The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Part 10

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

EARLY POEMS:-- To the Queen Claribel: a Melody Lilian Isabel Mariana To----("Clear-headed friend, whose joyful scorn") Madeline Song--The Owl Second Song to the Same Recollections of the Arabian Nights Ode to Memory Song ("A spirit haunts the year's last hours") Adeline A Character The Poet The Poet's Mind The Sea-Fairies The Deserted House The Dying Swan A Dirge Love and Death The Ballad of Oriana Circ.u.mstance The Merman The Mermaid Sonnet to J. M. K.

The Lady of Shalott Mariana in the South Eleanore The Miller's Daughter Fatima *

?none The Sisters To-----("I send you here a sort of allegory") The Palace of Art Lady Clara Vere de Vere The May Queen New Year's Eve Conclusion The Lotos-Eaters Dream of Fair Women Margaret The Blackbird The Death of the Old Year To J. S.

"You ask me, why, tho' ill at ease"

"Of old sat Freedom on the heights"

"Love thou thy land, with love far-brought"

The Goose The Epic Morte d'Arthur The Gardener's Daughter; or, The Pictures Dora Audley Court Walking to the Mail Edwin Morris; or, The Lake St. Simeon Stylites The Talking Oak Love and Duty The Golden Year Ulysses Locksley Hall G.o.diva The Two Voices The Day-Dream:--Prologue The Sleeping Palace The Sleeping Beauty The Arrival The Revival The Departure Moral L'Envoi Epilogue Amphion St. Agnes Sir Galahad Edward Gray Will Waterproofs Lyrical Monologue To----, after reading a Life and Letters To E.L., on his Travels in Greece Lady Clare The Lord of Burleigh Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere: a Fragment A Farewell The Beggar Maid The Vision of Sin "Come not, when I am dead"

The Eagle "Move eastward, happy earth, and leave"

"Break, break, break"

The Poet's Song

APPENDIX.--SUPPRESSED POEMS:--

Elegiacs The "How" and the "Why"

Supposed Confessions The Burial of Love To----("Sainted Juliet! dearest name !") Song ("I' the glooming light") Song ("The lintwhite and the throstlec.o.c.k") Song ("Every day hath its night") Nothing will Die All Things will Die Hero to Leander The Mystic The Gra.s.shopper Love, Pride and Forgetfulness Chorus ("The varied earth, the moving heaven") Lost Hope The Tears of Heaven Love and Sorrow To a Lady Sleeping Sonnet ("Could I outwear my present state of woe") Sonnet ("Though Night hath climbed her peak of highest noon") Sonnet ("Shall the hag Evil die with child of Good") Sonnet ("The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain") Love The Kraken English War Song National Song Dualisms We are Free [Greek: oi rheontes]

"Mine be the strength of spirit, full and free"

To--("All good things have not kept aloof) Buonaparte Sonnet ("Oh, Beauty, pa.s.sing beauty! sweetest Sweet!") The Hesperides Song ("The golden apple, the golden apple, the hallowed fruit") Rosalind Song ("Who can say") Kate Sonnet ("Blow ye the trumpet, gather from afar") Poland To--("As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood") O Darling Room To Christopher North The Skipping Rope Timbuctoo

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE POEMS OF 1842

TO THE QUEEN

This dedication was first prefixed to the seventh edition of these poems in 1851, Tennyson having succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate, 19th Nov., 1850.

Revered, beloved [1]--O you that hold A n.o.bler office upon earth Than arms, or power of brain, or birth Could give the warrior kings of old,

Victoria, [2]--since your Royal grace To one of less desert allows This laurel greener from the brows Of him that utter'd nothing base;

And should your greatness, and the care That yokes with empire, yield you time To make demand of modern rhyme If aught of ancient worth be there;

Then--while [3] a sweeter music wakes, And thro' wild March the throstle calls, Where all about your palace-walls The sun-lit almond-blossom shakes--

Take, Madam, this poor book of song; For tho' the faults were thick as dust In vacant chambers, I could trust Your kindness. [4] May you rule us long.

And leave us rulers of your blood As n.o.ble till the latest day!

May children of our children say, "She wrought her people lasting good; [5]

"Her court was pure; her life serene; G.o.d gave her peace; her land reposed; A thousand claims to reverence closed In her as Mother, Wife and Queen;

"And statesmen at her council met Who knew the seasons, when to take Occasion by the hand, and make The bounds of freedom wider yet [6]

"By shaping some august decree, Which kept her throne unshaken still, Broad-based upon her people's will, [7]

And compa.s.s'd by the inviolate sea."

MARCH, 1851.

[Footnote 1: 1851. Revered Victoria, you that hold.]

[Footnote 2: 1851. I thank you that your Royal grace.]

[Footnote 3: This stanza added in 1853.]

[Footnote 4: 1851. Your sweetness.]

[Footnote 5: In 1851 the following stanza referring to the first Crystal Palace, opened 1st May, 1851, was inserted here:--

She brought a vast design to pa.s.s, When Europe and the scatter'd ends Of our fierce world were mixt as friends And brethren, in her halls of gla.s.s.]

[Footnote 6: 1851. Broader yet.]

[Footnote 7: With this cf. Sh.e.l.ley, 'Ode to Liberty':--

Athens diviner yet Gleam'd with its crest of columns _on the will_ Of man.]

CLARIBEL

A MELODY

First published in 1830.

In 1830 and in 1842 edd. the poem is in one long stanza, with a full stop in 1830 ed. after line 8; 1842 ed. omits the full stop. The name "Claribel" may have been suggested by Spenser ('F. Q.', ii., iv., or Shakespeare, 'Tempest').

1

Where Claribel low-lieth The breezes pause and die, Letting the rose-leaves fall: But the solemn oak-tree sigheth, Thick-leaved, ambrosial, With an ancient melody Of an inward agony, Where Claribel low-lieth.

2

At eve the beetle boometh Athwart the thicket lone: At noon the wild bee [1] hummeth About the moss'd headstone: At midnight the moon cometh, And looketh down alone.