Poetical allusions Rogers, Tennyson 1 7 5 



Rogers, in his Pleasures of Memory 1 speaks of 



' The churchyard yews round which his fathers sleep ' ; 

 and in Human Life 2 the following passage oc- 

 curs : 



* Then he pursues 



The pathway leading through the ancient yews 

 Not unattended.' 



In the poems of Lord Tennyson, and especially in 

 In Memoriam, the yew is frequently mentioned with 

 that minute and accurate observation in which he 

 transcends all other poets. But he, the truest inter- 

 preter of Nature in all her aspects, has not escaped 

 the tendency to regard the tree in its gloomy aspect, 

 as being associated with the cemetery. This was to 

 be expected in such a poem as In Memoriam ; but 

 how beautiful are some of the touches with which he 

 depicts it ! Thus in Stanza xi., beginning ' Old yew 

 that graspest at the stones,' he goes on to say : 



* The seasons bring the flower again, 

 And bring the firstling to the flock, 

 And in the dusk of thee, the clock 

 Beats out the little lives of men. 



O, not for thee the glow, the bloom, 



Who changest not in any gale, 



Nor branding summer suns avail 

 To touch thy thousand years of gloom. 



And gazing on thee, sullen tree, 



Sick for thy stubborn hardihood, 



I seem to fail from out my blood 

 And grow incorporate into thee.' 



1 Lond., Moxon, 1851, p. 15. 2 Ibid., p. 84. 



