through the medium of a mirror, because a curse would fall upon her
if she ever looked through the window. She fell in love with the
reflection of sir Lancelot as he passed towards Camelot, and, risking
the curse, allowed a boat to carry her down stream in the same
direction. She presently arrived at Camelot--a corpse. An Italian
romance upon the _Donna di Scalotta_ is said to have suggested this
poem.--Palgrave’s _Lyric Poems of Tennyson_.
LEONINE ELEGIACS.
In praise of ‘sweet Rosalind.’
LETTERS, THE.
Six stanzas in which the poet tells the story of a man and woman,
formerly affianced, separated by slanders. The woman returns his
letters, but he replies with such a burst of invective against her
whole sex, that he frightens her into a reconciliation that ends in
marriage.
LILIAN.
Four stanzas in which the poet praises ‘Airy, fairy Lilian.’
LITERARY SQUABBLES.
A short lament that such things as petty strife between literary men
should exist.
LOCKSLEY HALL.
The soliloquy of a rejected lover. He recounts the incidents of his
courtship, the ambitions of his youth, and the plans he has formed
to induce forgetfulness of his unhappy love. These are rejected, and
he leaves Locksley Hall--the scene of his courtship--with a noble
resolution to live his life worthily.
LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS AFTER.
A sequel to _Locksley Hall_. The young lover has now become an old man
and the changes wrought by age are emphasized by the poet.
LORD OF BURLEIGH.
The story of the marriage of a village girl with the Lord of Burleigh
and of her subsequent death from the effects of
‘the burthen of an honour
Unto which she was not born.’
LOTOS-EATERS, THE.
Some mariners find an enchanted isle ‘In which it seemed always
afternoon.’ Bewitched by the magic lotos plant, they grow weary of
wandering and declare that they ‘will no longer roam.’ The poem is
founded on _Odyssey_ ix. 82 _seq._
LOVE AND DEATH.
A few lines in which the poet recounts the meeting of Love and Death
and the former’s declaration--
‘--I shall reign for ever over all.’
LOVE AND DUTY.
A blank verse poem. Two lovers, parted by their sense of duty,
contemplate a lonely future with a faint hope of love’s fulfilment in
some future age.
LOVER’S TALE, THE.
_Argument._ Julian, whose cousin and foster-sister Camilla, has been
wedded to his friend and rival Lionel, endeavours to relate the story
of his own love for her and the strange sequel. He speaks of having
been haunted by a vision and the sound of bells tolling for a funeral,
and at last ringing for a marriage; but he breaks away overcome, as he
approaches the event, and a witness to it completes the tale in the
_Golden Supper_. Eleven months after her marriage to Lionel, Camilla,
supposedly dead, is borne to the vault. Julian, going for a last
farewell to his cousin, finds her alive. After some time has passed he
gives a great feast, at which he contrives the meeting of Lionel and
the wife he had thought dead.
LOVE THOU THY LAND.
An exhortation in the metre of _In Memoriam_ to a wise love of England.
LUCRETIUS.
Lucilla, wife of Lucretius, dissatisfied with her husband’s attitude
towards herself, bought a love-philtre and mingled it with his drink.
It, however, clouded his brain with insane fancies, and in a fit of
madness he committed suicide, to the despair of his repentant wife.
MADELINE.
Three stanzas in praise of ‘Ever varying Madeline.’
MAKING OF MAN, THE.
Two stanzas in which the poet expresses a belief in the--as yet
incompleted--evolution of man.
MARGARET.
Five stanzas in praise of ‘Sweet pale Margaret.’
MARIANA.
A poem in which the forlorn state of Mariana in waiting for her
faithless lover is described. The character and circumstance are taken
from Shakespeare’s _Measure for Measure_.
MARIANA IN THE SOUTH.
Another description of the sad betrothed of the faithless Angelo in
_Measure for Measure_.
MAUD: A MONODRAMA.
A morbid man grows to love Maud the playmate of his youth. She, too,
loves him. But he quarrels with her brother, she dies and he goes away.
After her death, he is ill and for a time loses his reason, and fancies
himself dead. He at length comes to a better frame of mind and finds
consolation in fighting for his country. Part of the poem--the verses
beginning ‘Come into the garden, Maud’--has been set to music and is
well-known as a song.
MAY QUEEN, THE.
A poem in three parts. In the first a young girl requests her mother to
call her early in the morning of may-day for she is to be may-queen. In
the second part--called _New Year’s Eve_--the former may-queen supposes
herself to be dying, and bids farewell to her mother with many regrets
for the happy life she leaves. In the _Conclusion_, however, she is
still alive though it is spring time again. She thinks that her death
really is near and declares herself glad to go where
‘--the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.’
MECHANOPHILUS.
A short poem written in the time of the first railways. The poet
marvels at present invention and anticipates great things to come.
MERLIN AND THE GLEAM.
Merlin speaks, though all his life he has had for guidance the gleam--a
lodestar revealed to him by the great magician and prophet who has
taught him his Art.
MERMAID, THE.
Three stanzas, descriptive of an imaginary mermaid loved by many mermen
and married by a sea-king.
MERMAN, THE.
The poet’s idea, expressed in a poem of three stanzas, of the merry
life of a merman under the sea.
MILLER’S DAUGHTER, THE.
A man happily married to a miller’s daughter goes through his former
life in retrospect with his wife--now growing old with him. He says
that his life has been so happy that
‘Would God renew me from my birth
I’d almost live my life again.’
MILTON.
An experiment in _Alcaics_. The poet praises Milton in glowing words.
MINE BE THE STRENGTH OF SPIRIT.
A sonnet expressing the poet’s desire for a spiritual strength
corresponding with the tremendous strength of a river in the physical
world.
MINNIE AND WINNIE.
A ‘child-song’ beginning--
‘Minnie and Winnie
Slept in a shell.’
and ending with--
‘Wake, little ladies,
The sun is aloft!’
MONTENEGRO.
A sonnet to Montenegro, which is thus addressed--
‘O smallest among peoples! rough rock-throne
Of Freedom!’
MORTE D’ARTHUR.
A beautiful description in blank verse of the mysterious passing and
last words of the British hero-king.
MOVE EASTWARD, HAPPY EARTH.
A fragment in which the poet exhorts the earth to move eastward more
quickly in order that his wedding day may come the sooner.
MY LIFE IS FULL OF WEARY DAYS.
A dying man bids farewell to his friend and leaves the last request--
‘Come only, when the days are still,
And at my headstone whisper low,
And tell me if the woodbines blow.’
NORTHERN COBBLER.
A dialect poem in which the Northern Cobbler tells a friend the story
of how he cured himself of drunkenness.
NORTHERN FARMER, OLD STYLE.
A poem in dialect. A northern farmer who is failing, has been visited
by doctor and parson and is equally scornful of both. He reviews his
life and decides to disregard the doctor and take his beer as usual.
The poem was suggested by a story told to the poet by his great-uncle
of a Lincolnshire farm-bailiff, who on his death-bed said: ‘God
A’mighty little knows what He’s aboot, a-takin’ me, an’ ’Squire ’ll be
so mad an’ all!’
NORTHERN FARMER, NEW STYLE.
A dialect poem in which a more modern northern farmer gives his son
advice as to marriage--
‘Doänt thou marry for munny, but goä wheer munny is!’
The poem was suggested by the remark of a rich neighbour, ‘When
I canters my ’erse along the ramper I ’ears _proputty, proputty,
proputty_.’
NOTHING WILL DIE.
One of the poet’s earlier efforts in which he declares that though the
world may change yet nothing will die.
OAK, THE.
Three short stanzas in which the poet exhorts his readers to imitate in
their own lives the stages in the life of an oak tree.
ODE ON THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
A beautiful funeral ode, on the death of the great duke. The poet
expresses an ‘Empire’s lamentation,’ recounts the great deeds and fine
qualities of the duke and ends with the prayer
‘God accept him, Christ receive him.’
ODE SUNG AT THE OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.
