The hardy plough-swain unto mighty Jove
Hath _trac'd his silver furrows in the heaven_,
which in its turn is borrowed from Ariosto, 'Orl.
Hath _trac'd his silver furrows in the heaven_,
which in its turn is borrowed from Ariosto, 'Orl.
Tennyson
; 'Locksley
Hall', 141, and for the same distinction see Cowper, 'Task',
vi. , 88-99. ]
[Footnote 3: Suggested by Theocritus, 'Id'. , xv. , 104-5. ]
[Footnote 4: 1842 to 1845. O then like those, that clench. ]
[Footnote 5: Pathos, in the Greek sense, "suffering". All editions up to
and including 1850 have a small "s" and a small "m" for Shadow and
Memory, and read thus:--
Too sadly for their peace, so put it back
For calmer hours in memory's darkest hold,
If unforgotten! should it cross thy dreams,
So might it come, etc. ]
[Footnote 6: 'Cf. Princess', iii. :--
Morn in the white wake of the morning star
Came furrowing all the orient into gold,
and with both cf. Greene, 'Orlando Furioso', i. , 2:--
Seest thou not Lycaon's son?
The hardy plough-swain unto mighty Jove
Hath _trac'd his silver furrows in the heaven_,
which in its turn is borrowed from Ariosto, 'Orl. Fur. ', xx. ,
lxxxii. :--
Apena avea Licaonia prole
Per li solchi del ciel volto
L'aratro. ]
THE GOLDEN YEAR
This poem was first published in the fourth edition of the poems 1846.
No alterations were made in it after 1851. The poem had a message for
the time at which it was written. The country was in a very troubled
state. The contest between the Protectionists and Free-traders was at
its acutest stage. The Maynooth endowment and the "godless colleges" had
brought into prominence questions of the gravest moment in religion and
education, while the Corn Bill and the Coercion Bill had inflamed the
passions of party politicians almost to madness. Tennyson, his son tells
us, entered heartily into these questions, believing that the remedies
for these distempers lay in the spread of education, a more catholic
spirit in the press, a partial adoption of Free Trade principles, and
union as far as possible among the different sections of Christianity.
Well, you shall have that song which Leonard wrote:
It was last summer on a tour in Wales:
Old James was with me: we that day had been
Up Snowdon; and I wish'd for Leonard there,
And found him in Llanberis: [1] then we crost
Between the lakes, and clamber'd half-way up
The counterside; and that same song of his
He told me; for I banter'd him, and swore
They said he lived shut up within himself,
A tongue-tied Poet in the feverous days,
That, setting the _how much_ before the _how_,
Cry, like the daughters of the horseleech, "Give, [2]
Cram us with all," but count not me the herd!
To which "They call me what they will," he said:
"But I was born too late: the fair new forms,
That float about the threshold of an age,
Like truths of Science waiting to be caught--
Catch me who can, and make the catcher crown'd--
Are taken by the forelock. Let it be.
But if you care indeed to listen, hear
These measured words, my work of yestermorn.
Hall', 141, and for the same distinction see Cowper, 'Task',
vi. , 88-99. ]
[Footnote 3: Suggested by Theocritus, 'Id'. , xv. , 104-5. ]
[Footnote 4: 1842 to 1845. O then like those, that clench. ]
[Footnote 5: Pathos, in the Greek sense, "suffering". All editions up to
and including 1850 have a small "s" and a small "m" for Shadow and
Memory, and read thus:--
Too sadly for their peace, so put it back
For calmer hours in memory's darkest hold,
If unforgotten! should it cross thy dreams,
So might it come, etc. ]
[Footnote 6: 'Cf. Princess', iii. :--
Morn in the white wake of the morning star
Came furrowing all the orient into gold,
and with both cf. Greene, 'Orlando Furioso', i. , 2:--
Seest thou not Lycaon's son?
The hardy plough-swain unto mighty Jove
Hath _trac'd his silver furrows in the heaven_,
which in its turn is borrowed from Ariosto, 'Orl. Fur. ', xx. ,
lxxxii. :--
Apena avea Licaonia prole
Per li solchi del ciel volto
L'aratro. ]
THE GOLDEN YEAR
This poem was first published in the fourth edition of the poems 1846.
No alterations were made in it after 1851. The poem had a message for
the time at which it was written. The country was in a very troubled
state. The contest between the Protectionists and Free-traders was at
its acutest stage. The Maynooth endowment and the "godless colleges" had
brought into prominence questions of the gravest moment in religion and
education, while the Corn Bill and the Coercion Bill had inflamed the
passions of party politicians almost to madness. Tennyson, his son tells
us, entered heartily into these questions, believing that the remedies
for these distempers lay in the spread of education, a more catholic
spirit in the press, a partial adoption of Free Trade principles, and
union as far as possible among the different sections of Christianity.
Well, you shall have that song which Leonard wrote:
It was last summer on a tour in Wales:
Old James was with me: we that day had been
Up Snowdon; and I wish'd for Leonard there,
And found him in Llanberis: [1] then we crost
Between the lakes, and clamber'd half-way up
The counterside; and that same song of his
He told me; for I banter'd him, and swore
They said he lived shut up within himself,
A tongue-tied Poet in the feverous days,
That, setting the _how much_ before the _how_,
Cry, like the daughters of the horseleech, "Give, [2]
Cram us with all," but count not me the herd!
To which "They call me what they will," he said:
"But I was born too late: the fair new forms,
That float about the threshold of an age,
Like truths of Science waiting to be caught--
Catch me who can, and make the catcher crown'd--
Are taken by the forelock. Let it be.
But if you care indeed to listen, hear
These measured words, my work of yestermorn.
