Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson | Page 3

Galahad.

Edward Gray.
Will Waterproofs Lyrical Monologue, made at the
Cock.
Lady Clare.
The Lord of Burleigh.
Sir Launcelot and
Queen Guinevere.
A Farewell.
The Beggar Maid.
The Vision of
Sin.
The Skipping Rope.
Move Eastward, happy Earth.
"Break,
break, break."
The Poet's Song.
Only two of these poems had been published before, namely, 'St.
Agnes', which was printed in 'The Keepsake' for 1837, and 'The
Sleeping Beauty' in 'The Day Dream', which was adopted with some
alterations from the 1830 poem, and only one of these poems was
afterwards suppressed, 'The Skipping Rope', which was, however,
allowed to stand till 1851. In 1843 appeared the second edition of these
poems, which is merely a reprint with a few unimportant alterations,
and which was followed in 1845 and in 1846 by a third and fourth
edition equally unimportant in their variants, but in the fourth 'The
Golden Year' was added. In the next edition, the fifth, 1848, 'The
Deserted House' was included from the poems of 1830. In the sixth
edition, 1850, was included another poem, 'To--, after reading a Life
and Letters', reprinted, with some alterations, from the 'Examiner' of
24th March, 1849.
The seventh edition, 1851, contained important additions. First the
Dedication to the Queen, then 'Edwin Morris,' the fragment of 'The
Eagle,' and the stanzas, "Come not when I am dead," first printed in
'The Keepsake' for 1851, under the title of 'Stanzas.' In this edition the
absurd trifle 'The Skipping Rope' was excised and finally cancelled. In
the eighth edition, 1853, 'The Sea-Fairies,' though greatly altered, was

included from the poems of 1830, and the poem 'To E. L. on his
Travels in Greece' was added. This edition, the eighth, may be regarded
as the final one. Nothing afterwards of much importance was added or
subtracted, and comparatively few alterations were made in the text
from that date to the last collected edition in 1898.
All the editions up to, and including, that of 1898 have been carefully
collated, so that the student of Tennyson can follow step by step the
process by which he arrived at that perfection of expression which is
perhaps his most striking characteristic as a poet. And it was indeed a
trophy of labour, of the application "of patient touches of unwearied
art". Whoever will turn, say to 'The Palace of Art,' to '‘none,' to the
'Dream of Fair Women,' or even to 'The Sea-Fairies' and to 'The Lady
of Shalott,' will see what labour was expended on their composition.
Nothing indeed can be more interesting than to note the touches, the
substitution of which measured the whole distance between mediocrity
and excellence. Take, for example, the magical alteration in the couplet
in the 'Dream of Fair Women':--
One drew a sharp knife thro' my tender throat
Slowly,--and nothing
more,
into
The bright death quiver'd at the victim's throat;
Touch'd; and I knew
no more.
Or, in the same poem:--
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 lustrous
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
illustrated 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 substituted:--
I loved the brimming 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