A DIRGE First printed in 1830. 1 Now is done thy long day's work; Shadows of the silver birk1 Sweep the green that folds thy grave. 2 Thee nor carketh 2 care nor slander; Light and shadow ever wander 3 Thou wilt not turn upon thy bed; Thou wilt never raise thine head 4 Crocodiles wept tears for thee; Drip sweeter dews than traitor's tear. 1 Still used in the north of England for "birch". 2 Carketh. Here used transitively, "troubles," though in Old English it is generally intransitive, meaning to be careful or thoughtful; it is from the AngloSaxon Carton; it became obsolete in the seventeenth century. The substantive cark, trouble or anxiety, is generally in Old English coupled with "' care". Rain makes music in the tree 5 Round thee blow, self-pleached ' deep, These in every shower creep. Thro' the green that folds thy grave. 1 Self-pleached, self-entangled or intertwined. Cf, Shakespeare, "pleached bower," Much Ado, iii., i., 7. 2i8ao. "Long purples," thus marking that the phrase is borrowed from Shakespeare, Hamlet, iv., vii., 169:— and long purples That liberal shepherds give a grosser name. It is the purple-flowered orchis, orchis mascula. 31830. Through. 4 Balm cricket, the tree cricket; balm is a corruption of baum. LOVE AND DEATH First printed in 1830. What time the mighty moon was gathering light1 You must begone," said Death, "these walks are mine". Love wept and spread his sheeny vans 2 for flight; Yet ere he parted said, "This hour is thine; Thou art the shadow of life, and as the tree Life eminent creates the shade of death; THE BALLAD OF ORIANA First published in 1830, not in 1833. This fine ballad was evidently suggested by the old ballad of Helen of Kirkconnel, both poems being based on a similar incident, and both being the passionate soliloquy of the bereaved lover, though Tennyson's treatment of the subject is his own. Helen of Kirkconnel was one of the poems which he was fond of reciting, and Fitzgerald says that he used also to recite this poem, in a way not to be forgotten, at Cambridge tables. Life, i., p. 77. My heart is wasted with my woe, Oriana. There is no rest for me below, Oriana. When the long dun wolds are ribb'd with snow, Oriana, Alone I wander to and fro, Oriana. " 1 The expression is Virgil's, Georg., i., 437: Luna revertentes cum primum colllgit ignes "'. 2 Vans used also for "wings" by Milton, Paradise Lost, ii., 937-8 :— His sail-broad vans He spreads for flight. So also Tasso, Gtr. Lit., ix., 60: Indi spiega al gran volo i vanni aurati". 3 Cf. Lockiley Hall Sixty Yrars After: "Love will conquer at the last ". Ere the light on dark was growing, Oriana, At midnight the cock was crowing, Winds were blowing, waters flowing, Aloud the hollow bugle blowing, In the yew-wood black as night, Ere I rode into the fight, While blissful tears blinded my sight 1 to thee my troth did plight, She stood upon the castle wall, Oriana: She watch'd my crest among them all, She saw me fight, she heard me call, Atween me and the castle wall, The bitter arrow went aside, Oriana: The false, false arrow went aside, The damned arrow glanced aside, And pierced thy heart, my love, my bride, Oriana! Thy heart, my life, my love, my bride, Oriana! Oh! narrow, narrow was the space, Oriana. Loud, loud rung out the bugle's brays, Oriana. Oh! deathful stabs were dealt apace, But I was down upon my face, They should have stabb'd me where I lay, How could I rise and come away, Oriana? How could I look upon the day? They should have stabb'd me where I lay, Oriana— They should have trod me into clay, Thou smilest, but thou dost not speak, |