An Ode written for the opening of the Exhibition. The poet regrets
that the Prince Consort--upon whose suggestion the Exhibition was
founded--had succumbed to an attack of typhoid fever, and foreshadows
the time when the ‘arts of peace’ shall have entirely superseded for
all time the ‘works of war.’
ODE TO MEMORY.
An invocation to Memory which the poet personifies as a friend with
whom--
‘to live alone
Were how much better than to own
A crown, a sceptre, and a throne!’
ŒNONE.
The very beautiful lament of the nymph Œnone, deserted by her lover,
the shepherd-prince, Paris. She relates the story of the Three
Goddesses and Paris’s judgment in favour of Aphroditè and of the
consequent love of Paris for Helen of Troy. Œnone ends her tragic story
with the declaration
‘That, wheresoe’er I am by night and day,
All earth and air seem only burning fire.’
OF OLD SAT FREEDOM ON THE HEIGHTS.
A five stanza poem in which Freedom is described, personified as
‘Grave mother of majestic works.’
ON A MOURNER.
A poem in seven stanzas in which the poet describes the ways in which
Religion and Nature combine to console a mourner.
ON ONE WHO AFFECTED AN EFFEMINATE MANNER.
Four lines, the gist of which seems to be--‘man woman is not woman man.’
ON THE JUBILEE OF QUEEN VICTORIA.
Eleven stanzas in which the poet recounts the glories of the Queen and
of her reign, and ends with a forecast of a happy future.
ON TRANSLATIONS OF HOMER.
An experiment in _Hexameters and Pentameters_.
OPENING OF THE INDIAN AND COLONIAL EXHIBITION BY THE QUEEN.
Lines written by the poet, as Laureate, for the royal opening of the
above Exhibition.
OWD ROÄ.
An old native of the North of England tells his son--in dialect--the
story of the way in which ‘old Rover’ saved his (the son’s) life in
a fire. The grateful father declares that his intention is ‘to maäke
’is owd aäge as ’appy’ as he possibly can. ‘Owd Roä’ is the northern
version for Old Rover. The poem is the poet’s version of a report that
he had read in a newspaper about a black retriever which saved a child
from a burning house.
OWL, THE.
A song in two stanzas addressed to a white owl who ‘in the belfry sits.’
PALACE OF ART, THE.
‘A sort of allegory’ in which the poet tells the story of a gifted soul
who had a passion for Beauty _que_ beauty--‘Art for Art’s sake.’ She
dwells for some time secure in a palace of perfect beauty but is at
length cast out to bemoan her error in excluding Love from her scheme
of life.
PARNASSUS.
A description in three stanzas of the Mountain of the Gods. The poem is
prefaced by a quotation from Horace.
PLAY, THE.
A quatrain descriptive of the gradual unwinding of the plot of a drama.
POET, THE.
A short poem setting forth the mission of a Poet.
POET’S MIND, THE.
Two stanzas, beginning--
‘Vex not thou the poet’s mind
With thy shallow wit:
The poet goes on to describe the nature of a poet’s mind and warns off
all alien spirits from what he declares is ‘holy ground.’
POET’S SONG, THE.
Two stanzas in which the effect of the song of a poet on birds and
beasts is described.
POETS AND CRITICS.
An exhortation to poets bidding them disregard critics and
‘Hold thine own, and work thy will!’
In two stanzas.
POETS AND THEIR BIBLIOGRAPHIES.
Tennyson congratulates the ancient poets that they lived
‘Before the Love of Letters, overdone,
Had swampt the sacred poets with themselves.’
POLAND.
An early sonnet expressing a passionate sympathy with the woes of
Poland.
POLITICS.
A short poem of a single stanza addressed to
‘--you that drive, and know your Craft,’
_i.e._, politicians, exhorting them not to be swayed by the cries of
the multitude.
PREFATORY POEM TO MY BROTHER’S SONNETS.
A poem written as a preface to the dead poet’s dead brother’s sonnets.
It contains tender memories of the dead and earnest hopes that the
living poet may follow the example of the dead one.
PREFATORY SONNET TO THE ‘NINETEENTH CENTURY.’
A sonnet as described in the title.
