:--
O so light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint.
O so light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint.
Tennyson
Is this enough to say
That my desire, like all strongest hopes,
By its own energy fulfilled itself,
Merged in completion? Would you learn at full
How passion rose thro' circumstantial grades
Beyond all grades develop'd? and indeed
I had not staid so long to tell you all,
But while I mused came Memory with sad eyes,
Holding the folded annals of my youth;
And while I mused, Love with knit brows went by,
And with a flying finger swept my lips,
And spake, "Be wise: not easily forgiven
Are those, who setting wide the doors, that bar
The secret bridal chambers of the heart.
Let in the day". Here, then, my words have end.
Yet might I tell of meetings, of farewells--
Of that which came between, more sweet than each,
In whispers, like the whispers of the leaves
That tremble round a nightingale--in sighs
Which perfect Joy, perplex'd for utterance,
Stole from her [10] sister Sorrow. Might I not tell
Of difference, reconcilement, pledges given,
And vows, where there was never need of vows,
And kisses, where the heart on one wild leap
Hung tranced from all pulsation, as above
The heavens between their fairy fleeces pale
Sow'd all their mystic gulfs with fleeting stars;
Or while the balmy glooming, crescent-lit,
Spread the light haze along the river-shores,
And in the hollows; or as once we met
Unheedful, tho' beneath a whispering rain
Night slid down one long stream of sighing wind,
And in her bosom bore the baby, Sleep.
But this whole hour your eyes have been intent
On that veil'd picture--veil'd, for what it holds
May not be dwelt on by the common day.
This prelude has prepared thee. Raise thy soul;
Make thine heart ready with thine eyes: the time
Is come to raise the veil. Behold her there,
As I beheld her ere she knew my heart,
My first, last love; the idol of my youth,
The darling of my manhood, and, alas!
Now the most blessed memory of mine age.
[Footnote 1: 'Cf. Romeo and Juliet', ii. , vi.
:--
O so light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint. ]
[Footnote 2: 'Cf. ' Keats, 'Ode to Nightingale':--
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. ]
[Footnote 3: 'Cf'. Theocritus, 'Id'. , vii. , 143:--
[Greek: pant' _osden thereos mala pionos. ]]
[Footnote 4: Provincial name for the goldfinch. See Tennyson's letter to
the Duke of Argyll, 'Life', ii. , 221. ]
[Footnote 5: This passage is imitated from Theocritus, vii. , 143
'seqq'. ]
[Footnote 6: This passage originally ran:--$
Her beauty grew till drawn in narrowing arcs
The southing autumn touch'd with sallower gleams
The granges on the fallows. At that time,
Tir'd of the noisy town I wander'd there.
The bell toll'd four, and by the time I reach'd
The wicket-gate I found her by herself.
But Fitzgerald pointing out that the autumn landscape was taken from the
background of Titian (Lord Ellesmere's 'Ages of Man') Tennyson struck
out the passage.
That my desire, like all strongest hopes,
By its own energy fulfilled itself,
Merged in completion? Would you learn at full
How passion rose thro' circumstantial grades
Beyond all grades develop'd? and indeed
I had not staid so long to tell you all,
But while I mused came Memory with sad eyes,
Holding the folded annals of my youth;
And while I mused, Love with knit brows went by,
And with a flying finger swept my lips,
And spake, "Be wise: not easily forgiven
Are those, who setting wide the doors, that bar
The secret bridal chambers of the heart.
Let in the day". Here, then, my words have end.
Yet might I tell of meetings, of farewells--
Of that which came between, more sweet than each,
In whispers, like the whispers of the leaves
That tremble round a nightingale--in sighs
Which perfect Joy, perplex'd for utterance,
Stole from her [10] sister Sorrow. Might I not tell
Of difference, reconcilement, pledges given,
And vows, where there was never need of vows,
And kisses, where the heart on one wild leap
Hung tranced from all pulsation, as above
The heavens between their fairy fleeces pale
Sow'd all their mystic gulfs with fleeting stars;
Or while the balmy glooming, crescent-lit,
Spread the light haze along the river-shores,
And in the hollows; or as once we met
Unheedful, tho' beneath a whispering rain
Night slid down one long stream of sighing wind,
And in her bosom bore the baby, Sleep.
But this whole hour your eyes have been intent
On that veil'd picture--veil'd, for what it holds
May not be dwelt on by the common day.
This prelude has prepared thee. Raise thy soul;
Make thine heart ready with thine eyes: the time
Is come to raise the veil. Behold her there,
As I beheld her ere she knew my heart,
My first, last love; the idol of my youth,
The darling of my manhood, and, alas!
Now the most blessed memory of mine age.
[Footnote 1: 'Cf. Romeo and Juliet', ii. , vi.
:--
O so light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint. ]
[Footnote 2: 'Cf. ' Keats, 'Ode to Nightingale':--
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. ]
[Footnote 3: 'Cf'. Theocritus, 'Id'. , vii. , 143:--
[Greek: pant' _osden thereos mala pionos. ]]
[Footnote 4: Provincial name for the goldfinch. See Tennyson's letter to
the Duke of Argyll, 'Life', ii. , 221. ]
[Footnote 5: This passage is imitated from Theocritus, vii. , 143
'seqq'. ]
[Footnote 6: This passage originally ran:--$
Her beauty grew till drawn in narrowing arcs
The southing autumn touch'd with sallower gleams
The granges on the fallows. At that time,
Tir'd of the noisy town I wander'd there.
The bell toll'd four, and by the time I reach'd
The wicket-gate I found her by herself.
But Fitzgerald pointing out that the autumn landscape was taken from the
background of Titian (Lord Ellesmere's 'Ages of Man') Tennyson struck
out the passage.
