SYNOPSES OF THE POEMS AND PLAYS

ACHILLES OVER THE TRENCH.

A rendering of the Iliad xviii. 202, recounting the help given to Achilles by Pallas and the consequent rout of the Trojans.

ADELINE.

Five stanzas written to a certain ‘spiritual Adeline’ to describe her charms.

AKBAR’S DREAM.

A supposed conversation in blank verse between Akbar, the great Mogul who ruled India from 1565 to 1605 A.D., and his intimate friend Abul Fazl. The poem is prefaced by a quotation from the writings of Abul Fazl. Akbar was one of the most tolerant rulers who ever lived. No creeds were condemned by him, and he invented a new religion which aimed at being a sort of epitome of the best in all beliefs. In this poem, he tells Abul Fazl that the cause of a temporary depression is the shadow cast by an evil dream. He then expounds his theory of life and religion to Abul. His opinion is that God is in all creeds and that the one intolerable thing is intolerance. But now and then a doubt asserts itself—as when he is troubled by dreams such as the one that he has recently dreamed. In it, he thought he had built

in which people of all creeds might worship, and in which might dwell

But while he and Abul stood looking at, and rejoicing in their work there was tumult, and in burst Akbar’s well-loved son Saleem, and slew both his father and Abul. ‘Death’ however ‘had ears and eyes,’ and Akbar saw his son despoiling the fair building and ruining a life-work. After a time came some people from the west, ‘an alien race,’ and again built up the law of toleration and equity, abolishing such monstrous practices as súttee and child-marriage. The poem ends with a morning hymn to the

ALEXANDER.

A Sonnet to Alexander, describing him as

ALL THINGS WILL DIE.

A lament that the inevitable end of all things, however beautiful and full of life, is death. Even the blue river, and the south winds will cease,

AMPHION.

The supposed writer of this rather merry poem had been left a park by his father. The poem voices his regret that he was not born in the days when ‘Old Amphion’ sat down and sung, and ‘left a small plantation;’ In those days, Nature was

and trees sprang up at the twanging of a fiddle. But ‘in such a brassy age’ as the present, ‘months of toil, And years of cultivation’ are needed to make

ANCIENT SAGE.

An ancient sage gives a young man of fashion good advice in the form of a commentary on a despairing song which the latter had written. The youth is bidden to give up pleasure, and devote himself to temperance and good works.

AUDLEY COURT.

A short poem in blank verse. The writer and his friend ‘Francis Hale, the farmer’s son,’ are crowded out of the Bull and the Fleece Inns, and so are forced to picnic at Audley Court. After they have eaten of home-made bread and pastry, they discuss politics, the king, and matters nearer home. Lastly, they end the picnic by entertaining one another with songs. Francis sings a song, the refrain of which is ‘Let me live my life,’ while his friend’s choice falls upon a mournful song of one Ellen Aubrey. After this the two friends return at nightfall to the quiet town

The poem was suggested by Abbey Park at Torquay, and closes with a description of Torquay, as it was in Tennyson’s youth, ‘the loveliest sea-village in England.’

AYLMER’S FIELD.

A narrative poem in blank verse. The story is supposed to have been told to the writer by an old vicar of the place where the events narrated in the story took place. Sir Aylmer Aylmer was a typical country squire. He lived in a magnificent house, and took great pride in his ancestry. The Aylmers had always been friendly with the vicars of the place—an office which was always held by the eldest son of the Averill family, and so descended from father to son with great regularity. At the time the story opens, sir Aylmer and his wife had an only daughter, just five years younger than Leolin Averill, the younger brother of Averill Averill, who was then vicar. Leolin and Edith Aylmer grew up together, and as they grew older their childish comradeship changed to love. Sir Aylmer suspected nothing—indeed he deemed it impossible that an Averill should dream of linking himself with an Aylmer. One day, however, he overheard some conversation between his daughter and Leolin Averill which revealed the fact that they were indeed lovers. He and his wife rated their daughter severely, and forbade Leolin to have anything more to do with her. Leolin, in a passion of grief and anger, sought his brother Averill and confided to him his intention of making a great name and returning to marry Edith. In accordance with this resolve he went to London and worked at the law, occasionally receiving letters, secretly sent, from Edith. But one day sir Aylmer intercepted one of these letters and the correspondence was stopped. Edith, denied all intercourse with her lover, gradually pined and died. On the day of her death, Leolin was found stabbed by his own hand with a dagger Edith had given him. The elder Averill preached a savage indictment of the cruel parents from the text, ‘Behold your house is left unto you desolate.’ The passionate sermon wrought such remorse in sir Aylmer and his wife that they, too, died. Aylmerston in Norfolk is said to be the scene of the poem.

BALLAD OF ORIANA.

Describes a soldier’s woe, who after pledging his troth to the beautiful Oriana, went bravely into battle, only to see his betrothed, who was watching him from the castle, pierced through the heart by an arrow.

BANDIT’S DEATH.

The bandit carries a woman to his cave after murdering her husband, Piero. She lives in hatred of the murderer, but her dislike is lessened by the arrival of a son. With the police on his track, the Bandit accidentally strangles the child as he utters a cry. He is sorry for his action, but the woman, her loathing revived, stabs him as he sleeps, and cutting off his head, puts it in a cloth, and carries it away with her.

BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH.

Describes the defeat and slaughter of the army of Anlaf and Constantius the traitor, by Athelstan and his brother Edmund.

BEAUTIFUL CITY.

A short description of Paris, ‘the centre and crater of European confusion.’

BECKET.

A play in blank verse in five acts preceded by a Prologue.

Prologue. King Henry and Thomas Becket, chancellor of England, are seen at chess. Their talk is friendly, and the king proposes making Becket archbishop of Canterbury, and gives him a chart showing the bower designed for his paramour Rosamund, together with instructions to convey her safely thither. Eleanor of Aquitaine plans with Sir Reginald Fitzurse to seize Rosamund, her rival.

Act i. Becket finds the burden of archbishoprick and chancellorship too heavy to bear, and returns the Great Seal to the king, resolving henceforth to stand for the Church even against Henry. He saves Rosamund from Fitzurse and Eleanor, angers the king by refusing to give his seal to certain laws regarding the trial of clerics, and finally flees to France after having feasted beggars instead of the angry nobles on the king’s side.

Act ii. Rosamund, in her bower, pleads with Henry to be friends with Becket. Louis of France, Becket, and Henry meet at Montmirail. Becket refuses to crown the king’s son. Henry goes away in a rage and Louis, hitherto friendly, turns Becket out of France, but soon repents his decision and invites Becket to stay.

Act iii. Henry and Rosamund talk in the bower. A new bower-maid discloses to Rosamund the fact—which has been kept secret from her—that Henry is married to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor and Fitzurse spy out the bower. Becket and Henry are reconciled in France and start for England.

Act iv. Geoffrey, child of Henry and Rosamund, leads Eleanor to his mother. Eleanor and Fitzurse offer to murder Rosamund, but Becket intervenes in time, and saves her, and sends her to a convent.

Act v. Henry is tricked by Eleanor and her knights into great anger against Becket. Four knights rush off and murder the archbishop in Canterbury Cathedral, leaving Rosamund by the body.

BEGGAR MAID.

A fair beggar maid came barefooted before king Cophetua, who so admired her beauty that he swore an oath that he would make her his queen.

BLACKBIRD, THE.

The writer, unlike his neighbours, welcomes the blackbird into his garden, but laments the fact that, in the spring, the bird’s beautiful song is seldom heard, as he is too intent on feeding.

BOÄDICEA.

An ‘experiment’ describing how queen Boädicea

Her speech is a wild denunciation of the Roman tyrants of Britain and a fierce call to arms. In answer to her exhortation the people arose, and

BREAK, BREAK, BREAK, ETC.

The writer, as he watches the sea ever breaking against the rocks, envies the fisherman’s boy and the sailor lad who are both happy, while he longs

The scene of the poem is Clevedon Church, which overlooks the Bristol Channel.

BRIDESMAID, THE.

A sonnet describing how the bridesmaid, who shed tears at her sister’s wedding, was comforted by the assurance that she too, would make a happy bride.

BROOK, THE.

