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Title: Beauties of Tennyson
Author: Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Beauties of Tennyson" ***


    BEAUTIES

    OF

    TENNYSON.

    20 ILLUSTRATIONS BY

    FREDERIC B. SCHELL.

    PORTER & COATES,
    PHILADELPHIA.


[Illustration: LADY CLARA VERE DE VERE.]


    Copyright,
    1885,
    By Porter & Coates.


       *       *       *       *       *


BEAUTIES OF TENNYSON.



THE BROOK.


    I come from haunts of coot and hern,
      I make sudden sally
    And sparkle out among the fern,
      To bicker down a valley.

    By thirty hills I hurry down,
    By twenty thorps, a little town,
      And half a hundred bridges.

         *       *       *

    I chatter over stony ways,
      In little sharps and trebles,
    I bubble into eddying bays,
      I babble on the pebbles.

    With many a curve my banks I fret
      By many a field and fallow,
    And many a fairy foreland set
      With willow-weed and mallow.

         *       *       *

    And here and there a foamy lake
      Upon me, as I travel
    With many a silvery waterbreak
      Above the golden gravel,

    And draw them all along, and flow
      To join the brimming river,
    For men may come and men may go,
      But I go on for ever.

[Illustration: "I CHATTER OVER STONY WAYS, IN LITTLE SHARPS AND
TREBLES."]



SONG FROM "MAUD."


    See what a lovely shell,
    Small and pure as a pearl,
    Lying close to my foot,
    Frail, but a work divine,
    Made so fairily well
    With delicate spire and whorl,
    How exquisitely minute,
    A miracle of design!

    What is it? a learned man
    Could give it a clumsy name.
    Let him name it who can,
    The beauty would be the same.

    The tiny cell is forlorn,
    Void of the little living will
    That made it stir on the shore.
    Did he stand at the diamond door
    Of his house in a rainbow frill?
    Did he push, when he was uncurl'd,
    A golden foot or a fairy horn
    Thro' his dim water-world.

    Slight, to be crushed with a tap
    Of my finger-nail on the sand,
    Small, but a work divine,
    Frail, but of force to withstand,
    Year upon year, the shock
    Of cataract seas that snap
    The three-decker's oaken spine
    Athwart the ledges of rock,
    Here on the Breton strand!

[Illustration: "SEE WHAT A LOVELY SHELL, LYING CLOSE TO MY FOOT."]



A FAREWELL.


    Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
      Thy tribute wave deliver:
    No more by thee my steps shall be,
      For ever and for ever.

    Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
      A rivulet then a river:
    Nowhere by thee my steps shall be,
      For ever and for ever.

    But here will sigh thine alder tree,
      And here thine aspen shiver;
    And here by thee will hum the bee,
      For ever and for ever.

    A thousand suns will stream on thee,
      A thousand moons will quiver;
    But not by thee my steps shall be,
      For ever and for ever.

[Illustration: "FLOW DOWN, COLD RIVULET, TO THE SEA."]



SONG FROM "MAUD."


    Come into the garden, Maud,
      For the black bat, night, has flown,
    Come into the garden, Maud,
      I am here at the gate alone;
    And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
      And the musk of the roses blown.

    For a breeze of morning moves,
      And the planet of Love is on high,
    Beginning to faint in the light that she loves
      On a bed of daffodil sky,
    To faint in the light of the sun she loves,
      To faint in his light, and to die.

         *       *       *

    There has fallen a splendid tear
      From the passion-flower at the gate.
    She is coming, my dove, my dear;
      She is coming, my life, my fate;
    The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;"
      And the white rose weeps, "She is late;"
    The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;"
      And the lily whispers, "I wait."

    She is coming, my own, my sweet;
      Were it ever so airy a tread,
    My heart would hear her and beat,
      Were it earth in an earthy bed;
    My dust would hear her and beat,
      Had I lain for a century dead;
    Would start and tremble under her feet,
      And blossom in purple and red.

[Illustration: "THE RED ROSE CRIES, 'SHE IS NEAR, SHE IS NEAR.'"]



BREAK, BREAK, BREAK.


    Break, break, break,
      On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
    And I would that my tongue could utter
      The thoughts that arise in me.

    O well for the fisherman's boy,
      That he shouts with his sister at play!
    O well for the sailor lad,
      That he sings in his boat on the bay!

    And the stately ships go on
      To their haven under the hill;
    But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,
      And the sound of a voice that is still!

    Break, break, break,
      At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
    But the tender grace of a day that is dead
      Will never come back to me.

[Illustration: "BREAK, BREAK, BREAK, AT THE FOOT OF THY CRAGS, O SEA!"]



