"All the windy ways of men
Are but _dust_ that rises up,
And is lightly laid again."
Also in Poem LXXI., 3.
"the _dust_ of change."
[51] Shakespeare says,--"Till the diminution of space had pointed him
sharp as my needle."--_Cymbeline_, Act i., s. 4.
Chaucer says,
"And all the world as to mine eye
No more seemed than a prike."
_Temple of Fame._
[52] "The Poet Laureate has written his own song on the hearts of his
countrymen that can never die. Time is powerless against him," said Mr.
Gladstone, in returning thanks at Kirkwall for himself and Mr. Tennyson.
To both of whom the freedom of the borough was presented, on the occasion
of their visit--13 Sept., 1883.
[53] This term is Shakespearean,
"What devil was't
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind."
_Hamlet_, Act iii., s. 4.
[54] A younger sister of Lady Tennyson.
[55] Their scholarly father gave them their first classical training. He
was a strict tutor, and would make them repeat some odes of Horace before
breakfast.
[56] In "The Two Voices" we find the idea that man may pass "from state to
state," and forget the one he leaves behind:
"As old mythologies relate,
Some draught of Lethe might await
The slipping thro' from state to state."
[57] Miss Emily Tennyson eventually married a naval officer, Captain
Jesse.
[58] In this Poem occurs the line
"Arrive at last the blessed goal."
"Arrive" is thus made an active verb: but there are good authorities for
this use, which has the meaning of "attain," or "reach."
"But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Caesar cried, Help me, Cassius, or I sink."
_Julius Caesar_, Act i., s. 2.
"I mean, my lords, those powers that the queen
Hath raised in Gallia have arrived our coast."
_3 Henry VI._, Act v., s. 3.
"Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive
The happy isle."
_Paradise Lost_, B. II., l. 409.
[59] This Poem was written "through a course of years," and during that
long period the author was devotedly attached to the lady whom he
ultimately married, but they were not allowed to meet. May not this
separation have tinctured, with double sadness, this wonderful elegy in
memory of his friend? Lord Tennyson's marriage, and the first publication
of "In Memoriam," both occurred in 1850.
[60]
"all things rare
That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems."