"TEARS FROM THE DEPTH OF SOME DIVINE DESPAIR RISE IN THE HEART, AND GATHER TO THE EYES,-(TENNYSON) "TEARS, IDLE TEARS, I KNOW NOT WHAT THEY MEAN."-TENNYSON. THE THREE goddessES. Floated her hair or seemed to float in rest. Sloped downward to her seat from the upper cliff. Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die. It was the deep midnoon: one silvery cloud Had lost his way between the piney sides Naked they came to that smooth-swarded bower, And overhead the wandering ivy and vine, 465 With bunch and berry and flower through and through, O mother Ida, harken ere I die. On the tree-tops a crested peacock lit, And o'er him flowed a golden cloud, and leaned Wherewith to embellish state, "from many a vale In glassy bays among her tallest towers." 46 MAN DREAMS OF FAME WHILE WOMAN WAKES TO LOVE."-TENNYSON. IN LOOKING ON THE HAPPY AUTUMN FIELDS, AND THINKING OF THE DAYS THAT ARE NO MORE."-TENNYSON. 1 AND EVER WIDENING SLOWLY SILENCE ALL. THE LITTLE RIFT WITHIN THE LOVER'S LUTE,-(TENNYSON) 466 IT IS THE Little rift WITHIN THe lute, ALFRED TENNYSON. O mother Ida, harken ere I die : Still she spake on, and still she spake of power, "Which in all action is the end of all; Power fitted to the season; wisdom-bred And throned of wisdom-from all neighbour crowns Alliance and allegiance, till thy hand Fail from the sceptre staff. Such boon from me, Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die. ‘Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die. THAT BY-AND-BY WILL MAKE THE MUSIC MUTE, OR LITTLE PITTED SPECK IN GARNERED FRUIT, THAT ROTTING INWARD SLOWLY MOULDERS ALL."-TENNYSON. "BUT ANY MAN THAT WALKS THE MEAD, IN BUD, OR BLADE, OR BLOOM, MAY FIND, 66 MUSING ON THE LITTLE LIVES OF MEN,-ALFRED TENNYSON) And Paris pondered, and I cried, "O Paris, O mother Ida, many-fountained Ida, Fresh as the foam, new-bathed in Paphian wells, Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die. 467 AND HOW THEY MAR THIS LITTLE BY THEIR FEUDS."-TENNYSON. ACCORDING AS HIS HUMOURS LEAD, A MEANING SUITED TO HIS MIND."-TENNYSON. "IS IT SO TRUE THAT SECOND THOUGHts are best?—(TENNYSON) The herald of her triumph, drawing nigh, As she withdrew into the golden cloud, [From "Poems," library edition, 1872.-"Enone' is akin in spirit to Keats's 'Endymion' and 'Hyperion'; but its verse is more majestic, and its luxuriant pictorial richness more controlled by definite conception, more articulated by fine drawing, than even the latter and greater of Keats's two poems. Gorgeous mountain and figure-painting stand here as the predominant aim, as clearly as in any picture by Titian or Turner; only poetry will not lose her prerogative of speech, and will paint her mountains and her figures in a medium of passion to which the artist upon canvas vainly aspires. Round Ida and its valleys, round Troas and its windy citadel, Enone can pour the enchantment of her memories of love and grief. To her come the naked goddesses-painted as Rubens could not paint them: life, motion, and floating lights-utter celestial music, and grand thoughts ally themselves with splendid pictures."-GEORGE BRIMLEY.] "OH, TO WHAT USES SHALL WE PUT THE WILDWEED-FLOWER THAT SIMPLY BLOWS? AND IS THERE ANY MORAL SHUT WITHIN THE BOSOM OF THE ROSE?"-TENNYSON. B BREAK, BREAK, BREAK. REAK, break, break, On the cold gray stones, O Sea! O well for the fisherman's boy, That he shouts with his sister at play! O well for the sailor lad, That he sings in his boat on the bay! NOT FIRST, AND THIRD, WHICH ARE A RIPER FIRST?"-TENNYSON. "LET THERE BE THISTLES, THERE ARE GRAPES; IF OLD THINGS, THERE ARE NEW; 66 SELF-REVERENCE, SELF-KNOWLEDGE, SELF-CONTROL,- -(TENNYSON) BREAK, BREAK, BREAK. And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill; But O for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still! 469 TEN THOUSAND BROKEN LIGHTS AND SHAPES, YET GLIMPSES OF THE TRUE."-TENNYSON. ["In this lyric the sea stands for nothing specific, but by its perpetual murmur on the shore attunes the soul to the key-notes of sorrow, and preaches the relation of suffering to the infinite. Self-will and lowness cannot live in this contact, and the soul is soothed to calmness and resignation by the lullaby of the great mother."-E. C. TAINSH, A Study of Tennyson, p. 53.] THESE THREE ALONE LEAD LIFE TO SOVEREIGN POWER."-TENNYSON. |