No More Learning

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. Tennyson seems to have taken delight in baffling those who wished
to localise his scenes. He went out of his way to say that the
topographical studies of Messrs. Church and Napier were the only ones
which could be relied upon. But Mr. Cuming Walters' book is far more
satisfactory than their thin studies. ]

[Footnote 17: Thus in 1833:--

The white chalk quarry from the hill
Upon the broken ripple gleamed,
I murmured lowly, sitting still,
While round my feet the eddy streamed:
"Oh! that I were the wreath she wreathes,
The mirror where her sight she feeds,
The song she sings, the air she breathes,
The letters of the books she reads". ]


[Footnote 18: 1833.

I loved, but when I dared to speak
My love, the lanes were white with May
Your ripe lips moved not, but your cheek
Flushed like the coming of the day. ]


[Footnote 19: 1833. Rosecheekt, roselipt, half-sly, half-shy. ]

[Footnote 20: Cf. Milton, 'Paradise Lost';--

Two other precious drops that ready stood
He, ere they fell, kiss'd. ]


[Footnote 21: These three stanzas were added in 1842, the following
being excised:--

Remember you the clear moonlight,
That whitened all the eastern ridge,
When o'er the water, dancing white,
I stepped upon the old mill-bridge.
I heard you whisper from above
A lute-toned whisper, "I am here";
I murmured, "Speak again, my love,
The stream is loud: I cannot hear ".