A poem in blank verse describing the memories aroused in a certain Lawrence Aylmer by the sight of the brook he has known since childhood. Here he parted with a poet friend, and here too, he met with Katie Willows, whose father Philip he kept occupied with talk while Katie met her lover. But now

Just as this conclusion is reached, the old dreamer looks up and is astonished to find himself face to face with a girl so like the old Katie that he is startled and inquires her name. ‘Katie Willows’ she says, and explains the seeming miracle by stating that she is the daughter of Katie Willows the first, but now returned from Australia. Through the poems runs the well-known lyric, beginning:

the supposed reply of the brook to the poet’s question

BUONAPARTE.

A patriotic sonnet to Napoleon glorying in the way Britain

‘taught him lowlier moods’ at Trafalgar and in Egypt.

BY AN EVOLUTIONIST.

The soliloquy of a man who has reached old age with his animal strength, and being largely decayed but

CAPTAIN, THE.

A ‘legend of the Navy’ in ballad metre. This short poem is the story of a sea captain who earned the hatred of his crew by his cruelty, and yet thought to

One day he sighted a ship of France, and gave orders to advance towards her and give battle. The crew waited till they were alongside and then allowed the enemy to shoot them down and destroy their ship, thus revenging themselves on their cruel captain at the cost of their own lives.

CARESS’D OR CHIDDEN BY THE SLENDER HAND.

One of the early sonnets, describing how

CHARACTER, A.

Five stanzas, half playful description of man who

CHARGE OF THE HEAVY BRIGADE AT BALACLAVA.

A stirring practical description of ‘that ride into the Russian column.’

CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

A graphic description of the famous charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, when, owing to an improperly given command, six hundred cavalry rode to almost certain death in a hopeless attempt to capture the Russian guns.

CHARITY.

A woman, whose lover deserts her to marry an heiress, finds out what true charity is, when, after the husband has been killed in a railway accident, the young widow helps and tends her in her hour of need.

CHURCH-WARDEN AND THE CURATE, THE.

An amusing poem in dialect in which a churchwarden, formerly a Baptist, gives some useful advice to a young curate. It was suggested by a story told to the poet by the Rev. Canon Rawnsley. The story is thus:

‘I returned to my father’s parish, Halton Holgate, near Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, from my ordination, and found my father’s churchwarden, G. R., upon the platform. He saw I had a white tie on, and he said cheerily, “Well, Mr. Rownsley, I can seä by that white thing round youre throat that they’ve gone and maäde a parson on you!”

‘“Well well,” he added, “God Omighty knows theer mun beä parsons as well as farmers, and you’d be a fool i’ the crewyard along o’ the beästs, I reckon, and I should mebbe beä as big a fool in the pulpit o’ Sunday. Now, doant be stunt, I’m youre feyther’s churchwarden, and I’m goäin’ to giv’ you a bit o’ my moind.”’

Rawnsley: Memories of the Tennysons.

CIRCUMSTANCE.

A single stanza tracing ‘two children in two neighbouring villages,’ through their life to the second generation and ending with the reflection

CITY CHILD, THE.

Two stanzas describing the ‘city childs’—‘the dainty little maidens’—desire for the pleasures of the country.

CLARIBEL.

Two stanzas descriptive of the beautiful bower ‘where Claribel low-lieth.’

CLEAR-HEADED FRIEND, WHOSE JOYFUL SCORN.

Three stanzas, addressed to a friend, who, the poet declares, ‘will not live in vain’ and goes on to predict a glorious future for his evidently gifted friend.

COLUMBUS.

A speech put into the mouth of Columbus. He has discovered a new world and is now dying in chains for his pains. He is evidently speaking to a court noble come to visit him. He tells of all his struggles to convince people that the earth was a sphere, of the inward certainty, through all, that he was chosen of God to do his great work for Spain, and of his vow that whatever wealth he brought from the new world should be used in a Crusade. He bitterly resents his chains and the worthless men who have entered into the heritage of the land he discovered. Nevertheless, the poem ends on a fine note of patriotism:—

COME NOT, WHEN I AM DEAD.

Two stanzas in which the poet exhorts his child not to come to weep over his grave but to

CROSSING THE BAR.

The beautiful and last poem beginning

in which the poet compares his own death to the outgoing of a ship over the harbour bar into the open sea.

CUP, THE.

A tragedy in blank verse in two acts.

Act i. Synorix, a Galatian ex-Tetrarch and a man with a reputation of loose life, returns to the temple of Artemis in Galatia in search of a priestess he had admired, now wife of Sinnatus, Tetrarch of Galatia. He meets Sinnatus while hunting, and calling himself Strato, goes in the evening to the Tetrarch’s house as guest. There he tells Camma, Sinnatus’ wife, of his plan of leaguing with Rome for the sake of Galatia. He also tells her of his love and that it was he who earlier in the day had sent her a sacred cup. He bids her come to the temple in the morning, to plead with the Roman Antonius for the life of Sinnatus who has been plotting against Rome. The identity of Synorix is discovered, and Sinnatus drives him out. Camma meets Synorix at dawn. Sinnatus discovers them and is slain by Synorix.

Act ii. Camma has become a priestess in the temple of Artemis. Synorix has attained his ambition and is king of Galatia under Rome. He sends messengers imploring Camma to marry him. She consents, and awaits his coming in the temple. During the marriage ceremony she fills the sacred cup he had given her with poisoned wine, and, after drinking herself, gives it to him to drain. He does so, and presently sickens and dies. Camma dies shortly after, calling on the name of Sinnatus.

The theme of the tragedy is taken from Plutarch’s Moralia.

DAISY, THE.

A memory, written at Edinburgh, of what was apparently a honeymoon journey in Italy. The writer—writing to his companion of the journey—recalls all the beautiful things they had seen together in Italy and how, as they were leaving the country, he plucked a daisy to give her—

Though he is now ‘ill and weary, alone and cold,’ the daisy, in fancy, takes him once more to his love’s side in Italy.

DAWN, THE.

A poem in five stanzas, prefaced by a quotation from an Egyptian priest—‘You are but children.’ The poet expresses the view that the present is but the dawn of time—

All time till present has been but ‘red of the Dawn’ and now it is but ‘turning a fainter red.’ The Day, that is to see a better race of men, is yet to come.

DAY-DREAM, THE.

A young man deeply in love with the Lady Flora, tells her his vision of the ancient legend of the Sleeping Beauty. He describes, in beautiful language, the Sleeping Palace and the Sleeping Beauty within it, who is awakened, after a hundred years, by a kiss from the Fairy Prince, who thus breaks the spell and sets the palace buzzing with renewed life and activity. The Prince then rides off with the Princess, and both are happy in their love for one another.

The Moral, the young man says, is hard to find, but many people would find a meaning suited to their minds, and ‘to hook it to some useful end’ would ‘cramp its use.’

He goes on to reflect on the pleasantness of falling asleep for some time and waking up to find things bettered and fresh wonders to behold. He says that he would gladly slumber for a hundred years himself, if, at the end of that time he could awake the Lady Flora with a kiss.

DEAD PROPHET, THE.

A fierce attack upon those who make dead famous men into ‘copy,’ dissecting their lives with a keen eye under the pretence of reverence for the dead. The poem is the story of an imaginary ‘dead prophet’ and the indignities heaped upon his body by the old hag ‘Reverence.’

DEATH OF ŒNONE, THE.

The beautiful shepherd-prince, Paris, husband of the nymph Œnone, had been chosen by the gods to judge which of the three goddesses Herè, Pallas or Aphroditè, was the most beautiful, and to award a golden apple to his choice. Aphroditè promised him the beautiful Helen of Troy to wife if he would give her the apple. He did so, and deserted Œnone for Helen, thus causing great war and bloodshed. In this poem the poet tells the story of his return, sore wounded, to be cured of his mortal hurt by Œnone, who refuses pity to him who had no pity for her. Paris then falls dead, and is reverently cremated by the shepherds who had known him in his youth. At dawn, Œnone, who all night has been troubled by the vision of her husband’s disfigured face, goes forth, and, finding a smouldering funeral pyre inquires for whom it has been built. On hearing whose body lies there, she casts herself upon the pyre and, remembering only her early happiness, dies with her husband.

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE AND AVONDALE.

An address to the mourners for the Duke of Clarence, who died just before his projected marriage to the princess May. Tennyson bids the mourners ‘mourn in hope’ for

DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR, THE.

A lament for the old year—here personified as an old man dying at the stroke of twelve, while the new year is spoken of as ‘his son and heir,’ who ‘blithe and bold’

DEDICATION, A.

