Selections from Wordsworth and Tennyson Part 16

_Crown'd_ has reference to the semblance of a coronet that the hoods of certain snakes, such as cobras, possess.

37. THE DAUGHTER OF A RIVER-G.o.d. Oenone was the daughter of the river Cebrenus in Phrygia.

39-40. AS YONDER WALLS--BREATHED. The walls of Troy were built by Poseidon (Neptune) and Apollo, whom Jupiter had condemned to serve King Laomedon of Troas for a year. The stones were charmed into their places by the breathing of Apollo's flute, as the walls of Thebes are said to have risen to the strain of Amphion's lyre. Compare _t.i.thonus_, 62-63:

"Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing, When Ilion, like a mist, rose into towers."

And cf. also _The Princess_, iii. 326.

42-43. THAT--WOE. Compare _In Memoriam_, V.

50. WHITE HOOVED. Cf. "hooves" for hoofs, in the _Lady of Shalott_, l.

101.

51. SIMOIS. One of the many streams flowing from Mount Ida.

65. HESPERIAN GOLD. The fruit was in colour like the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides. The Hesperides were three (or four) nymphs, the daughters of Hesperus. They dwelt in the remotest west, near Mount Atlas in Africa, and were appointed to guard the golden apples which Here gave to Zeus on the day of their marriage. One of Hercules'

twelve labours was to procure some of these apples. See the articles _Hesperides_ and _Hercules_ in Lempriere.

66. SMELT AMBROSIALLY. Ambrosia was the food of the G.o.ds. Their drink was nectar. The food was sweeter than honey, and of most fragrant odour.

72. WHATEVER OREAD. A cla.s.sical construction. The Oreads were mountain nymphs.

78. FULL-FACED--G.o.dS. This means either that not a face was missing, or refers to the impressive countenances of the G.o.ds. Another possible interpretation is that all their faces were turned full towards the board on which the apple was cast. Compare for this epithet _Lotos Eaters_, 7; and _Princess_, ii. 166.

79. PELEUS. All the G.o.ds, save Eris, were present at the marriage between Peleus and Thetis, a sea-deity. In her anger Eris threw upon the banquet-table the apple which Paris now holds in his hand. Peleus and Thetis were the parents of the famous Achilles.

81. IRIS. The messenger of the G.o.ds. The rainbow is her symbol.

83. DELIVERING=announcing.

89-100. These lines, and the opening lines of the poem are among the best of Tennyson's blank verse lines, and therefore among the best that English poetry contains. The description owes some of its beauty to Homer. In its earlier form, in the volume of 1832-3, it is much less perfect.

132. A CRESTED PEAc.o.c.k. The peac.o.c.k was sacred to Here (Juno).

103. A GOLDEN CLOUD. The G.o.ds were wont to recline upon Olympus beneath a canopy of golden clouds.

104. DROPPING FRAGRANT DEW. Drops of glittering dew fell from the golden cloud which shrouded Here and Zeus. See _Iliad_, XIV, 341 f.

105 f. Here was the queen of Heaven. Power was therefore the gift which she naturally proffered.

114. Supply the ellipsis.

121-122. POWER FITTED--WISDOM. Power that adapts itself to every crisis; power which is born of wisdom and enthroned by wisdom (i.e. does not owe its supremacy to brute strength).

121-122. FROM ALL-ALLEGIANCE. Note the ellipsis and the inversion.

128-131. WHO HAVE ATTAINED--SUPREMACY. Cf. _Lotos Eaters_, l. 155 f, and _Lucretius_, 104-108.

The G.o.ds, who haunt The lucid inters.p.a.ce of world and world Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind, Nor ever falls the least white star of snow, Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans.

137. O'ERTHWARTED WITH=crossed by.

142 f. Compare the tone of Pallas' speech with what has been said in the introduction, p. liv f., concerning Tennyson's love of moderation and restraint, and his belief in the efficacy of law.

Compare also the general temper of the _Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington_, and especially ll. 201-205.

144--148. Yet these qualities are not bestowed with power as the end in view. Power will come without seeking when these great principles of conduct are observed. The main thing is to live and act by the law of the higher Life,--and it is the part of wisdom to follow right for its own sake, whatever the consequences may be.

151. SEQUEL OF GUERDON. To follow up my words with rewards (such as Here proffers) would not make me fairer.

153-164. Pallas reads the weakness of Paris's character, but disdains to offer him a more worldly reward. An access of moral courage will be her sole gift to him, so that he shall front danger and disaster until his powers of endurance grow strong with action, and his full-grown will having pa.s.sed through all experiences, and having become a pure law unto itself, shall be commensurate with perfect freedom, i.e., shall not know that it is circ.u.mscribed by law.

This is the philosophy that we find in Wordsworth's _Ode to Duty_.

Stern Lawgiver! Yet thou dost wear The G.o.dhead's most benignant grace; Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, And fragrance in thy footing treads; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong, And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.

165-167. Note how dramatic this interruption is.

170. IDALIAN APHRODITE. Idalium was a town in Cyprus; an island where the G.o.ddess was especially worshipped. She was frequently called Cypria or the Cyprian.

171. FRESH AS THE FOAM. Aphrodite was born from the waves of the sea, near the Island of Cyprus.

NEW-BATHED IN PAPHIAN WELLS. Paphos was a town in Cyprus. Aphrodite was said to have landed at Paphos after her birth from the sea-foam. She is sometimes called the Paphian or Paphia on this account.

184. SHE SPOKE AND LAUGH'D. Homer calls her "the laughter-loving Aphrodite."

195-l97. A WILD--WEED. The influence of beauty upon the beasts is a common theme with poets. Cf. Una and the lion in Spenser's _Faery Queen_.

204. THEY CUT AWAY MY TALLEST PINES. Evidently to make ships for Paris's expedition to Greece.

235-240. THERE ARE--DIE. Lamartine in _Le Lac_ (written before 1820) has a very similar pa.s.sage.

250. Ca.s.sANDRA. The daughter of King Priam, and therefore the sister of Paris. She had the gift of prophecy.

260. A FIRE DANCES. Signifying the burning of Troy.

THE EPIC AND MORTE D'ARTHUR

First published, with the epilogue as here printed, in 1842. The _Morte d'Arthur_ was subsequently taken out of the present setting, and with substantial expansion appeared as the final poem of the _Idylls of the King_, with the new t.i.tle, _The Pa.s.sing of Arthur_.

Walter Savage Landor doubtless refers to the _Morte d'Arthur_ as early as 1837, when writing to a friend, as follows:--"Yesterday a Mr. Moreton, a young man of rare judgment, read to me a ma.n.u.script by Mr. Tennyson, being different in style from his printed poems. The subject is the Death of Arthur. It is more Homeric than any poem of our time, and rivals some of the n.o.blest parts of the Odyssea." A still earlier composition is a.s.sured by the correspondence of Edward Fitzgerald who writes that, in 1835, while staying at the Speddings in the Lake Country, he met Tennyson and heard the poet read the _Morte d'Arthur_ and other poems of the 1842 volume. They were read out of a MS., "in a little red book to him and Spedding of a night 'when all the house was mute.'"

In _The Epic_ we have specific reference to the Homeric influence in these lines:

"Nay, nay," said Hall, "Why take the style of those heroic times?

For nature brings not back the Mastodon, Nor we those times; and why should any man Remodel models? these twelve books of mine Were faint Homeric echoes, nothing-worth," . . .