The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Part 13

MADELINE

First published in 1830.

1

Thou art not steep'd in golden languors, No tranced summer calm is thine, Ever varying Madeline.

Thro' [1] light and shadow thou dost range, Sudden glances, sweet and strange, Delicious spites and darling angers, And airy [2] forms of flitting change.

2

Smiling, frowning, evermore, Thou art perfect in love-lore.

Revealings deep and clear are thine Of wealthy smiles: but who may know Whether smile or frown be fleeter?

Whether smile or frown be sweeter, Who may know?

Frowns perfect-sweet along the brow Light-glooming over eyes divine, Like little clouds sun-fringed, are thine, Ever varying Madeline.

Thy smile and frown are not aloof From one another, Each to each is dearest brother; Hues of the silken sheeny woof Momently shot into each other.

All the mystery is thine; Smiling, frowning, evermore, Thou art perfect in love-lore, Ever varying Madeline.

3

A subtle, sudden flame, By veering pa.s.sion fann'd, About thee breaks and dances When I would kiss thy hand, The flush of anger'd shame O'erflows thy calmer glances, And o'er black brows drops down A sudden curved frown: But when I turn away, Thou, willing me to stay, Wooest not, nor vainly wranglest; But, looking fixedly the while, All my bounding heart entanglest In a golden-netted smile; Then in madness and in bliss, If my lips should dare to kiss Thy taper fingers amorously, [3]

Again thou blushest angerly; And o'er black brows drops down A sudden-curved frown.

[Footnote 1: 1830. Through.]

[Footnote 2: 1830. Aery.]

[Footnote 3: 1830. Three-times-three; though noted as an _erratum_ for amorously.]

SONG.--THE OWL

First printed in 1830.

1

When cats run home and light is come, And dew is cold upon the ground, And the far-off stream is dumb, And the whirring sail goes round, And the whirring sail goes round; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits.

2

When merry milkmaids click the latch, And rarely smells the new-mown hay, And the c.o.c.k hath sung beneath the thatch Twice or thrice his roundelay, Twice or thrice his roundelay; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits.

SECOND SONG

TO THE SAME.

First printed in 1830.

1

Thy tuwhits are lull'd I wot, Thy tuwhoos of yesternight, Which upon the dark afloat, So took echo with delight, So took echo with delight, That her voice untuneful grown, Wears all day a fainter tone.

2

I would mock thy chaunt anew; But I cannot mimick it; Not a whit of thy tuwhoo, Thee to woo to thy tuwhit, Thee to woo to thy tuwhit, With a lengthen'd loud halloo, Tuwhoo, tuwhit, tuwhit, tuwhoo-o-o.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

First printed in 1830.

With this poem should be compared the description of Harun al Rashid's Garden of Gladness in the story of Nur-al-din Ali and the damsel Anis al Talis in the Thirty-Sixth Night. The style appears to have been modelled on Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' and 'Lewti', and the influence of Coleridge is very perceptible throughout the poem.

When the breeze of a joyful dawn blew free In the silken sail of infancy, The tide of time flow'd back with me, The forward-flowing tide of time; And many a sheeny summer-morn, Adown the Tigris I was borne, By Bagdat's shrines of fretted gold, High-walled gardens green and old; True Mussulman was I and sworn, For it was in the golden prime [1]

Of good Haroun Alraschid.

Anight my shallop, rustling thro' [2]

The low and bloomed foliage, drove The fragrant, glistening deeps, and clove The citron-shadows in the blue: By garden porches on the brim, The costly doors flung open wide, Gold glittering thro' [3] lamplight dim, And broider'd sofas [4] on each side: In sooth it was a goodly time, For it was in the golden prime Of good Haroun Alraschid.

Often, where clear-stemm'd platans guard The outlet, did I turn away The boat-head down a broad ca.n.a.l From the main river sluiced, where all The sloping of the moon-lit sward Was damask-work, and deep inlay Of braided blooms [5] unmown, which crept Adown to where the waters slept.

A goodly place, a goodly time, For it was in the golden prime Of good Haroun Alraschid.

A motion from the river won Ridged the smooth level, bearing on My shallop thro' the star-strown calm, Until another night in night I enter'd, from the clearer light, Imbower'd vaults of pillar'd palm, Imprisoning sweets, which, as they clomb Heavenward, were stay'd beneath the dome Of hollow boughs.--A goodly time, For it was in the golden prime Of good Haroun Alraschid.

Still onward; and the clear ca.n.a.l Is rounded to as clear a lake.

From the green rivage many a fall Of diamond rillets musical, Thro' little crystal [6] arches low Down from the central fountain's flow Fall'n silver-chiming, seem'd to shake The sparkling flints beneath the prow.