A dedication of some writing given by the author to a very dear friend, exhorting him to

through all mistrust, and scorn and criticism.

DEDICATORY POEM TO THE PRINCESS ALICE.

A short dedication of the Defence of Lucknow to the dead princess Alice, daughter of queen Victoria. The poet makes the princess’s known patriotism a pretext for dedicating

at her dead feet.

DEFENCE OF LUCKNOW.

A patriotic poem descriptive of the gallant defence of Lucknow by a ‘handful of men’ written as though the writer had been one of the besieged army. At the end of every stanza is the triumphant refrain

The poem describes in vivid language the horrors of the siege, the death of the Commander ‘Lawrence, the best of the brave,’ and the unbounded joy of the whole garrison at the appearance of a relieving force with Havelock and Outram in command.

Lucknow was one of the decisive sieges of the Indian Mutiny.

DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE.

A monologue spoken by Demeter the earth-goddess at the return of her daughter Persephone from the dark home of her husband, the monarch of Hades. Persephone, according to the Greek legend of the Spring, had been stolen away while playing in a field, and taken to be the bride of ‘dark Aïdoneus,’ king of Hades. But so great was Demeter’s sorrow for her child that she neglected to bless the land with increase. So Zeus decreed that for nine months in the year Persephone should live with her mother—the other three to be spent with her husband in the underworld. Demeter, however, is but ‘ill-content,’ and looks forward to the time when Persephone shall spend the whole year with her. The theme is taken from Ovid.

DE PROFUNDIS.

A poem in two parts, named respectively The Two Greetings and The Human Cry. The first part is subdivided, and contains a father’s greeting, first, to the physical being of his child, after the ‘nine long months of antenatal gloom,’ and secondly to the spiritual being of the child ‘half-lost In thine own shadow and this fleshly sign.’ The Human Cry is a shorter poem in two stanzas. In it, the poet voices the adoration of man towards God—

DESERTED HOUSE.

A short poem in five stanzas, describing—in the simile of a deserted house—a dead body. It is called a house from which

The last verse is an expression of the hope of immortality—

Nevertheless the human longing also finds voice in the last line—

DESPAIR.

A man and his wife having lost faith in a God and hope of a life to come, and being miserable in this, resolve to end themselves by drowning. The woman is drowned, but the man rescued by a minister of the sect he had abandoned.

DIRGE, A.

A poem in seven stanzas the refrain of which is ‘Let them rave.’ The dead need be troubled by no discordant voices—

for the grave is quiet and only

DORA.

A narrative poem in blank verse, founded on a story in Miss Mitford’s Our Village. In it, the poet tells the story of a man who brought up his brother’s daughter with his own son. He had planned a marriage between them, and when the time was ripe he broached the subject to his son William, who refused to marry his cousin Dora, and left his father’s house to marry a certain Mary Morrison. The indignant father forbad Dora to see or communicate with William or his wife or child. William died in poverty, leaving his widow and small son. Dora helped them by stealth, and at last persuaded Mary to let her have the child in the hope that her uncle’s heart might be moved to compassion. But after he had agreed to adopt the boy he sent Dora away in great anger. Mary, however, refused to allow Dora to sacrifice herself for the sake of the boy, and they went together to ask for the child again. The father was so moved by his daughter-in-law’s appeal and by the winsomeness of his grandson that he was reconciled to Dora and Mary—

DOUBT AND PRAYER.

A short prayer in which the poet prays God

Through sorrow and even sin, the soul finds God, but the poet here prays that death may not come to him

DREAMER, THE.

A certain man dreamed he heard the lament ‘a voice of the Earth’ of one who said—

The dreamer thought he answered with a song, counselling the wailing voice to remember that—

DREAM OF FAIR WOMEN, A.

The poet had been musing on Chaucer’s Wild Tales till he imagined himself living in the past. This poem is an account of the dream that followed. The poet dreamed he was in a wood in which he met with many fair dead women—Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Jephtha’s daughter, and Fair Rosamond. They each told him of the joys and sorrows of their respective lives, and he was at last awakened by Cleopatra’s sharp scornful taunt of Rosamond for having so ‘tamely died.’ The dreamer closes the poem with the regret that he awakened before he had seen other fair women—

or Joan of Arc, or Eleanor of Castile.

DYING SWAN, THE.

A description in two stanzas of the wonderful death-song of a swan. Tennyson apparently believed the popular saying that ‘a swan only sings at its death.’

EAGLE, THE.

Six lines, descriptive of a view seen from a mountain top by an eagle.

EARLY SPRING.

A ‘Spring Song’ in eight stanzas.

EDWARD GRAY.

A ballad, containing the story of Edward Gray who was beloved by Ellen Adair. He, however,

In his absence she pined and died. Edward Gray is untouched by the lovableness of other women—his heart is buried with Ellen Adair.

EDWIN MORRIS.

This poem is the story of a man who stayed for nine months by a lake. While here he made friends with ‘Edwin Morris and Edward Bull the curate.’ Also, he fell in love with a millionaire’s daughter, Letty Hill. One evening he was found making love to Letty, and her relatives forbad him the place, and married her

They then brought a lawsuit against Letty’s lover, and he left the place

ELEÄNORE.

A poem in eight stanzas written in praise of a ‘Serene, imperial Eleänore!’

ENGLAND AND AMERICA IN 1782.

A short poem addressed to England personified as ‘Strong mother of a Lion-line.’ The writer bids England be proud of the American rebels who

ENOCH ARDEN.

A long narrative in blank verse. In it, the poet tells the story of Enoch Arden. He and Philip Ray—the miller’s son—lived in a seaside town and both loved Annie Lee. She flirted impartially with both, but at last Enoch won and married her, for ‘Philip loved in silence.’ Enoch was a sailor’s orphan and pursued his father’s trade. When two children had been born to him, Enoch’s good fortune deserted him. He broke a limb in an accident and lost his job. As he lay recovering he was haunted by the thought of his wife and children starving because he was unable to work for them. Then came an offer from the captain of a China-going vessel to take Enoch as boatswain and he went, first selling his boat to provide money for Annie and bidding them all a sorrowful farewell. After his departure, the third and sickliest child was born, but scarcely lived a few weeks. Philip Ray, who had not seen Annie since Enoch left, thinking to be of comfort to her, asked her to let him educate the remaining boy and girl as Enoch would have wished. Annie consented and Philip became a second father to her children, though scruples kept him from seeing Annie often. But the years went by and Enoch did not return, and at last Philip convinced Annie that Enoch was dead, and they were married. A child was born, and they were very happy. Meanwhile Enoch was not dead, but prospering much. After he had made and lost a fortune, Enoch at last returned to his native town, eagerly anticipating seeing Annie again. He learned from a gossip called Miriam Lane of Annie’s marriage with Philip. The news was too much for his already failing strength, and he died without making himself known to Annie, first giving Miriam Lane a curl of his son’s hair, which Annie had given him—to give the boy’s mother.

EPIC, THE.

An introduction to the beautiful Morte d’Arthur. On Christmas Eve four college friends sat about the fire and wine after the rest of the guests had departed. They talked of the decay of Christmas customs and of the Christian religion. One of their number, Everard Hall, was known at college as a toper and a poet of parts. His friends laughingly inquired of him what he had done with an epic he had written about king Arthur. He replied that he had burnt it, deeming it of little interest. One of the young men had, however, rescued the eleventh book from the flames and forthwith produced it. The poet was then constrained to read the Morte d’Arthur.

EPILOGUE.

A short poem dedicating ‘the Sleeping Beauty’ series of poems to a certain ‘Lady Flora.’

EPITAPH ON CAXTON.

Written for the Caxton window in St. Margaret’s. The poet praises Caxton as a seer praying for ‘Light more light,’ but seeing only the glory and not the disadvantages of the spread of learning.

EPITAPH ON GENERAL GORDON.

Written for the cenotaph in Westminster Abbey. The poet addresses Gordon as ‘Warrior of God,’ whose bones lie in the far-away Soudan.

EPITAPH ON LORD STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE.

Lines written in memory of this enthusiastic admirer of Tennyson and friend of Byron.

FAITH.

Two stanzas encouraging men to

FALCON, THE.

