The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Collins, John Churton, 1848-1908, Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 1809-1892
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A word from our supporters: File extension DJVU | [Footnote 1: With the picture of Eleaenore may be compared the description which Ibycus gives of Euryalus. See Bergk's 'Anthologia Lyrica' (Ibycus), p. 396.] [Footnote 2: With yellow banded bees 'cf'. Keats's "yellow girted bees," 'Endymion', i. With this may be compared Pindar's beautiful picture of lamus, who was also fed on honey, 'Olympian', vi., 50-80.] [Footnote 3: 1833 and 1842. Through.] [Footnote 4: Till 1857. Island.] [Footnote 5: 1833. Meer.] [Footnote 6: 1842 and 1843. Though.] [Footnote 7: Ambrosial, the Greek sense of [Greek: ambrosios], divine.] [Footnote 8: 1833 to 1851. Though.] [Footnote 9: 1833. Did roof noonday with doubt and fear.] [Footnote 10: 1833. Roll into a quiet cove, There fall away, and lying still, Having glorious dreams in sleep, Shadow forth the banks at will.] [Footnote 11: 'Cf.' Horace, 'Odes', iii., xxvii., 66-8: Perfidum ridens Venus, et _remisso_ Filius _arcu_.] [Footnote 12: 1833. Of mortal beauty.] [Footnote 13: 1833. Then I faint, I swoon. The latter part of the eighth stanza is little more than an adaptation of Sappho's famous Ode, filtered perhaps through the version of Catullus.] [Footnote 14: It is curious that a poet so scrupulous as Tennyson should have retained to the last the italics.] THE MILLER'S DAUGHTERFirst published in 1833. It was greatly altered when republished in 1842, and in some respects, so Fitzgerald thought, not for the better. No alterations of much importance were made in it after 1842. The characters as well as the scenery were, it seems, purely imaginary. Tennyson said that if he thought of any mill it was that of Trumpington, near Cambridge, which bears a general resemblance to the picture here given. In the first edition the poem opened with the following stanza, which the 'Quarterly' ridiculed, and which was afterwards excised. Its omission is surely not to be regretted, whatever Fitzgerald may have thought. While walking with my line and rod, The wealthy miller's mealy face, Like the moon in an ivy-tod. He looked so jolly and so good-- While fishing in the milldam-water, I laughed to see him as he stood, And dreamt not of the miller's daughter. * * * * * *His double chin, his portly size, And who that knew him could forget The busy wrinkles round his eyes? The slow wise smile that, round about His dusty forehead drily curl'd, Seem'd half-within and half-without, And full of dealings with the world? Three fingers round the old silver cup-- I see his gray eyes twinkle yet At his own jest--gray eyes lit up With summer lightnings of a soul So full of summer warmth, so glad, So healthy, sound, and clear and whole, His memory scarce can make me [1] sad. My own sweet [2] Alice, we must die. There's somewhat in this world amiss Shall be unriddled by and by. There's somewhat flows to us in life, But more is taken quite away. Pray, Alice, pray, my darling wife, [3] That we may die the self-same day. |



