The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Part 2

What nights we had in Egypt!

I could hit His humours while I cross'd him.

O the life I led him, and the dalliance and the wit,

into

We drank the Libyan Sun to sleep, and lit Lamps which outburn'd Canopus.

O my life In Egypt!

O the dalliance and the wit, The flattery and the strife.

Or, in 'Mariana in the South':--

She mov'd her lips, she pray'd alone, She praying, disarray'd and warm From slumber, deep her wavy form In the dark l.u.s.trous mirror shone,

into

Complaining, "Mother, give me grace To help me of my weary load".

And on the liquid mirror glow'd The clear perfection of her face.

How happy is this slight alteration in the verses 'To J. S.' which corrects one of the falsest notes ever struck by a poet:--

A tear Dropt on _my tablets_ as I wrote.

A tear Dropt on _the letters_ as I wrote.

or where in 'Locksley Hall' a splendidly graphic touch of description is gained by the alteration of "_droops_ the trailer from the crag" into "_swings_ the trailer".

So again in 'Love and Duty':--

Should my shadow cross thy thoughts Too sadly for their peace, _so put it back_.

For calmer hours in memory's darkest hold,

where by altering "so put it back" into "remand it thou," a somewhat ludicrous image is at all events softened.

What great care Tennyson took with his phraseology is curiously ill.u.s.trated in 'The May Queen'. In the 1842 edition "Robin" was the name of the May Queen's lover. In 1843 it was altered to "Robert," and in 1845 and subsequent editions back to "Robin".

Compare, again, the old stanza in 'The Miller's Daughter':--

How dear to me in youth, my love, Was everything about the mill; The black and silent pool above, The pool beneath it never still,

with what was afterwards subst.i.tuted:--

I loved the br.i.m.m.i.n.g wave that swam Through quiet meadows round the mill, The sleepy pool above the dam, The pool beneath it never still.

Another most felicitous emendation is to be found in 'The Poet', where the edition of 1830 reads:--

And in the bordure of her robe was writ Wisdom, a name to shake h.o.a.r anarchies, as with a thunderfit.

This in 1842 appears as:--

And in her raiment's hem was trac'd in flame Wisdom, a name to shake All evil dreams of power--a sacred name.

Again, in the 'Lotos Eaters'

_Three thunder-cloven thrones of oldest snow_ Stood sunset-flushed

is changed into

_Three silent pinnacles of aged snow_.

So in 'Will Waterproof' the c.u.mbrous

Like Hezekiah's backward runs The shadow of my days,

was afterwards simplified into

Against its fountain upward runs The current of my days.

Not less felicitous have been the additions made from time to time. Thus in 'Audley Court' the concluding lines ran:--

The harbour buoy, With one green sparkle ever and anon Dipt by itself.

But what vividness is there in the subsequent insertion of

"Sole star of phosph.o.r.escence in the calm."

between the first line and the second.

So again in the 'Morte d'Arthur' how greatly are imagery and rhythm improved by the insertion of