PRINCESS, THE: A MEDLEY.
A story in blank verse--interspersed with lyrics of great beauty--of
a certain princess Ida ‘proxy wedded’ in infancy to a neighbouring
prince. The princess however, on attaining marriageable age, elects to
found a college for women from which men are rigidly excluded. To this
house of learning the prince and his two friends gain access disguised
as girls, would-be students. After many amusing adventures, the sex of
the three friends is discovered and the prince woos and weds Ida after
all.
PROGRESS OF SPRING.
A poem in nine stanzas describing the gradual coming of Spring to its
full perfection.
PROLOGUE TO GENERAL HAMLEY.
Lines addressed to Sir Edward Hamley as a prologue to _The Charge of
the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava_. The short poem is descriptive of the
visit of General Hamley to Aldworth and the fine autumnal view from
that place.
PROMISE OF MAY, THE.
A play described as a ‘Village Tragedy.’ The hero--a selfish
libertine--among other wickednesses, seduces and then deserts a
village girl. After many years he returns to the scene of his crime,
determined to make reparation by marrying the surviving elder sister,
and rescue her old father from ruin. But the girl whom he had betrayed
long ago appears, and with her dying forgiveness, awakes in her seducer
a true repentance, such as he had not felt before. The magnanimity of
the father completes his moral salvation, and he quits the scene to
make expiation by lifelong contrition.
QUEEN MARY.
A five-act play in blank verse, setting forth the tragedy of the
reign of Mary Tudor, of her bigoted Roman Catholicism, of her piteous
childless marriage with Philip of Spain, and of her painful illness and
final death. The tragedy ends with the accession of Elizabeth.
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS.
An early poem in which the poet describes the imaginary adventures of a
boy after reading the _Arabian Nights_.
REQUIESCAT.
Two quatrains in memory of a woman who died while young. The poet is
sure that
‘Her peaceful being slowly passes by
To some more perfect peace.’
REVENGE, THE.
A stirring ‘Ballad of the Fleet,’ in which the poet tells the story of
Sir Richard Grenville’s single-handed achievement, when his flagship,
the little ‘Revenge,’ fought a fleet of fifty-three Spanish galleons
for a day and a night before the death from wounds of the heroic Sir
Richard, with these words on his lips--
‘I have fought for Queen and Faith like a valiant man and true;
I have only done my duty as a man is bound to do:
With a joyful spirit I Sir Richard Grenville die!’
The materials of this ballad were drawn from a ‘Report’ of the fight by
Sir Walter Raleigh.
RIFLEMEN FORM!
A recruiting song written to encourage the volunteer movement, before
it was properly started.
RING, THE.
A blank verse poem in the form of a conversation between father and
daughter on the latter’s wedding morning. The father gives his child
the ring which had belonged to her dead mother, and tells the legend
which endowed it with certain magic powers. He then relates the full
story of the ring’s effect in his own life and that of his daughter’s
mother and stepmother.
RIZPAH.
A poem in seventeen stanzas, in which a criminal’s mother, on her
deathbed, tells a woman the story of her son’s crime, his death by
hanging and her own theft of his bones in order to bury them in holy
ground. She ends with a confident trust in God’s mercy--
‘--He means me I’m sure to be happy with Willy, I know not where.’
The poem was suggested by a story, which appeared in a magazine
entitled _Old Brighton_, of a young man named Rooke who was hanged
in chains for robbing the mail in the eighteenth century. ‘When the
elements had caused the clothes and flesh to decay, his aged mother,
night after night, in all weathers, and the more tempestuous the
weather the more frequent the visits, made a sacred pilgrimage to
the lonely spot on the Downs, and it was noticed that on her return
she always brought something away with her in her apron. Upon being
watched, it was discovered that the bones of the hanging man were the
objects of her search, and as the wind and rain scattered them on the
ground she conveyed them to her home. There she kept them, and, when
the gibbet was stripped of its horrid burden, in the dead silence of
the night she interred them in the hallowed enclosure of Old Shoreham
Churchyard.’
ROMNEY’S REMORSE.