A play in blank verse in one scene. Count Federigo degli Alberighi has been in love with the Lady Giovanna since she was fifteen. He had gone to the war, thinking she cared nothing for him, and in his absence and believing him dead she had married another. She is now a widow with one son, and Federigo is living with his old nurse and foster-brother in poverty—having sold all his possessions to give gifts to Giovanna. To the consternation of the inmates of Federigo’s cottage, the lady appears one morning announcing that she will stay for breakfast. There is nothing in the larder, and Federigo reluctantly gives an order to kill his much loved falcon for the lady’s entertainment. He is horrified—when the bird is dead—to learn that she had come to beg no other thing than the falcon for her son who is sick. All, however, ends well with a mutual declaration of love and a hopeful certainty of the boy’s recovery. The theme of the story is taken from Boccaccio’s Decamerone.

FAREWELL, A.

Four stanzas in which the poet bids farewell to a ‘cold rivulet’ ‘for ever and ever.’

FAR-FAR-AWAY.

A song written for music with a refrain ‘far-far-away.’

FATIMA.

A woman’s passionate love-song. She enumerates the delights of her love and her longing for her lover’s coming and ends with a determination to

FIRST QUARREL, THE.

A narrative poem, written in dialect in the first person. The narrator is a woman who tells the story of her life to a sympathetic friend. She is an Isle of Wight girl. When quite a young girl she was the sweetheart of a boy of the same village. When the boy—Harry—began to grow up, a farmer relative sent for him and after saying good-bye to Nelly—the girl—he went to Dorsetshire to work on his kinsman’s farm. While there, he got into trouble with another girl. But when he returned, he and Nelly were married and were very happy. Work, however, ‘was scant in the Isle,’ and Harry crossed the Solent in search of employment. He wrote his wife saying he had got a six weeks’ job and was coming back to kiss her good-bye on the following day. While she was tidying the house ready for his return, she came across a box containing a letter written to Harry by the other girl. This so angered her that she would have nothing to say to her husband when he came in and refused to be mollified by his gentle assurances of love and trust, and the complete deadness of the past. After trying in vain to reassure her, Harry leaves her, and she refuses to say good-bye. He sends her a letter to say he had work in Jersey and is going by the boat that night—‘and the boat went down that night.’ So the first quarrel proved the last.

FLEET, THE.

Lines written in praise of the British Navy after a newspaper attack upon it.

FLIGHT, THE.

A girl rouses her sister on her wedding morning, and they fly together from a hateful marriage proposed by a mercenary father.

FLOWER, THE.

A ‘fable’ of one who sowed a seed that, grown into a flower, was dubbed a weed. It grew tall and beautiful, the seeds were in demand, it became easy to get and so again a weed.

FLOWER IN THE CRANNIED WALL.

A fragment, in which the poet declares his conviction that

FORESTERS, THE.

A play in blank verse in four acts. The plot is adapted from the legends of Robin Hood and Maid Marian. It opens with the outlawry of Robin by Prince John, Regent for Richard I, and ends with the return of Richard and the marriage of Robin and Marian.

FORLORN.

A short poem in which a mother chides her daughter for contemplating a marriage of which she is unworthy.

FORM, THE, FORM, THE.

An early sonnet in which the frivolous soul of a ‘slight coquette’ is described.

FRATER AVE ATQUE VALE.

Lines written in praise of Catullus—‘tenderest of the Roman poets.’ This poem was written while Tennyson was staying in Italy, and contains descriptions of lake scenery.

FREEDOM.

A political poem in which the poet gave expression to his conviction that innovations and reforms should be gradually introduced.

GARDENER’S DAUGHTER, THE.

An artist tells the story of his love for the gardener’s daughter, and shows a picture of her in her youth. A narrative poem in blank verse.

GOD AND THE UNIVERSE.

Two stanzas in which the poet expresses his fear of God and imagines God to reply reassuringly.

GODIVA.

A poem in blank verse in which the poet tells the story of the sacrifice made by Lady Godiva on behalf of the people of her husband’s city, Coventry.

GOLDEN YEAR, THE.

An account, in blank verse, of a poet who wrote some verses anticipating the return of the golden age. A friend of the poet declares

GOOSE, THE.

A short humorous poem. An old woman is given a goose—which lays golden eggs—by a stranger. After prospering, she grows tired of the clatter made by the goose and drives it out to the original owner.

GRANDMOTHER, THE.

A monologue in which an old woman who has outlived all her children recounts the chief events of her life to a grandchild. The poem was suggested in a letter from Benjamin Jowett giving the saying of an old lady, ‘The spirits of my children always seem to hover about me.’

HANDS ALL ROUND.

A ‘convivial lyric’ in which the poet calls for healths to be drunk to England, her colonies and other friendly powers.

HAPPY.

The words of the wife of a leprous Crusader who has been formally separated from the community. The wife refuses to leave him, and swears that she will live and die at his side.

HAROLD.

A five-act play in blank verse. The plot is concerned with incidents happening between Harold’s—then earl of Wessex—first setting out for Normandy, where he was to swear the rash oath to help William of Normandy to the English throne, and the defeat of the English and death of Harold at the battle of Senlac, 1066.

HELEN’S TOWER.

Lines written at the request of Lord Dufferin for the Tower built in memory of Helen, mother of Lord Dufferin. The poet expresses in these lines his conviction that were the ‘granite girth’ of the Tower as strong as the love between mother and son which caused it to be built, it would endure ‘Doomsday fire.’

HENDECASYLLABICS.

An experiment in ‘a metre of Catullus’ addressed to ‘you chorus of indolent reviewers,’ and humorously conveying the poet’s request and critics to be lenient to the new metre.

HIGHER PANTHEISM, THE.

A short poem expressing the poet’s belief in the ‘Immanence of God in the Universe.’ The poem contains the beautiful and well-known couplet

IDYLLS OF THE KING.

An epic series of poems founded on Malory’s Morte d’Arthur.

Dedication. To Queen Victoria in memory of Albert, Prince Consort.

Coming of Arthur. The coming of Arthur to his kingdom, his royal parentage is proved, he marries Guinevere, daughter of king Leodogran, and founds his knighthood of the Round Table. He rids the land of wild beasts and marauders.

Gareth and Lynette. Of how Gareth son of Lot and Bellicent obtained his mother’s consent to serve as kitchen-boy at Camelot before he should discover himself to Arthur and ask for knighthood. Of how Arthur discovered the Prince in the kitchen-boy and sent him to rescue Lyonors, sister of Lynette, from the Castle Perilous, guarded by four warriors. Of his success in the quest.

Marriage of Geraint. Of how queen Guinevere was insulted by a dwarf riding with a knight and lady. Of how sir Geraint followed them to avenge the Queen. Of how he came to the town where they dwelt and chanced to lodge with an old man in the power of the stranger-knight. Of how Geraint loved Enid, the daughter of his poverty-stricken host. Of how he overcame the stranger-knight in the lists. Of how Geraint and Enid rode back together to Arthur’s court, and there were married.

Geraint and Enid. Of how Geraint took Enid his wife to his own land in Devon. Of how for love of her he neglected knightly adventure. Of how she wept for it. Of how he misunderstood her sorrow, and grew jealous thinking she loved another. Of how they set forth on horseback, Enid in front and not beside him. Of how Geraint fought many men by the way and overcame them all. Of how they came to Arthur’s court. Of how all misunderstanding was removed. Of how they returned to Devon to live long and happy.

Balin and Balan. Of how Balin and Balan, brothers, were brought by the King to his court. Of how Balan was dubbed knight, and sent on a quest, and of how Balin, having been dubbed knight before, remained at court. Of how he obtained leave to wear the Queen’s crown upon his shield. Of how sir Balin presently rode away to seek adventure and came to the castle of king Pelles. Of how one sir Garlon spoke evil of the Queen and Lancelot. Of how sir Balin struck him in his anger and fled the castle. Of how he rested in the forest and hung his shield upon a tree, deeming himself unworthy of the Queen’s token. Of how a damsel came and also spoke evil of the Queen. Of how sir Balan chanced to pass. Of how sir Balin, being beside himself, fought his brother. Of how they were both slain and afterwards buried by the Lady of the Lake.

Merlin and Vivien. Of how Vivien came from the base king Mark to spy on Lancelot and Guinevere. Of how she whispered slanders in Arthur’s court. Of how she sought to gain from Merlin the secret of a spell. Of how she followed him to Broceliande, and, having gained the secret of the enchantment, used it upon the great wizard himself and left him as one dead.

