To come and go, and come again, Live long, ere from thy topmost head Long, ere the hateful crow shall tread Live long, nor feel in head or chest Till mellow Death, like some late guest, But when he calls, and thou shalt cease And, laying down an unctuous lease No carved cross-bones, the types of Death, But carved cross-pipes, and, underneath, TO AFTER READING A LIFE AND LETTERS Originally published in the Examiner for 34th March, 1849; then in the sixth edition of the poems, 1850, with the second part of the title and the alterations noted. When reprinted in 1851 one more slight alteration was made. It has not been altered since. The work referred to was Moncton Milne's (afterwards Lord Houghton) Letters and Literary Remains of Keats published in 1848, and the person to whom the poem may have been addressed was Tenny. son's brother Charles, afterwards Charles Tennyson Turner, to the facts of whose life and to whose character it would exactly apply. See Napier, Homes and Haunts of Tennyson, 48-50. But Sir Franklin Lushington tells me that it was most probably addressed to some imaginary person, as neither he nor such of Tennyson's surviving friends as he kindly consulted for me are able to identify the person. You might have won the Poet's name But you have made the wiser choice, A life that moves to gracious ends And you have miss'd the irreverent doom For now the Poet cannot die Nor leave his music as of old, But round him ere he scarce be cold "Proclaim the faults he would not show: Ah, shameless! for he did but sing A song that pleased us from its worth; He gave the people of his best : His worst he kept, his best he gave. My Shakespeare's curse on1 clown and knurr Who will not let his ashes rest! Who make it seem more sweet 2 to be The little life of bank and brier, Than he that warbles long and loud And drops at Glory's temple-gates, 1In Examitur and in 1850. My curse upon the. 2 In Eiamintr. Sweeter serm. For the sentiment cf. Goethe:— Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt Der in den Zweigen wohnet; Das Lied das aus dem Seele dringt 1st Lohn, der reichlich lohnet. —Der S&ngtr. TO E. L., ON HIS TRAVELS IN GREECE This was first printed in 1853. It has not been altered since. The poem was addressed to Edward Lear, the landscape painter, and refers to his travels. Illyrian woodlands, echoing falls Tomohrit,3 Athos, all things fair, With such a pencil, such a pen, And trust me, while I turn'd the page, For me the torrent ever pour'd And glisten'd—here and there alone The broad-limb'd Gods at random thrown A glimmering shoulder under gloom From him that on the mountain lea 1 Cf. Lear's description of Tempe: "It is not a vale, it is a narrow pass, and although extremely beautiful on account of the precipitous rocks on each side, the Peneus flowing deep in the midst between the richest overhanging plane woods, still its character is distinctly that of a ravine."—Journal, 409. 2 The Akrokeraunian walls: the promontory now called Glossa. 3 Tomóhr, Tomorit, or Tomohritt is a lofty mountain in Albania not far from Elbassan. Lear's account of it is very graphic: That calm blue plain with Tomóhr in the midst like an azure island in a boundless sea haunts my mind's eye and varies the present with the past ". LADY CLARE First published 1842. After 1851 no alterations were made. This poem was suggested by Miss Terrier's powerful novel The Inheritance. A comparison with the plot of Miss Ferrier's novel will show with what tact and skill Tennyson has adapted the tale to his ballad. Thomas St. Clair, youngest son of the Earl of Rossville, marries a Miss Sarah Black, a girl of humble and obscure birth. He dies, leaving a widow and as is supposed a daughter, Gertrude, who claim the protection of Lord Rossville, as the child is heiress presumptive to the earldom. On Lord Rossville's death she accordingly becomes Countess of Rossville. She has two lovers, both distant connections, Colonel Delmour and Edward Lyndsay. At last it is discovered that she was not the daughter of Thomas St. Clair and her supposed mother, but of one Marion La Motte and Jacob Leviston, and that Mrs. St. Clair had adopted her when a baby and passed her off as her own child, that she might succeed to the title. Meanwhile Delmour by the death of his elder brother succeeds to the title and estates forfeited by the detected foundling, but instead of acting as Tennyson's Lord Ronald does, he repudiates her and marries a duchess. But her other lover Lyndsay is true to her and marries her. Delmour not long afterwards dies without issue, and Lyndsay succeeds to the title, Gertrude then becoming after all Countess of Rossville. In details Tennyson follows the novel sometimes very closely. Thus the "single rose," the poor dress, the bitter exclamation about her being a beggar born, are from the novel. The 1843 and all editions up to and including 1850 begin with the following stanza and omit stanza 2:— Lord Ronald courted Lady Clare, It was the time when lilies blow, I trow they did not part in scorn: "He does not love me for my birth, In there came old Alice the nurse, Said, "Who was this that went from thee?" "O God be thank'd!" said Alice the nurse, " That all comes round so just and fair: Lord Ronald is heir of all your lands, And you are not the Lady Clare." "Are ye out of your mind, my nurse, my nurse?" Said Lady Clare, "that ye speak so wild"; "As God's above," said Alice the nurse, "I speak the truth: you are my child. "The old Earl's daughter died at my breast; "Falsely, falsely have ye done, O mother," she said, "if this be true. "Nay now, my child," said Alice the nurse, "If I'm a beggar born," she said, "I will speak out, for I dare not lie. Pull off, pull off, the broach1 of gold, 66 And fling the diamond necklace by." Nay now, my child," said Alice the nurse, "But keep the secret all ye can." She said, "Not so: but I will know If there be any faith in man". "Nay now, what faith?" said Alice the nurse, "The man will cleave unto his right." "And he shall have it," the lady replied, "Tho' 2 I should die to-night.' 1 All up to and including 1850. Brooch. |