Romney, in his youth, was told that ‘wife and children drag an artist
down,’ so he deserted his young wife and child. In this poem the dying
Romney expresses his remorse and implores the forgiveness of the wife,
who heaps coals of fire upon his head by nursing him when he comes to
her in his last illness.
ROSALIND.
A song to Rosalind--whom the poet likens to a bright-eyed falcon--in
three stanzas.
ROSES ON THE TERRACE.
The sight of the roses on the terrace brings to the poet memories of a
courtship fifty years old.
SAILOR BOY.
A song of a boy who went to sea in obedience to his irresistible
desire, and in spite of all ‘danger of the roaring sea.’
ST. AGNES’ EVE.
A beautiful poem in three stanzas. The young virgin-martyr, St. Agnes,
soliloquizes on the eve of her death.
ST. SIMEON STYLITES.
The Saint, who spent ‘thrice ten years’ on the top of a column to
expiate his sins, in this poem makes his last prayer to God.
ST. TELEMACHUS.
The story, in blank verse, of an heroic man, who in the time of
gladiatorial combats in Rome, came from the East to stop these
murderous exhibitions. He was stoned to death, for daring to enter
the arena to stop the people’s pleasure. But the emperor forbade such
combats for the future.
SEA DREAMS.
A narrative in blank verse. A man--bitter at the loss of money--his
wife and infant daughter go to stay at the sea-side. The man and
wife dream of the coast, wake, recount their dreams, and the man is
prevailed upon to forgive a preacher of the town, against whom he bore
a grudge, but who has died suddenly. The slumber song ‘What does little
birdie say’ occurs in the poem.
SEA-FAIRIES.
A short poem in which the poet describes the legendary syrens of the
sea and their enchanted singing which lured mariners on to dangerous
rocks. The theme is taken from Homer.
SILENT VOICES, THE.
The poet beseeches the ‘silent voices’ of the dead to urge him
forward--‘On! and always on!’--not drag him back.
SIR GALAHAD.
A short poem in which king Arthur’s youngest and purest knight
describes himself and his quest for the Holy Grail.
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.
Lines on the cenotaph in Westminster Abbey. The poet praises the
‘heroic sailor-soul’ of the great Arctic explorer.
SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, LORD COBHAM.
Soliloquy of Lord Cobham--one of the earliest protestants--who was
burnt for heresy on Christmas Day, 1417.
SIR LAUNCELOT AND QUEEN GUINEVERE.
A fragment--a description of king Arthur’s Queen and her lover, Sir
Launcelot, as they ride through the woods in Spring.
SISTERS, THE.
A short poem. One of two sisters is seduced by an earl, and after death
is avenged by the death of the earl at the hands of the surviving
sister.
SISTERS, THE (EVELYN AND EDITH).
A narrative in blank verse. A man tells the story of his love for two
sisters. He married one but was never able to make up his mind which
he cared for most. His wife was alienated from him by hearing of his
former wooing of her sister--since dead.
SNOWDROP, THE.
A single stanza in which the poet welcomes the first appearance of the
‘February fair maid.’
SONNET TO----.
The poet here seems to believe in a former existence, for he writes in
this sonnet to a friend that at the first meeting--
‘Methought that I had often met with you,
And either lived in either’s heart and speech.’
SPECIMEN OF A TRANSLATION OF THE ILIAD IN BLANK VERSE.
Translation into stirring blank verse of _Iliad_ viii. 542-561.
SPINSTER’S SWEET-ARTS, THE.
A dialect poem. The soliloquy of an ‘old maid’ who has named her cats
after her one-time sweethearts. She speaks to the cats as though they
were indeed the men, and reminds them of her young days of courtship.
SPIRIT HAUNTS THE YEAR’S LAST HOURS, A.
A song in two stanzas in which the poet laments the passing of the old
year.
SPITEFUL LETTER, THE.
The soliloquy of a poet on receiving a ‘Spiteful Letter’ from a jealous
fellow-poet.
SUPPOSED CONFESSIONS OF A SECOND-RATE SENSITIVE MIND.
