Note 11 — Early Poems (continued 3)

Tennyson said that this simile was suggested by a passage in Pringle’s Travels; the incident only is described, and with thrilling vividness, by Pringle; but its application in simile is Tennyson’s. See A Narrative of a Residence in South Africa, by Thomas Pringle, p. 39: “The night was extremely dark and the rain fell so heavily that in spite of the abundant supply of dry firewood, which we had luckily provided, it was not without difficulty that we could keep one watchfire burning.... About midnight we were suddenly roused by the roar of a lion close to our tents. It was so loud and tremendous that for the moment I actually thought that a thunderstorm had burst upon us.... We roused up the half-extinguished fire to a roaring blaze ... this unwonted display probably daunted our grim visitor, for he gave us no further trouble that night.”