Lancelot and Elaine. Of how sir Lancelot stayed at the castle of Astolat and of how Elaine, the maid of Astolat, loved him not knowing who he was. Of how he wore her favour in a tourney. Of how he was wounded, and of how Elaine tended him in sickness. Of how he recovered and rode away with no word of love, being pledged to the Queen. Of how Elaine sickened and died of her love, and of how her body was placed in a boat and rowed to Camelot by an old deaf servant.

Holy Grail. Of how the sister of sir Percivale saw a vision of the Holy Grail. Of how she made a girdle of her hair for Galahad. Of how many of the Round Table swore to find the Grail. Of how they set forth from Camelot. Of how Galahad and Percivale set forth together. Of their adventures and temptations. Of how sir Galahad was the sole knight worthy to behold the Grail. Of the unsuccessful return of other knights to Camelot. Of the King’s welcome and of how some did not return.

Pelleas and Ettarre. Of the young knight sir Pelleas and of how he overcame in the jousts and gained the victor’s circlet for the lady Ettarre. Of how she shut herself in her castle and scorned her champion. Of how he was brought a prisoner to her by her knights. Of how sir Gawain undertook to plead the cause of sir Pelleas with the lady Ettarre. Of how she was false with Gawain. Of how Sir Pelleas grew distraught and fought unwittingly with sir Lancelot and accused him of shame with Guinevere. Of how sir Pelleas went out and was no more seen.

Last Tournament. Of the ruby carcanet that Guinevere gave to the king as a tourney prize. Of the tourney and of how sir Tristram won the rubies. Of how he refused to give them to any lady of the court but kept them for Isolt, the Queen of the Cornish king Mark. Of Dagonet the king’s fool and of his talk with Tristram. Of Tristram’s coming to Tintagil and Isolt. Of Isolt’s jealousy of Tristram’s wife—Isolt of Brittany. Of how king Mark slew Tristram as he clasped the ruby carcanet about the throat of Isolt the Queen.

Guinevere. Of Lancelot’s resolution to leave Guinevere. Of their last meeting and of its discovery by Modred. Of the flight of Lancelot to his castle and of the queen to a nunnery at Almesbury. Of the war of the king with Lancelot and of the treachery of Modred. Of the visit of the king to the queen at Almesbury, of his forgiveness and her repentance. Of how the king went out to his last battle, and of how Guinevere made atonement by a life of penitence and piety in the nunnery.

Passing of Arthur. Of the battle with the heathen hosts of Modred. Of how the knights of the Round Table perished in the fight. Of how the king was wounded and of how he sent sir Bedivere to throw Excalibur into the lake, from whence it had come. Of how sir Bedivere at first would not and lied to the king, but at last yielded and flung Excalibur into the lake. Of how Arthur was carried to the water and of how he did not die but passed from sir Bedivere in a funeral barge in which were three queens.

IF I WERE LOVED, AS I DESIRE TO BE.

An early sonnet in which the poet declares that, with love at his desire, he would fear nothing in heaven or earth.

IN MEMORIAM, A. H. H.

A long poem in a unique metre written to the memory of the poet’s greatest friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died at Vienna. The body was brought back to be buried at Clevedon—the home of the Hallams. The poem contains Tennyson’s expressed thoughts on Life and Death and God and Man, as well as his passionate grief and love for Arthur Henry Hallam.

IN MEMORIAM, WILLIAM GEORGE WARD.

Six lines beginning—

IN THE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL.

A nurse’s description of the illness and eventual death under an operation of a little girl in a children’s hospital.

IN THE GARDEN AT SWAINSTON.

A lament for three dead friends, memories of whom are revived by the garden where they had walked with the poet.

IN THE VALLEY OF CAUTERETZ.

The poet’s memories of a dead friend who had formerly been with him at Cauteretz.

ISABEL.

Three stanzas in praise of Isabel—a pattern of purity and holy calm.

ISLET, THE.

A woman urges her lover to go with her to a beautiful island he has described for her. He refuses because

JUNE BRACKEN AND HEATHER.

Nine lines, dedicating a book to a friend who has

KAPIOLANI.

Six stanzas in praise of Kapiolani, chieftainess of the Sandwich Isles, who defied the priesthood of the Island goddess, Peelè, and so won the people to Christianity.

KATE.

Two stanzas in which is described a lady who bears strong resemblance to Shakespeare’s Kate—the Shrew.

KRAKEN, THE.

A sonnet describing some sort of horrible sea monster called the Kraken.

LADY CLARA VERE DE VERE.

Nine stanzas addressed by a poet to a certain nobly-born but haughty lady. He assures her that

LADY CLARE.

A narrative poem. Lady Clare discovers on the eve of her marriage that she is not lady Clare, and that the real owner of her lands and wealth is her husband-to-be. She hastens to tell him the truth. He appreciates her honesty but declares that he will marry her and that she shall ‘still be Lady Clare.’

LADY OF SHALOTT, THE.

The story of a mysterious lady who viewed the outer world solely through the medium of a mirror, because a curse would fall upon her if she ever looked through the window. She fell in love with the reflection of sir Lancelot as he passed towards Camelot, and, risking the curse, allowed a boat to carry her down stream in the same direction. She presently arrived at Camelot—a corpse. An Italian romance upon the Donna di Scalotta is said to have suggested this poem.—Palgrave’s Lyric Poems of Tennyson.

LEONINE ELEGIACS.

In praise of ‘sweet Rosalind.’

LETTERS, THE.

Six stanzas in which the poet tells the story of a man and woman, formerly affianced, separated by slanders. The woman returns his letters, but he replies with such a burst of invective against her whole sex, that he frightens her into a reconciliation that ends in marriage.

LILIAN.

Four stanzas in which the poet praises ‘Airy, fairy Lilian.’

LITERARY SQUABBLES.

A short lament that such things as petty strife between literary men should exist.

LOCKSLEY HALL.

The soliloquy of a rejected lover. He recounts the incidents of his courtship, the ambitions of his youth, and the plans he has formed to induce forgetfulness of his unhappy love. These are rejected, and he leaves Locksley Hall—the scene of his courtship—with a noble resolution to live his life worthily.

LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS AFTER.

A sequel to Locksley Hall. The young lover has now become an old man and the changes wrought by age are emphasized by the poet.

LORD OF BURLEIGH.

The story of the marriage of a village girl with the Lord of Burleigh and of her subsequent death from the effects of

LOTOS-EATERS, THE.

Some mariners find an enchanted isle ‘In which it seemed always afternoon.’ Bewitched by the magic lotos plant, they grow weary of wandering and declare that they ‘will no longer roam.’ The poem is founded on Odyssey ix. 82 seq.

LOVE AND DEATH.

A few lines in which the poet recounts the meeting of Love and Death and the former’s declaration—

LOVE AND DUTY.

A blank verse poem. Two lovers, parted by their sense of duty, contemplate a lonely future with a faint hope of love’s fulfilment in some future age.

LOVER’S TALE, THE.

Argument. Julian, whose cousin and foster-sister Camilla, has been wedded to his friend and rival Lionel, endeavours to relate the story of his own love for her and the strange sequel. He speaks of having been haunted by a vision and the sound of bells tolling for a funeral, and at last ringing for a marriage; but he breaks away overcome, as he approaches the event, and a witness to it completes the tale in the Golden Supper. Eleven months after her marriage to Lionel, Camilla, supposedly dead, is borne to the vault. Julian, going for a last farewell to his cousin, finds her alive. After some time has passed he gives a great feast, at which he contrives the meeting of Lionel and the wife he had thought dead.

LOVE THOU THY LAND.

An exhortation in the metre of In Memoriam to a wise love of England.

LUCRETIUS.

Lucilla, wife of Lucretius, dissatisfied with her husband’s attitude towards herself, bought a love-philtre and mingled it with his drink. It, however, clouded his brain with insane fancies, and in a fit of madness he committed suicide, to the despair of his repentant wife.

MADELINE.

Three stanzas in praise of ‘Ever varying Madeline.’

MAKING OF MAN, THE.

Two stanzas in which the poet expresses a belief in the—as yet incompleted—evolution of man.

MARGARET.

Five stanzas in praise of ‘Sweet pale Margaret.’

MARIANA.

