I knew your brother: his mute dust
I honour and his living worth :
A man more pure and bold 1 and just
Was never born into the earth.

I have not look'd upon you nigh,
Since that dear soul hath fall'n asleep.
Great Nature is more wise than I:
I will not tell you not to weep.

And tho* mine own eyes fill with dew,
Drawn from the spirit thro' the brain,2
I will not even preach to you,

66

Weep, weeping dulls the inward pain".

Let Grief be her own mistress still.
She loveth her own anguish deep
More than nuch pleasure. Let her will
Be done to weep or not to weep.

I will not say

"God's ordinance
Of Death is blown in every wind”;
For that is not a common chance
That takes away a noble mind.

His memory long will live alone

In all our hearts, as mournful light
That broods above the fallen sun,3

And dwells in heaven half the night.

11833. Mild.

2 Cf. Gray's Alcaic stanza on West's death :—

O lacrymarum fons tenero sacros
Ducentium or/us ex animo.

31833. Sunken sun. Altered to present reading, 1843. The image may have been suggested by Henry Vaughan. Beyond the Veil:

Their very memory is fair and bright,

Vain solace! Memory standing near
Cast down her eyes, and in her throat
Her voice seem'd distant, and a tear
Dropt on the letters' as I wrote.

I wrote I know not what. In truth,
How should I soothe you anyway,
Who miss the brother of your youth?
Yet something I did wish to say:

For he too was a friend to me:

Both are my friends, and my true breast
Bleedeth for both; yet it may be
That only 2 silence suiteth best.

Words weaker than your grief would make
Grief more. 'Twere better I should cease;

Although myself could almost take 3

The place of him that sleeps in peace.

Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace:
Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul,
While the stars burn, the moons increase,
And the great ages onward roll.

Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet.
Nothing comes to thee new or strange.

Sleep full of rest from head to feet;

Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.

11833, 1843, 1843. My tablets. This affected phrase was altered to the pre

sent reading in 1845.

21833. Holy. Altered to "only," 1842.

3 1833. Altho' to calm you I would take.

Altered to present reading, 1842.

This is another poem which, though included among those belonging to 1833, was not published till 1842. It is an interesting illustration, like the next poem but one, of Tennyson's political opinions; he was, he said, "of the same politics as Shakespeare, Bacon and every sane man". He was either ignorant of the politics of Shakespeare and Bacon or did himself great injustice by the remark. It would have been more true to say—for all his works illustrate it— that he was of the same politics as Burke. He is here, and in all his poems, a Liberal-Conservative in the proper sense of the term. At the time this trio of poems was written England was passing through the throes which preceded, accompanied and followed the Reform Bill, and the lessons which Tennyson preaches in them were particularly appropriate. He belonged to the Liberal Party rather in relation to social and religious than to political questions. Thus he ardently supported the Anti-slavery Convention and advocated the measure for abolishing subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles, but he was, as a politician, on the side of Canning, Peel and the Duke of Wellington, regarding as they did the new-born democracy with mingled feelings of apprehension and perplexity. His exact attitude is indicated by some verses written about this time published by his son (Life, i., 69-70). If Mr. Aubrey de Vere is correct this and the following poem were occasioned by some popular demonstrations connected with the Reform Bill and its rejection by the House of Lords. See Life of Tennyson, vol. i., appendix.

You ask me, why, tho'1 ill at ease,
Within this region I subsist,
Whose spirits falter in the mist,2
And languish for the purple seas?

It is the land that freemen till,

That sober-suited Freedom chose,

The land, where girt with friends or foes
A man may speak the thing he will;

A land of settled government,

A land of just and old renown,

Where Freedom broadens slowly down
From precedent to precedent:

Where faction seldom gathers head,

But by degrees to fulness wrought,
The strength of some diffusive thought
Hath time and space to work and spread.

Should banded unions persecute
Opinion, and induce a time

When single thought is civil crime,
And individual freedom mute;

1 1842 and 1851. Though.

2 1843 to 1843. Whose spirits fail within the mist.

Altered to present reading in 1845.

Tho' Power should make from land to land 1
The name of Britain trebly great—
Tho' every channel 2 of the State
Should almost choke with golden sand—

Yet waft me from the harbour-mouth,
Wild wind! I seek a warmer sky,
And I will see before I die

The palms and temples of the South.

First published in 1843, but it seems to have been written in 1834. The fourth and fifth stanzas are given in a postscript of a letter from Tennyson to James Spedding, dated 1834.

Of old sat Freedom on the heights,

The thunders breaking at her feet:
Above her shook the starry lights:
She heard the torrents meet.

There in her place3 she did rejoice,

Self-gather'd in her prophet-mind,
But fragments of her mighty voice
Came rolling on the wind.

Then stept she down thro' town and field
To mingle with the human race,
And part by part to men reveal'd
The fullness of her face—

Grave mother of majestic works,
From her isle-altar gazing down,

Who, God-like, grasps the triple forks,4
And, King-like, wears the crown :

Her open eyes desire the truth.

The wisdom of a thousand years
Is in them. May perpetual youth
Keep dry their light from tears;

1 All editions up to and including 1851. Though Power, etc.

2 1842-1850. Though every channel.

3 1843 to 1850 inclusive. Within her place. Altered to present reading, 1850. "The "trisulci ignes" or "trisulca tela " of the Roman poets.

That her fair form may stand and shine,
Make bright our days and light our dreams,
Turning to scorn with lips divine

The falsehood of extremes !

First published in 1843.

This poem had been written by 1834, for Tennyson sends it in a letter dated that year to James Spedding (see Life, i., 173).

Love thou thy land, with love far-brought
From out the storied Past, and used
Within the Present, but transfused
Thro' future time by power of thought.

True love turn'd round on fixed poles,
Love, that endures not sordid ends,
For English natures, freemen, friends,
Thy brothers and immortal souls.

But pamper not a hasty time,

Nor feed with crude imaginings

The herd, wild hearts and feeble wings,
That every sophister can lime.

Deliver not the tasks of might

To weakness, neither hide the ray

From those, not blind, who wait for day,
Tho'1 sitting girt with doubtful light.

Make knowledge2 circle with the winds
But let her herald, Reverence, fly
Before her to whatever sky
Bear seed of men and growth of minds.

};

Watch what main-currents draw the years:
Cut Prejudice against the grain :
But gentle words are always gain:
Regard the weakness of thy peers:

11842 and so till 1851. Though.

21842. Knowledge is spelt with a capital K.

31843. Or growth.