No More Learning

All the editions up to, and including, that of 1898 have been carefully
collated, so that the student of Tennyson can follow step by step the
process by which he arrived at that perfection of expression which is
perhaps his most striking characteristic as a poet. And it was indeed a
trophy of labour, of the application "of patient touches of unwearied
art". Whoever will turn, say to 'The Palace of Art,' to '? none,' to the
'Dream of Fair Women,' or even to 'The Sea-Fairies' and to 'The Lady of
Shalott,' will see what labour was expended on their composition.
Nothing indeed can be more interesting than to note the touches, the
substitution of which measured the whole distance between mediocrity and
excellence. Take, for example, the magical alteration in the couplet in
the 'Dream of Fair Women':--


One drew a sharp knife thro' my tender throat
Slowly,--and nothing more,


into


The bright death quiver'd at the victim's throat;
Touch'd; and I knew no more.


Or, in the same poem:--


What nights we had in Egypt!
I could hit His humours while I cross'd him.
O the life I led him, and the dalliance and the wit,


into

We drank the Libyan Sun to sleep, and lit
Lamps which outburn'd Canopus.
O my life In Egypt!
O the dalliance and the wit,
The flattery and the strife.


Or, in 'Mariana in the South':--

She mov'd her lips, she pray'd alone,
She praying, disarray'd and warm
From slumber, deep her wavy form
In the dark lustrous mirror shone,

into

Complaining, "Mother, give me grace
To help me of my weary load".
And on the liquid mirror glow'd
The clear perfection of her face.


How happy is this slight alteration in the verses 'To J. S.
' which
corrects one of the falsest notes ever struck by a poet:--

A tear Dropt on _my tablets_ as I wrote.

A tear Dropt on _the letters_ as I wrote.

or where in 'Locksley Hall' a splendidly graphic touch of description is
gained by the alteration of "_droops_ the trailer from the crag" into
"_swings_ the trailer".

So again in 'Love and Duty':--

Should my shadow cross thy thoughts
Too sadly for their peace, _so put it back_.
For calmer hours in memory's darkest hold,

where by altering "so put it back" into "remand it thou," a somewhat
ludicrous image is at all events softened.

What great care Tennyson took with his phraseology is curiously
illustrated in 'The May Queen'. In the 1842 edition "Robin" was the name
of the May Queen's lover. In 1843 it was altered to "Robert," and in
1845 and subsequent editions back to "Robin".

Compare, again, the old stanza in 'The Miller's Daughter':--

How dear to me in youth, my love,
Was everything about the mill;
The black and silent pool above,
The pool beneath it never still,


with what was afterwards substituted:--


I loved the brimming wave that swam
Through quiet meadows round the mill,
The sleepy pool above the dam,
The pool beneath it never still.


Another most felicitous emendation is to be found in 'The Poet',
where the edition of 1830 reads:--


And in the bordure of her robe was writ
Wisdom, a name to shake
Hoar anarchies, as with a thunderfit.


This in 1842 appears as:--


And in her raiment's hem was trac'd in flame
Wisdom, a name to shake
All evil dreams of power--a sacred name.


Again, in the 'Lotos Eaters'


_Three thunder-cloven thrones of oldest snow_
Stood sunset-flushed


is changed into

_Three silent pinnacles of aged snow_.


So in 'Will Waterproof' the cumbrous


Like Hezekiah's backward runs The shadow of my days,


was afterwards simplified into


Against its fountain upward runs
The current of my days.


Not less felicitous have been the additions made from time to time. Thus
in 'Audley Court' the concluding lines ran:--


The harbour buoy,
With one green sparkle ever and anon
Dipt by itself.


But what vividness is there in the subsequent insertion of


"Sole star of phosphorescence in the calm.