A poem in which the forlorn state of Mariana in waiting for her faithless lover is described. The character and circumstance are taken from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure.

MARIANA IN THE SOUTH.

Another description of the sad betrothed of the faithless Angelo in Measure for Measure.

MAUD: A MONODRAMA.

A morbid man grows to love Maud the playmate of his youth. She, too, loves him. But he quarrels with her brother, she dies and he goes away. After her death, he is ill and for a time loses his reason, and fancies himself dead. He at length comes to a better frame of mind and finds consolation in fighting for his country. Part of the poem—the verses beginning ‘Come into the garden, Maud’—has been set to music and is well-known as a song.

MAY QUEEN, THE.

A poem in three parts. In the first a young girl requests her mother to call her early in the morning of may-day for she is to be may-queen. In the second part—called New Year’s Eve—the former may-queen supposes herself to be dying, and bids farewell to her mother with many regrets for the happy life she leaves. In the Conclusion, however, she is still alive though it is spring time again. She thinks that her death really is near and declares herself glad to go where

MECHANOPHILUS.

A short poem written in the time of the first railways. The poet marvels at present invention and anticipates great things to come.

MERLIN AND THE GLEAM.

Merlin speaks, though all his life he has had for guidance the gleam—a lodestar revealed to him by the great magician and prophet who has taught him his Art.

MERMAID, THE.

Three stanzas, descriptive of an imaginary mermaid loved by many mermen and married by a sea-king.

MERMAN, THE.

The poet’s idea, expressed in a poem of three stanzas, of the merry life of a merman under the sea.

MILLER’S DAUGHTER, THE.

A man happily married to a miller’s daughter goes through his former life in retrospect with his wife—now growing old with him. He says that his life has been so happy that

MILTON.

An experiment in Alcaics. The poet praises Milton in glowing words.

MINE BE THE STRENGTH OF SPIRIT.

A sonnet expressing the poet’s desire for a spiritual strength corresponding with the tremendous strength of a river in the physical world.

MINNIE AND WINNIE.

A ‘child-song’ beginning—

and ending with—

MONTENEGRO.

A sonnet to Montenegro, which is thus addressed—

MORTE D’ARTHUR.

A beautiful description in blank verse of the mysterious passing and last words of the British hero-king.

MOVE EASTWARD, HAPPY EARTH.

A fragment in which the poet exhorts the earth to move eastward more quickly in order that his wedding day may come the sooner.

MY LIFE IS FULL OF WEARY DAYS.

A dying man bids farewell to his friend and leaves the last request—

NORTHERN COBBLER.

A dialect poem in which the Northern Cobbler tells a friend the story of how he cured himself of drunkenness.

NORTHERN FARMER, OLD STYLE.

A poem in dialect. A northern farmer who is failing, has been visited by doctor and parson and is equally scornful of both. He reviews his life and decides to disregard the doctor and take his beer as usual. The poem was suggested by a story told to the poet by his great-uncle of a Lincolnshire farm-bailiff, who on his death-bed said: ‘God A’mighty little knows what He’s aboot, a-takin’ me, an’ ’Squire ’ll be so mad an’ all!’

NORTHERN FARMER, NEW STYLE.

A dialect poem in which a more modern northern farmer gives his son advice as to marriage—

The poem was suggested by the remark of a rich neighbour, ‘When I canters my ’erse along the ramper I ’ears proputty, proputty, proputty.’

NOTHING WILL DIE.

One of the poet’s earlier efforts in which he declares that though the world may change yet nothing will die.

OAK, THE.

Three short stanzas in which the poet exhorts his readers to imitate in their own lives the stages in the life of an oak tree.

ODE ON THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

A beautiful funeral ode, on the death of the great duke. The poet expresses an ‘Empire’s lamentation,’ recounts the great deeds and fine qualities of the duke and ends with the prayer

ODE SUNG AT THE OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

An Ode written for the opening of the Exhibition. The poet regrets that the Prince Consort—upon whose suggestion the Exhibition was founded—had succumbed to an attack of typhoid fever, and foreshadows the time when the ‘arts of peace’ shall have entirely superseded for all time the ‘works of war.’

ODE TO MEMORY.

An invocation to Memory which the poet personifies as a friend with whom—

ŒNONE.

The very beautiful lament of the nymph Œnone, deserted by her lover, the shepherd-prince, Paris. She relates the story of the Three Goddesses and Paris’s judgment in favour of Aphroditè and of the consequent love of Paris for Helen of Troy. Œnone ends her tragic story with the declaration

OF OLD SAT FREEDOM ON THE HEIGHTS.

A five stanza poem in which Freedom is described, personified as ‘Grave mother of majestic works.’

ON A MOURNER.

A poem in seven stanzas in which the poet describes the ways in which Religion and Nature combine to console a mourner.

ON ONE WHO AFFECTED AN EFFEMINATE MANNER.

Four lines, the gist of which seems to be—‘man woman is not woman man.’

ON THE JUBILEE OF QUEEN VICTORIA.

Eleven stanzas in which the poet recounts the glories of the Queen and of her reign, and ends with a forecast of a happy future.

ON TRANSLATIONS OF HOMER.

An experiment in Hexameters and Pentameters.

OPENING OF THE INDIAN AND COLONIAL EXHIBITION BY THE QUEEN.

Lines written by the poet, as Laureate, for the royal opening of the above Exhibition.

OWD ROÄ.

An old native of the North of England tells his son—in dialect—the story of the way in which ‘old Rover’ saved his (the son’s) life in a fire. The grateful father declares that his intention is ‘to maäke ’is owd aäge as ’appy’ as he possibly can. ‘Owd Roä’ is the northern version for Old Rover. The poem is the poet’s version of a report that he had read in a newspaper about a black retriever which saved a child from a burning house.

OWL, THE.

A song in two stanzas addressed to a white owl who ‘in the belfry sits.’

PALACE OF ART, THE.

‘A sort of allegory’ in which the poet tells the story of a gifted soul who had a passion for Beauty que beauty—‘Art for Art’s sake.’ She dwells for some time secure in a palace of perfect beauty but is at length cast out to bemoan her error in excluding Love from her scheme of life.

PARNASSUS.

A description in three stanzas of the Mountain of the Gods. The poem is prefaced by a quotation from Horace.

PLAY, THE.

A quatrain descriptive of the gradual unwinding of the plot of a drama.

POET, THE.

A short poem setting forth the mission of a Poet.

POET’S MIND, THE.

Two stanzas, beginning—

The poet goes on to describe the nature of a poet’s mind and warns off all alien spirits from what he declares is ‘holy ground.’

POET’S SONG, THE.

Two stanzas in which the effect of the song of a poet on birds and beasts is described.

POETS AND CRITICS.

An exhortation to poets bidding them disregard critics and

In two stanzas.

POETS AND THEIR BIBLIOGRAPHIES.

Tennyson congratulates the ancient poets that they lived

POLAND.

An early sonnet expressing a passionate sympathy with the woes of Poland.

POLITICS.

A short poem of a single stanza addressed to

i.e., politicians, exhorting them not to be swayed by the cries of the multitude.

PREFATORY POEM TO MY BROTHER’S SONNETS.

A poem written as a preface to the dead poet’s dead brother’s sonnets. It contains tender memories of the dead and earnest hopes that the living poet may follow the example of the dead one.

PREFATORY SONNET TO THE ‘NINETEENTH CENTURY.’

A sonnet as described in the title.

PRINCESS, THE: A MEDLEY.

A story in blank verse—interspersed with lyrics of great beauty—of a certain princess Ida ‘proxy wedded’ in infancy to a neighbouring prince. The princess however, on attaining marriageable age, elects to found a college for women from which men are rigidly excluded. To this house of learning the prince and his two friends gain access disguised as girls, would-be students. After many amusing adventures, the sex of the three friends is discovered and the prince woos and weds Ida after all.

PROGRESS OF SPRING.

A poem in nine stanzas describing the gradual coming of Spring to its full perfection.

PROLOGUE TO GENERAL HAMLEY.

Lines addressed to Sir Edward Hamley as a prologue to The Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava. The short poem is descriptive of the visit of General Hamley to Aldworth and the fine autumnal view from that place.

PROMISE OF MAY, THE.

