Thus in 1833:--
Remember you that pleasant day
When, after roving in the woods,
('Twas April then) I came and lay
Beneath those gummy chestnut bud
That glistened in the April blue,
Upon the slope so smooth and cool,
I lay and never thought of _you_,
But angled in the deep mill pool.
Remember you that pleasant day
When, after roving in the woods,
('Twas April then) I came and lay
Beneath those gummy chestnut bud
That glistened in the April blue,
Upon the slope so smooth and cool,
I lay and never thought of _you_,
But angled in the deep mill pool.
Tennyson
Own sweet wife.
]
[Footnote 4: This stanza was added in 1842. ]
[Footnote 5: 1833.
My father's mansion, mounted high
Looked down upon the village spire.
I was a long and listless boy,
And son and heir unto the squire. ]
[Footnote 6: 1833. In these dear walls. ]
[Footnote 7: 1833.
I often heard the cooing dove
In firry woodlands mourn alone. ]
[Footnote 8: 1833. The long mosses. ]
[Footnote 9: 1842-1851. Where. ]
[Footnote 10: This stanza was added in 1842, taking the place of the
following which was excised:--
Sometimes I whistled in the wind,
Sometimes I angled, thought and deed
Torpid, as swallows left behind
That winter 'neath the floating weed:
At will to wander every way
From brook to brook my sole delight,
As lithe eels over meadows gray
Oft shift their glimmering pool by night.
In 1833 this stanza ran thus:--
I loved from off the bridge to hear
The rushing sound the water made,
And see the fish that everywhere
In the back-current glanced and played;
Low down the tall flag-flower that sprung
Beside the noisy stepping-stones,
And the massed chestnut boughs that hung
Thick-studded over with white cones,]
[Footnote 11: In 1833 the following took the place of the above stanza
which was added in 1842:--
How dear to me in youth, my love,
Was everything about the mill,
The black and silent pool above,
The pool beneath that ne'er stood still,
The meal sacks on the whitened floor,
The dark round of the dripping wheel,
The very air about the door--
Made misty with the floating meal!
Thus in 1833:--
Remember you that pleasant day
When, after roving in the woods,
('Twas April then) I came and lay
Beneath those gummy chestnut bud
That glistened in the April blue,
Upon the slope so smooth and cool,
I lay and never thought of _you_,
But angled in the deep mill pool. ]
[Footnote 12: Thus in 1833:--
A water-rat from off the bank
Plunged in the stream. With idle care,
Downlooking thro' the sedges rank,
I saw your troubled image there.
Upon the dark and dimpled beck
It wandered like a floating light,
A full fair form, a warm white neck,
And two white arms--how rosy white! ]
[Footnote 13: 1872. Casement-edge. ]
[Footnote 14: Thus in 1833:--
If you remember, you had set
Upon the narrow casement-edge
A long green box of mignonette,
And you were leaning from the ledge.
I raised my eyes at once: above
They met two eyes so blue and bright,
Such eyes! I swear to you, my love,
That they have never lost their light.
After this stanza the following was inserted in 1833 but excised in
1842:--
That slope beneath the chestnut tall
Is wooed with choicest breaths of air:
Methinks that I could tell you all
The cowslips and the kingcups there.
Each coltsfoot down the grassy bent,
Whose round leaves hold the gathered shower,
Each quaintly-folded cuckoo pint,
And silver-paly cuckoo flower. ]
[Footnote 15: Thus in 1833:--
In rambling on the eastern wold,
When thro' the showery April nights
Their hueless crescent glimmered cold,
From all the other village lights
I knew your taper far away.
My heart was full of trembling hope,
Down from the wold I came and lay
Upon the dewy-swarded slope. ]
[Footnote 16; Mr. Cuming Walters in his interesting volume 'In Tennyson
Land', p. 75, notices that the white chalk quarry at Thetford can be
seen from Stockworth Mill, which seems to show that if Tennyson did take
the mill from Trumpington he must also have had his mind on Thetford
Mill.
[Footnote 4: This stanza was added in 1842. ]
[Footnote 5: 1833.
My father's mansion, mounted high
Looked down upon the village spire.
I was a long and listless boy,
And son and heir unto the squire. ]
[Footnote 6: 1833. In these dear walls. ]
[Footnote 7: 1833.
I often heard the cooing dove
In firry woodlands mourn alone. ]
[Footnote 8: 1833. The long mosses. ]
[Footnote 9: 1842-1851. Where. ]
[Footnote 10: This stanza was added in 1842, taking the place of the
following which was excised:--
Sometimes I whistled in the wind,
Sometimes I angled, thought and deed
Torpid, as swallows left behind
That winter 'neath the floating weed:
At will to wander every way
From brook to brook my sole delight,
As lithe eels over meadows gray
Oft shift their glimmering pool by night.
In 1833 this stanza ran thus:--
I loved from off the bridge to hear
The rushing sound the water made,
And see the fish that everywhere
In the back-current glanced and played;
Low down the tall flag-flower that sprung
Beside the noisy stepping-stones,
And the massed chestnut boughs that hung
Thick-studded over with white cones,]
[Footnote 11: In 1833 the following took the place of the above stanza
which was added in 1842:--
How dear to me in youth, my love,
Was everything about the mill,
The black and silent pool above,
The pool beneath that ne'er stood still,
The meal sacks on the whitened floor,
The dark round of the dripping wheel,
The very air about the door--
Made misty with the floating meal!
Thus in 1833:--
Remember you that pleasant day
When, after roving in the woods,
('Twas April then) I came and lay
Beneath those gummy chestnut bud
That glistened in the April blue,
Upon the slope so smooth and cool,
I lay and never thought of _you_,
But angled in the deep mill pool. ]
[Footnote 12: Thus in 1833:--
A water-rat from off the bank
Plunged in the stream. With idle care,
Downlooking thro' the sedges rank,
I saw your troubled image there.
Upon the dark and dimpled beck
It wandered like a floating light,
A full fair form, a warm white neck,
And two white arms--how rosy white! ]
[Footnote 13: 1872. Casement-edge. ]
[Footnote 14: Thus in 1833:--
If you remember, you had set
Upon the narrow casement-edge
A long green box of mignonette,
And you were leaning from the ledge.
I raised my eyes at once: above
They met two eyes so blue and bright,
Such eyes! I swear to you, my love,
That they have never lost their light.
After this stanza the following was inserted in 1833 but excised in
1842:--
That slope beneath the chestnut tall
Is wooed with choicest breaths of air:
Methinks that I could tell you all
The cowslips and the kingcups there.
Each coltsfoot down the grassy bent,
Whose round leaves hold the gathered shower,
Each quaintly-folded cuckoo pint,
And silver-paly cuckoo flower. ]
[Footnote 15: Thus in 1833:--
In rambling on the eastern wold,
When thro' the showery April nights
Their hueless crescent glimmered cold,
From all the other village lights
I knew your taper far away.
My heart was full of trembling hope,
Down from the wold I came and lay
Upon the dewy-swarded slope. ]
[Footnote 16; Mr. Cuming Walters in his interesting volume 'In Tennyson
Land', p. 75, notices that the white chalk quarry at Thetford can be
seen from Stockworth Mill, which seems to show that if Tennyson did take
the mill from Trumpington he must also have had his mind on Thetford
Mill.
