And leave us rulers of your blood "Her court was pure; her life serene; God gave her peace; her land reposed; "And statesmen at her council met Who knew the seasons, when to take "By shaping some august decree, March, 1851. CLARIBEL A MELODY First published in 1830. In 1830 and in 1842 edd. the poem is in one long stanza, with a full stop in 1830 ed. after line 8; 1842 ed. omits the full stop. The name Claribel" may have been suggested by Spenser (F. Q., ii., iv.. or Shakespeare, Tempest). 1 Where Claribel low-lieth The breezes pause and die, Letting the rose-leaves fall: 1 In 1851 the following stanza referring to the first Crystal Palace, opened 1st May, 1851, was inserted here:— She brought a vast design to pass, Of our fierce world were mixt as friends 2 1851. Broader yet. 3 With this cf. Shelley, Ode to Liberty:— Athens diviner yet Gleam'd with its crest of columns on the will But the solemn oak-tree sigheth, 2 At eve the beetle boometh 1 1830. "hummeth". LILIAN First printed in 1830. 1 Airy, fairy Lilian, When I ask her if she love me, She'll not tell me if she love me, Cruel little Lilian. "Wild" omitted, and "low" inserted with a hyphen before 2 1851 and all previous editions, "fledgling" for " callow". 1 1830. Through and through me. With "crimson-threaded" cf. Cleveland's Sing-song on Clarinda's Wedding, "Her life those threads of scarlet dye"; but the original is Solomon's Song i. 3, "Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet". 1830. Silver treble-laughter. ISABEL First printed in 1830. Lord Tennyson tells us (Life of Tennyson, i., 43) that in this poem his father more or less described his own mother, who was a "remarkable and saintly woman". In this as in the other poems elaborately painting women we may perhaps suspect the influence of Wordsworth's Triad, which should be compared with them. 1 Eyes not down-dropt nor over-bright, but fed Pure vestal thoughts in the translucent fane 2 pure lowlihead.2 The intuitive decision of a bright Error from crime; a prudence to withhold; Of subtle-paced counsel in distress, 1 With these lines may be compared Shelley, Dedication to the Revolt of Islam:— And through thine eyes, e'en in thy soul, I see A lamp of vestal fire burning eternally. Lowlihead a favourite word with Chaucer and Spenser. 3 1830. Wifehood. 5 1830 and all before 1853. Through. 4 1830. Blenched. A courage to endure and to obey; 3 The mellow'd reflex of a winter moon; The vexed eddies of its wayward brother: Of rich fruit-hunches leaning on each other— (Though all her fairest forms are types of thee, Of such a finish'd chasten'd purity. MARIANA "Mariana in the moated grange."—Measure for Measure. First printed in 1830. This poem as we know from the motto prefixed to it was suggested by Shakespeare (Measure for Measure, iii., i, "at the moated grange resides this dejected Mariana," but the poet may have had in his mind the exquisite fragment of Sappho : δέδυκε μὲν ἁ σελάννα ἔγω δὲ μόνα κατεύδω. "The moon has set and the Pleiades, and it is midnight: the hour too is going by, but I sleep alone." It was long popularly supposed that the scene of the poem was a farm near Somersby known as Baumber's farm, but Tennyson denied this and said it was a purely "imaginary house in the fen," and that he "never so much as dreamed of Baumber's farm". See Life, i., 28. With blackest moss the flower-plots 1 1830. Through. 21863. Pear. 3 1872. Gable-wall. |