A play described as a ‘Village Tragedy.’ The hero—a selfish libertine—among other wickednesses, seduces and then deserts a village girl. After many years he returns to the scene of his crime, determined to make reparation by marrying the surviving elder sister, and rescue her old father from ruin. But the girl whom he had betrayed long ago appears, and with her dying forgiveness, awakes in her seducer a true repentance, such as he had not felt before. The magnanimity of the father completes his moral salvation, and he quits the scene to make expiation by lifelong contrition.

QUEEN MARY.

A five-act play in blank verse, setting forth the tragedy of the reign of Mary Tudor, of her bigoted Roman Catholicism, of her piteous childless marriage with Philip of Spain, and of her painful illness and final death. The tragedy ends with the accession of Elizabeth.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS.

An early poem in which the poet describes the imaginary adventures of a boy after reading the Arabian Nights.

REQUIESCAT.

Two quatrains in memory of a woman who died while young. The poet is sure that

REVENGE, THE.

A stirring ‘Ballad of the Fleet,’ in which the poet tells the story of Sir Richard Grenville’s single-handed achievement, when his flagship, the little ‘Revenge,’ fought a fleet of fifty-three Spanish galleons for a day and a night before the death from wounds of the heroic Sir Richard, with these words on his lips—

The materials of this ballad were drawn from a ‘Report’ of the fight by Sir Walter Raleigh.

RIFLEMEN FORM!

A recruiting song written to encourage the volunteer movement, before it was properly started.

RING, THE.

A blank verse poem in the form of a conversation between father and daughter on the latter’s wedding morning. The father gives his child the ring which had belonged to her dead mother, and tells the legend which endowed it with certain magic powers. He then relates the full story of the ring’s effect in his own life and that of his daughter’s mother and stepmother.

RIZPAH.

A poem in seventeen stanzas, in which a criminal’s mother, on her deathbed, tells a woman the story of her son’s crime, his death by hanging and her own theft of his bones in order to bury them in holy ground. She ends with a confident trust in God’s mercy—

The poem was suggested by a story, which appeared in a magazine entitled Old Brighton, of a young man named Rooke who was hanged in chains for robbing the mail in the eighteenth century. ‘When the elements had caused the clothes and flesh to decay, his aged mother, night after night, in all weathers, and the more tempestuous the weather the more frequent the visits, made a sacred pilgrimage to the lonely spot on the Downs, and it was noticed that on her return she always brought something away with her in her apron. Upon being watched, it was discovered that the bones of the hanging man were the objects of her search, and as the wind and rain scattered them on the ground she conveyed them to her home. There she kept them, and, when the gibbet was stripped of its horrid burden, in the dead silence of the night she interred them in the hallowed enclosure of Old Shoreham Churchyard.’

ROMNEY’S REMORSE.

Romney, in his youth, was told that ‘wife and children drag an artist down,’ so he deserted his young wife and child. In this poem the dying Romney expresses his remorse and implores the forgiveness of the wife, who heaps coals of fire upon his head by nursing him when he comes to her in his last illness.

ROSALIND.

A song to Rosalind—whom the poet likens to a bright-eyed falcon—in three stanzas.

ROSES ON THE TERRACE.

The sight of the roses on the terrace brings to the poet memories of a courtship fifty years old.

SAILOR BOY.

A song of a boy who went to sea in obedience to his irresistible desire, and in spite of all ‘danger of the roaring sea.’

ST. AGNES’ EVE.

A beautiful poem in three stanzas. The young virgin-martyr, St. Agnes, soliloquizes on the eve of her death.

ST. SIMEON STYLITES.

The Saint, who spent ‘thrice ten years’ on the top of a column to expiate his sins, in this poem makes his last prayer to God.

ST. TELEMACHUS.

The story, in blank verse, of an heroic man, who in the time of gladiatorial combats in Rome, came from the East to stop these murderous exhibitions. He was stoned to death, for daring to enter the arena to stop the people’s pleasure. But the emperor forbade such combats for the future.

SEA DREAMS.

A narrative in blank verse. A man—bitter at the loss of money—his wife and infant daughter go to stay at the sea-side. The man and wife dream of the coast, wake, recount their dreams, and the man is prevailed upon to forgive a preacher of the town, against whom he bore a grudge, but who has died suddenly. The slumber song ‘What does little birdie say’ occurs in the poem.

SEA-FAIRIES.

A short poem in which the poet describes the legendary syrens of the sea and their enchanted singing which lured mariners on to dangerous rocks. The theme is taken from Homer.

SILENT VOICES, THE.

The poet beseeches the ‘silent voices’ of the dead to urge him forward—‘On! and always on!’—not drag him back.

SIR GALAHAD.

A short poem in which king Arthur’s youngest and purest knight describes himself and his quest for the Holy Grail.

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

Lines on the cenotaph in Westminster Abbey. The poet praises the ‘heroic sailor-soul’ of the great Arctic explorer.

SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, LORD COBHAM.

Soliloquy of Lord Cobham—one of the earliest protestants—who was burnt for heresy on Christmas Day, 1417.

SIR LAUNCELOT AND QUEEN GUINEVERE.

A fragment—a description of king Arthur’s Queen and her lover, Sir Launcelot, as they ride through the woods in Spring.

SISTERS, THE.

A short poem. One of two sisters is seduced by an earl, and after death is avenged by the death of the earl at the hands of the surviving sister.

SISTERS, THE (EVELYN AND EDITH).

A narrative in blank verse. A man tells the story of his love for two sisters. He married one but was never able to make up his mind which he cared for most. His wife was alienated from him by hearing of his former wooing of her sister—since dead.

SNOWDROP, THE.

A single stanza in which the poet welcomes the first appearance of the ‘February fair maid.’

SONNET TO——.

The poet here seems to believe in a former existence, for he writes in this sonnet to a friend that at the first meeting—

SPECIMEN OF A TRANSLATION OF THE ILIAD IN BLANK VERSE.

Translation into stirring blank verse of Iliad viii. 542–561.

SPINSTER’S SWEET-ARTS, THE.

A dialect poem. The soliloquy of an ‘old maid’ who has named her cats after her one-time sweethearts. She speaks to the cats as though they were indeed the men, and reminds them of her young days of courtship.

SPIRIT HAUNTS THE YEAR’S LAST HOURS, A.

A song in two stanzas in which the poet laments the passing of the old year.

SPITEFUL LETTER, THE.

The soliloquy of a poet on receiving a ‘Spiteful Letter’ from a jealous fellow-poet.

SUPPOSED CONFESSIONS OF A SECOND-RATE SENSITIVE MIND.

Morbid, self-centred reflections about the relation of the soul to God. An early poem.

TALKING OAK, THE.

A youthful poet obtains an account of the doings—in his absence—of the girl he loves from an oak gifted with speech. In return for the information he vows to honour the oak in prose and rhyme and make for his bride a chaplet of oak-leaves. A playful narrative in quatrains.

THIRD OF FEBRUARY, 1852.

Lines written on the political situation at this time. The poet regrets with scorn the suggestion of the House of Lords that English politicians should curb their ‘honest censure’ in order to placate France, who, at this time, was regarded as somewhat of a menace to England.

THROSTLE, THE.

A short set of verses in which the poet sets words to the music of the song-thrush and hails the bird as a ‘wild little poet.’

TIRESIAS.

Tiresias, as a young man, had looked upon Pallas Athene as she came from the bath. He was blind from that time, but also gifted with a fatal gift of prophecy to which none would give ear. In this poem the old and dying Tiresias tells his son the story of his life, and prophesies the ruin of Thebes unless the young man will fight bravely for the city of his birth. The poem was suggested by the Phœnissæ of Euripides.

TITHONUS.

A soliloquy in blank verse, in which Tithonus regrets bitterly the irrevocable gift of immortality bestowed on him by the gods. The story is told in the Homeric Hymn to Aphroditè.

TO ALFRED TENNYSON, MY GRANDSON.

Lines written to ‘golden-hair’d Ally,’ grandson and namesake of the poet, who is addressed as a ‘Glorious poet who never hast written a line.’

TO DANTE.

Lines written at request of the Florentines. The poet casts at Dante’s feet his tribute of verse.

TO E. FITZGERALD.

Lines written on the death of Edward Fitzgerald, an old and close friend of the poet. In these lines Tennyson introduces a hope of eternal life into his sadness at his friend’s death.

TO E. L., ON HIS TRAVELS IN GREECE.

