The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Part 66

The prudent partner of his blood Lean'd on him, faithful, gentle, good, [13]

Wearing the rose of womanhood.

And in their double love secure, The little maiden walk'd demure, Pacing with downward eyelids pure.

These three made unity so sweet, My frozen heart began to beat, Remembering its ancient heat.

I blest them, and they wander'd on: I spoke, but answer came there none: The dull and bitter voice was gone.

A second voice was at mine ear, A little whisper silver-clear, A murmur, "Be of better cheer".

As from some blissful neighbourhood, A notice faintly understood, "I see the end, and know the good".

A little hint to solace woe, A hint, a whisper breathing low, "I may not speak of what I know".

Like an Aeolian harp that wakes No certain air, but overtakes Far thought with music that it makes:

Such seem'd the whisper at my side: "What is it thou knowest, sweet voice?" I cried.

"A hidden hope," the voice replied:

So heavenly-toned, that in that hour From out my sullen heart a power Broke, like the rainbow from the shower,

To feel, altho' no tongue can prove That every cloud, that spreads above And veileth love, itself is love.

And forth into the fields I went, And Nature's living motion lent The pulse of hope to discontent.

I wonder'd at the bounteous hours, The slow result of winter showers: You scarce could see the gra.s.s for flowers.

I wonder'd, while I paced along: The woods were fill'd so full with song, There seem'd no room for sense of wrong.

So variously seem'd all things wrought, [14]

I marvell'd how the mind was brought To anchor by one gloomy thought;

And wherefore rather I made choice To commune with that barren voice, Than him that said, "Rejoice! rejoice!"

[Footnote 1: The insensibility of Nature to man's death has been the eloquent theme of many poets. 'Cf'. Byron, 'Lara', canto ii. 'ad init'., and Matthew Arnold, 'The Youth of Nature'.]

[Footnote 2: 'Cf. Palace of Art', "the riddle of the painful earth".]

[Footnote 3: 'Seq'. The reference is to Acts of the Apostles vii.

54-60.]

[Footnote 4: Suggested by Shakespeare, 'Julius Caesar', Act v., Sc.

5:--

and _the elements_ So mix'd in' him that Nature, etc.]

[Footnote 5: An excellent commentary on this is Clough's

_Perche pensa, pensando vecchia_.]

[Footnote 6: 'Cf'. Job xiv. 21:

"His sons come to honour, and he knowcth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them."]

[Footnote 7: So Bishop Butler, 'a.n.a.logy', ch. i.:

"We cannot argue _from the reason of the thing_ that death is the destruction of living agents because we know not at all what death is in itself, but only some of its effects".]

[Footnote 8: So Milton, enfolding this idea of death, 'Paradise Lost', ii., 672-3:--

What seemed his head The _likeness_ of a kingly crown had on.]

[Footnote 9: 'Cf'. Plato, 'Phaedo', x.:--

[Greek: ara echei alaetheian tina opsis te kai akoae tois anthr_opois.

Ae ta ge toiauta kai oi poiaetai haemin aei thrulousin oti out akouomen akribes ouden oute or_omen]

"Have sight and hearing any truth in them? Are they not, as poets are always telling us, inaccurate witnesses?"

The proper commentary on the whole of this pa.s.sage is Plato 'pa.s.sim', but the 'Phaedo' particularly, 'cf. Republic', vii., viii. and xiv.-xv.]

[Footnote 10: An allusion to the myth that when souls are sent to occupy a body again they drink of Lethe that they may forget their previous existence. See the famous pa.s.sage towards the end of the tenth book of Plato's 'Republic':

"All persons are compelled to drink a certain quant.i.ty of the water, but those who are not preserved by prudence drink more than the quant.i.ty, and each as he drinks forgets everything".

So Milton, 'Paradise Lost', ii., 582-4.]

[Footnote 11: The best commentary on this will be found in Herbert Spencer's 'Psychology'.]

[Footnote 12: Compare with this Tennyson's first sonnet ('Works', Globe Edition, 25), and the lines in the 'Ancient Sage' in the 'Pa.s.sion of the Past' ('Id'., 551). 'Cf'. too the lines in Wordsworth's ode on 'Intimations of Immortality':--

But there's a tree, of many one, A single field which I have looked upon, Both of them speak of something that is gone; The pansy at my feet Doth the same tale repeat.

For other remarkable ill.u.s.trations of this see the present writer's 'Ill.u.s.trations of Tennyson', p. 38.]

[Footnote 13: 'Cf'. Coleridge, 'Ancient Mariner, iv'.:--

"O happy living things ... I blessed them The self-same moment I could pray."