Morbid, self-centred reflections about the relation of the soul to God.
An early poem.
TALKING OAK, THE.
A youthful poet obtains an account of the doings--in his absence--of
the girl he loves from an oak gifted with speech. In return for the
information he vows to honour the oak in prose and rhyme and make for
his bride a chaplet of oak-leaves. A playful narrative in quatrains.
THIRD OF FEBRUARY, 1852.
Lines written on the political situation at this time. The poet
regrets with scorn the suggestion of the House of Lords that English
politicians should curb their ‘honest censure’ in order to placate
France, who, at this time, was regarded as somewhat of a menace to
England.
THROSTLE, THE.
A short set of verses in which the poet sets words to the music of the
song-thrush and hails the bird as a ‘wild little poet.’
TIRESIAS.
Tiresias, as a young man, had looked upon Pallas Athene as she came
from the bath. He was blind from that time, but also gifted with a
fatal gift of prophecy to which none would give ear. In this poem
the old and dying Tiresias tells his son the story of his life, and
prophesies the ruin of Thebes unless the young man will fight bravely
for the city of his birth. The poem was suggested by the _Phœnissæ_ of
Euripides.
TITHONUS.
A soliloquy in blank verse, in which Tithonus regrets bitterly the
irrevocable gift of immortality bestowed on him by the gods. The story
is told in the Homeric _Hymn_ to _Aphroditè_.
TO ALFRED TENNYSON, MY GRANDSON.
Lines written to ‘golden-hair’d Ally,’ grandson and namesake of the
poet, who is addressed as a ‘Glorious poet who never hast written a
line.’
TO DANTE.
Lines written at request of the Florentines. The poet casts at Dante’s
feet his tribute of verse.
TO E. FITZGERALD.
Lines written on the death of Edward Fitzgerald, an old and close
friend of the poet. In these lines Tennyson introduces a hope of
eternal life into his sadness at his friend’s death.
TO E. L., ON HIS TRAVELS IN GREECE.
Lines to a friend who had apparently sent the poet vivid accounts of
Greece, for Tennyson declares himself to be transported in spirit to
the Greece of the Golden Age. ‘E.L.’ was Edmund Lushington, who married
Tennyson’s sister.
TO H.R.H. PRINCESS BEATRICE.
Lines written on the marriage of princess Beatrice, daughter of queen
Victoria. The poet rejoices that the princess’s marriage will not
entirely separate her from her widowed mother.
TO J. M. K.
A sonnet written to a ‘soldier priest.’
TO J. S.
Lines written to a friend on the death of a brother, who was also a
friend of the poet.
TO MARY BOYLE.
Lines written to accompany a copy of _The Progress of Spring_, sent by
the poet to induce his friend to leave London for his own country home.
TOMORROW.
A narrative poem. An old woman recognizes the body of a young man laid
in an Irish churchyard as that of the lover of her girlhood days. The
man had been lost in a peat bog, and the peat had preserved the body
perfectly.
TO ONE WHO RAN DOWN THE ENGLISH.
Four lines in which the poet expresses his hope that the fears of one
who depreciated the English may prove false.
TO PROFESSOR JEBB.
Three stanzas dedicating _Demeter and Persephone_ to Professor Jebb.
TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.
Lines to the ‘Patriot Statesman’ in which the poet urges wisdom,
foresight and courage.
TO THE MARQUIS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA.
Viceroy of India. The poet praises the virtues of the marquis and
mourns for Lionel Tennyson, who died in India, and whose memory brought
to the poet affectionate memories of lord Dufferin.
TO THE MASTER OF BALLIOL.
Lines written to dedicate _The Death of Œnone_ to the Master of Balliol.
TO THE PRINCESS FREDERICA OF HANOVER ON HER MARRIAGE.
A marriage blessing in which the poet assures the Princess that her
dead father’s blessing is upon her.
TO THE QUEEN. I.
A Dedication to queen Victoria of the poet’s collected poems--‘this
poor book of song.’ The poem was written on the occasion of Tennyson’s
appointment as Poet Laureate, 1850.
TO THE QUEEN. II.