Lines to a friend who had apparently sent the poet vivid accounts of Greece, for Tennyson declares himself to be transported in spirit to the Greece of the Golden Age. ‘E.L.’ was Edmund Lushington, who married Tennyson’s sister.

TO H.R.H. PRINCESS BEATRICE.

Lines written on the marriage of princess Beatrice, daughter of queen Victoria. The poet rejoices that the princess’s marriage will not entirely separate her from her widowed mother.

TO J. M. K.

A sonnet written to a ‘soldier priest.’

TO J. S.

Lines written to a friend on the death of a brother, who was also a friend of the poet.

TO MARY BOYLE.

Lines written to accompany a copy of The Progress of Spring, sent by the poet to induce his friend to leave London for his own country home.

TOMORROW.

A narrative poem. An old woman recognizes the body of a young man laid in an Irish churchyard as that of the lover of her girlhood days. The man had been lost in a peat bog, and the peat had preserved the body perfectly.

TO ONE WHO RAN DOWN THE ENGLISH.

Four lines in which the poet expresses his hope that the fears of one who depreciated the English may prove false.

TO PROFESSOR JEBB.

Three stanzas dedicating Demeter and Persephone to Professor Jebb.

TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.

Lines to the ‘Patriot Statesman’ in which the poet urges wisdom, foresight and courage.

TO THE MARQUIS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA.

Viceroy of India. The poet praises the virtues of the marquis and mourns for Lionel Tennyson, who died in India, and whose memory brought to the poet affectionate memories of lord Dufferin.

TO THE MASTER OF BALLIOL.

Lines written to dedicate The Death of Œnone to the Master of Balliol.

TO THE PRINCESS FREDERICA OF HANOVER ON HER MARRIAGE.

A marriage blessing in which the poet assures the Princess that her dead father’s blessing is upon her.

TO THE QUEEN. I.

A Dedication to queen Victoria of the poet’s collected poems—‘this poor book of song.’ The poem was written on the occasion of Tennyson’s appointment as Poet Laureate, 1850.

TO THE QUEEN. II.

An epilogue to The Idylls of the King, in which with fervent loyalty the poet begs her to accept them as a tribute to the memory of

He prays for blessings for the Queen and England.

TO THE REV. F. D. MAURICE.

An invitation to pay a visit to the poet and his family sent by Tennyson to the godfather of Hallam Tennyson.

TO THE REV. W. H. BROOKFIELD.

A sonnet written at the death of an old Cambridge friend. The poet recalls past companionship and prays a blessing for the dead.

TO ULYSSES.

Lines sent by the poet to W. G. Palgrave. Ulysses was the title of a book of Palgrave’s Essays, descriptive of Travels. This poem conveys the poet’s pleasure in this book of Palgrave’s Essays—a ‘various book’—in thanks for which he sends ‘a gift of slenderer value,’ a book of his own.

TOURNEY, THE.

The story of a knight who was victorious in a tourney and won his lady-love. A short poem in three stanzas.

TO VICTOR HUGO.

A sonnet written to Victor Hugo, after Lionel Tennyson had visited the French poet in France.

TO VIRGIL.

A poem in ten stanzas. Tennyson salutes the ancient poet as the

TO W. C. MACREADY.

A sonnet addressed to the actor on his retirement from the stage.

TO —— WITH PALACE OF ART.

Lines in which the poet dedicated his ‘sort of allegory,’ to a friend who ‘will understand.’

TWO VOICES, THE.

The poem is an account of the agitations, the suggestions, and counter-suggestions of a mind sunk in hopeless despondency, and meditating self-destruction; together with the manner of its recovery to a more healthy condition.

ULYSSES.

A short poem. The soliloquy of the aged Ulysses expressing his unconquerable love of adventure. He leaves his son to manage his kingdom and sets forth once more on his voyaging with undiminished zest. The theme of the poem is from Dante’s Inferno, Canto XXVI.

VASTNESS.

A poem in which the poet declares the whole Creation to be simply an unmeaning vastness unless interpreted by the doctrine of the immortality of life and love.

VICTIM, THE.

A narrative poem. An ancient kingdom was ravaged by plague and famine. The priests consulted the gods and declared that only the sacrifice of the ‘nearest and dearest’ to the king would appease their wrath. The priests took the king’s only son, but at the last moment the queen substituted herself for her son, declaring that she was the dearest to the king.

VILLAGE WIFE, THE.

A poem in Lincolnshire dialect, in which an old ‘village wife’ tells the story of an old book-loving, impractical squire, whose estate was entailed, and was to come to the nearest male relation, passing over the squire’s many daughters. The death of the squire and his only son at the same time leaves the daughters entirely unprovided for, and a stranger becomes squire and owner of the estate.

VISION OF SIN, THE.

A poem in which the poet recounts a vision of a purely sensual soul. It may have been suggested by Shelley’s Triumph of Life.

VOICE AND THE PEAK, THE.

The Peak signifies height, the voice of the Peak is drawn downwards, for ‘the deep has power on the height,’ but the ‘thought of man’ is higher and deeper than either, and will endure long after

VOICE SPAKE OUT OF THE SKIES, A.

A fragment. A heavenly voice declares that the earth will endure but for a moment. The poet in answer to a beggar’s cry for food, reflects that if the Voice speak truth, the giving and receiving of food is of very little moment.

VOYAGE, THE.

A poem in twelve stanzas. The story of an endless voyage in the wake of a vision—

VOYAGE OF MAELDUNE, THE.

The story of a legendary Irish Chief who called his men together to sail with him to the Isle of Finn to avenge the death of his father. They reached the Isle, but were blown away before they could land. They continued their voyage and landed at various magic islands in all of which they fought. After a while they came to the Isle of Brendan, who blest them and bade them ‘Let the past be past,’ so when they reached the Isle of Finn where the murderer of Maeldune’s father was, they forewent revenge and left the murderer alive.

WAGES.

‘The wages of sin is death,’ but, says the poet, the wages of virtue is ‘the glory of going on.’ Two stanzas.

WALKING TO THE MAIL.

A conversation in blank verse between two men walking to the mail. They discuss a neighbour and politics, and their own youthful doings.

WANDERER, THE.

Four stanzas in which a ‘wanderer’ bids farewell to his friends and passes on.

WAN SCULPTOR, WEEPEST THOU TO TAKE THE CAST.

A sonnet in which the poet contrasts the grief of a sculptor or painter making a portrait of some dead friend with the greater grief of one who mourns the death of love itself—more generous than the death of love’s object.

WELCOME TO ALEXANDRA, A.

A poem written to welcome the young and beautiful Danish bride of the Prince of Wales—afterwards Edward VII. It is full of enthusiasm and praise for the young Princess, now the Queen-mother.

WELCOME TO H.R.H. MARIE ALEXANDROVNA, DUCHESS OF EDINBURGH.

Another poem of welcome for a bride. It was written at the time of the marriage of the duke of Edinburgh with the Russian princess Marie Alexandrovna.

WILL.

Two stanzas in which the poet praises the man who possesses a strong will and pities the man whose will is weak.

WILL WATERPROOF’S LYRICAL MONOLOGUE.

A monologue of a wine-loving man, seated in his favourite tavern. It is a discourse upon wine and the purely physical pleasures of life, in light, humorous verse.

WINDOW, THE.

A song cycle ‘in the German fashion’ written for music of sir Arthur Sullivan. The story is a series of little songs of the loves of two wrens.

WINDS, AS AT THEIR HOUR OF BIRTH, THE.

A song, in two stanzas, of the freedom of the winds.

WRECK, THE.

A woman, unhappily married, escapes by sea with a more congenial lover than her husband. She is haunted by memories of her only child, and when, after ten days, the boat is wrecked and her lover killed, she cries to be taken back to it. Her remorse comes too late, as the child died on the night of the wreck. The poem is in the form of a story told by the woman herself to her mother.

YOU ASK ME WHY, THO’ ILL AT EASE.

In this poem the poet answers those who question him as to why, in spite of disadvantage, he still chooses to live in England. England is free, ‘a man may speak the thing he will,’ but in spite of his choice of England as a permanent home, the poet desires to visit other lands before he dies.

YOU MIGHT HAVE WON THE POET’S NAME.

A poem written after reading a biography of one who ‘might have won the poet’s name’ but preferred a silent ‘deedful’ life and so escaped the unseemly posthumous publicity which is the lot of poets.