as love, 

 Deep as first love, and wild with all regret ; 

 O Death in Life, the days that are no more. 



In 1850, the same year in which he succeeded 

 Wordsworth as Laureate, Tennyson published 

 (anonymously) his "In Memoriam." an elaborate 

 elegy for his early friend Arthur Henry Hallam, 

 son of the historian, who died in 1833. Hal- 

 lam had shown some ability as a writer, and was 

 betrothed to Tennyson's sister. This work is 

 made up of 129 short poems, written at different 

 times and in various moods through sixteen 

 years. The form of versification is admirably 

 chosen for such an elegy, and almost every reader 

 of poetry has his favorite passages in it. It has 

 furnished many popular quotations, the foremost 

 of which is the stanza : 



This truth came borne with bier and pall. 

 I felt it, when I sorrow 'd most, 

 'T is better to have loved and lost, 



Than never to have loved at all. 



