The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Part 19

[Footnote 7: 1830 till 1851. Through.]

A DIRGE

First printed in 1830.

1

Now is done thy long day's work; Fold thy palms across thy breast, Fold thine arms, turn to thy rest.

Let them rave.

Shadows of the silver birk [1]

Sweep the green that folds thy grave.

Let them rave.

2

Thee nor carketh [2] care nor slander; Nothing but the small cold worm Fretteth thine enshrouded form.

Let them rave.

Light and shadow ever wander O'er the green that folds thy grave.

Let them rave.

3

Thou wilt not turn upon thy bed; Chaunteth not the brooding bee Sweeter tones than calumny?

Let them rave.

Thou wilt never raise thine head From the green that folds thy grave.

Let them rave.

4

Crocodiles wept tears for thee; The woodbine and eglatere Drip sweeter dews than traitor's tear.

Let them rave.

Rain makes music in the tree O'er the green that folds thy grave.

Let them rave.

5

Round thee blow, self-pleached [1] deep, Bramble-roses, faint and pale, And long purples [2] of the dale.

Let them rave.

These in every shower creep.

Thro' [3] the green that folds thy grave.

Let them rave.

6

The gold-eyed kingcups fine: The frail bluebell peereth over Rare broidry of the purple clover.

Let them rave.

Kings have no such couch as thine, As the green that folds thy grave.

Let them rave.

7

Wild words wander here and there; G.o.d's great gift of speech abused Makes thy memory confused: But let them rave.

The balm-cricket [4] carols clear In the green that folds thy grave.

Let them rave.

[Footnote 1: Still used in the north of England for "birch".]

[Footnote 2: Carketh. Here used transitively, "troubles," though in Old English it is generally intransitive, meaning to be careful or thoughtful; it is from the Anglo-Saxon 'Carian'; it became obsolete in the seventeenth century. The substantive cark, trouble or anxiety, is generally in Old English coupled with "care".]

[Footnote 3: Self-pleached, self-entangled or intertwined. 'Cf'.

Shakespeare, "pleached bower," 'Much Ado', iii., i., 7.]

[Footnote 4: 1830. "'Long purples'," thus marking that the phrase is borrowed from Shakespeare, 'Hamlet', iv., vii., 169:--

and 'long purples'

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name.

It is the purple-flowered orchis, 'orchis mascula'.]

[Footnote 5: 1830. Through.]

[Footnote 6: Balm cricket, the tree cricket; 'balm' is a corruption of 'baum'.]

LOVE AND DEATH

First printed in 1830.

What time the mighty moon was gathering light [1]

Love paced the thymy plots of Paradise, And all about him roll'd his l.u.s.trous eyes; When, turning round a ca.s.sia, full in view Death, walking all alone beneath a yew, And talking to himself, first met his sight: "You must begone," said Death, "these walks are mine".

Love wept and spread his sheeny vans [2] for flight; Yet ere he parted said, "This hour is thine; Thou art the shadow of life, and as the tree Stands in the sun and shadows all beneath, So in the light of great eternity Life eminent creates the shade of death; The shadow pa.s.seth when the tree shall fall, But I shall reign for ever over all". [3]