For me the torrent ever pour'd
And glisten'd--here and there alone
The broad-limb'd Gods at random thrown
By fountain-urns;-and Naiads oar'd
A glimmering shoulder under gloom
Of cavern pillars; on the swell
The silver lily heaved and fell;
And many a slope was rich in bloom
From him that on the mountain lea
By dancing rivulets fed his flocks,
To him who sat upon the rocks,
And fluted to the morning sea.
And glisten'd--here and there alone
The broad-limb'd Gods at random thrown
By fountain-urns;-and Naiads oar'd
A glimmering shoulder under gloom
Of cavern pillars; on the swell
The silver lily heaved and fell;
And many a slope was rich in bloom
From him that on the mountain lea
By dancing rivulets fed his flocks,
To him who sat upon the rocks,
And fluted to the morning sea.
Tennyson
My Shakespeare's curse on [1] clown and knave
Who will not let his ashes rest!
Who make it seem more sweet [2] to be
The little life of bank and brier,
The bird that pipes his lone desire
And dies unheard within his tree,
Than he that warbles long and loud
And drops at Glory's temple-gates,
For whom the carrion vulture waits
To tear his heart before the crowd!
[Footnote 1: In Examiner and in 1850. My curse upon the. ]
[Footnote 2: In Examiner. Sweeter seem. For the sentiment 'cf'. Goethe:--
Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt
Der in den Zweigen wohnet;
Das Lied das aus dem Seele dringt
Ist Lohn, der reichlich lohnet.
--'Der Sanger'. ]
TO E. L. ,
ON HIS TRAVELS IN GREECE
This was first printed in 1853. It has not been altered since. The poem
was addressed to Edward Lear, the landscape painter, and refers to his
travels.
Illyrian woodlands, echoing falls
Of water, sheets of summer glass,
The long divine Peneian pass, [1]
The vast Akrokeraunian walls, [2]
Tomohrit, [3] Athos, all things fair,
With such a pencil, such a pen,
You shadow forth to distant men,
I read and felt that I was there:
And trust me, while I turn'd the page,
And track'd you still on classic ground,
I grew in gladness till I found
My spirits in the golden age.
For me the torrent ever pour'd
And glisten'd--here and there alone
The broad-limb'd Gods at random thrown
By fountain-urns;-and Naiads oar'd
A glimmering shoulder under gloom
Of cavern pillars; on the swell
The silver lily heaved and fell;
And many a slope was rich in bloom
From him that on the mountain lea
By dancing rivulets fed his flocks,
To him who sat upon the rocks,
And fluted to the morning sea.
[Footnote 1: 'Cf'. Lear's description of Tempe:
"It is not a vale, it is a narrow pass, and although extremely
beautiful on account of the precipitous rocks on each side, the Peneus
flowing deep in the midst between the richest overhanging plane woods,
still its character is distinctly that of a ravine. "
--'Journal', 409. ]
[Footnote 2: The Akrokeraunian walls: the promontory now called Glossa. ]
[Footnote 3: Tomohr, Tomorit, or Tomohritt is a lofty mountain in
Albania not far from Elbassan. Lear's account of it is very graphic:
"That calm blue plain with Tomohr in the midst like an azure island in
a boundless sea haunts my mind's eye and varies the present with the
past". ]
LADY CLARE
First published 1842. After 1851 no alterations were made.
This poem was suggested by Miss Ferrier's powerful novel 'The
Inheritance'. A comparison with the plot of Miss Ferrier's novel will
show with what tact and skill Tennyson has adapted the tale to his
ballad. Thomas St. Clair, youngest son of the Earl of Rossville, marries
a Miss Sarah Black, a girl of humble and obscure birth. He dies, leaving
a widow and as is supposed a daughter, Gertrude, who claim the
protection of Lord Rossville, as the child is heiress presumptive to the
earldom. On Lord Rossville's death she accordingly becomes Countess of
Rossville. She has two lovers, both distant connections, Colonel Delmour
and Edward Lyndsay.