FROM "LOCKSLEY HALL."


    Love took up the glass of Time, and turn'd it in his glowing hands;
    Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands.

    Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might;
    Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass'd in music out of sight.

    Many a morning on the moorland did we hear the copses ring,
    And her whisper throng'd my pulses with the fulness of the Spring.

    Many an evening by the waters did we watch the stately ships,
    And our spirits rush'd together at the touching of the lips.

    O my cousin, shallow-hearted! O my Amy, mine no more!
    O the dreary, dreary moorland! O the barren, barren shore!

[Illustration: "MANY AN EVENING BY THE WATERS DID WE WATCH THE STATELY
SHIPS."]



SONG FROM "MAUD."


    Go not, happy day,
      From the shining fields,
    Go not, happy day,
      Till the maiden yields.
    Rosy is the West,
      Rosy is the South,
    Roses are her cheeks,
      And a rose her mouth
    When the happy Yes
      Falters from her lips,
    Pass and blush the news
      Over glowing ships;
    Over blowing seas,
      Over seas at rest,
    Pass the happy news,
      Blush it thro' the West;
    Till the red man dance
      By his red cedar-tree,
    And the red man's babe
      Leap, beyond the sea.
    Blush from West to East,
      Blush from East to West,
    Till the West is East,
      Blush it thro' the West.
    Rosy is the West,
      Rosy is the South,
    Roses are her cheeks,
      And a rose her mouth.

[Illustration: "GO NOT, HAPPY DAY, TILL THE MAIDEN YIELDS."]



SONG FROM "THE PRINCESS."


    Sweet and low, sweet and low,
      Wind of the western sea,
    Low, low, breathe and blow,
      Wind of the western sea!
    Over the rolling waters go,
    Come from the dying moon, and blow,
      Blow him again to me;
    While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.

    Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
      Father will come to thee soon;
    Rest, rest, on mother's breast,
      Father will come to thee soon;
    Father will come to his babe in the nest,
    Silver sails all out of the west
      Under the silver moon:
    Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep.

[Illustration: "FATHER WILL COME TO HIS BABE IN THE NEST."]



LILIAN.


        Airy, fairy Lilian,
        Flitting, fairy Lilian,
    When I ask her if she love me,
    Claps her tiny hands above me,
        Laughing all she can;
    She'll not tell me if she love me,
        Cruel little Lilian.

        When my passion seeks
        Pleasance in love-sighs,
    She, looking thro' and thro' me
    Thoroughly to undo me,
        Smiling, never speaks:
    So innocent-arch, so cunning-simple,
    From beneath her gather'd wimple
      Glancing with black-beaded eyes,
    Till the lightning laughters dimple
        The baby-roses in her cheeks;
        Then away she flies.

      Prythee weep, May Lilian!
        Gayety without eclipse
      Wearieth me, May Lilian:
    Thro' my very heart it thrilleth
      When from crimson-threaded lips
    Silver-treble laughter trilleth:
      Prythee weep, May Lilian.

        Praying all I can,
    If prayers will not hush thee,
        Airy Lilian,
    Like a rose-leaf I will crush thee,
        Fairy Lilian.

[Illustration: AIRY, FAIRY LILIAN.]



RING OUT, WILD BELLS.


    Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
        The flying cloud, the frosty light:
        The year is dying in the night;
    Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

    Ring out the old, ring in the new,
        Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
        The year is going, let him go;
    Ring out the false, ring in the true.

    Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
        For those that here we see no more;
        Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
    Ring in redress to all mankind.

    Ring out a slowly dying cause,
        And ancient forms of party strife;
        Ring in the nobler modes of life,
    With sweeter manners, purer laws.

    Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
        The faithless coldness of the times;
        Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
    But ring the fuller minstrel in.

    Ring out false pride in place and blood,
        The civic slander and the spite;
        Ring in the love of truth and right,
    Ring in the common love of good.

    Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
        Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
        Ring out the thousand wars of old,
    Ring in the thousand years of peace.

    Ring in the valiant man and free,
        The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
        Ring out the darkness of the land,
    Ring in the Christ that is to be.

[Illustration: "RING OUT, WILD BELLS, TO THE WILD SKY."]



FROM "THE PRINCESS."


    Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
    Tears from the depth of some divine despair
    Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
    In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
    And thinking of the days that are no more.

    Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
    That brings our friends up from the underworld,
    Sad as the last which reddens over one
    That sinks with all we love below the verge;
    So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.

    Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
    The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds
    To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
    The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
    So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.

    Dear as remember'd kisses after death,
    And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd
    On lips that are for others; deep as love,
    Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
    O Death in Life, the days that are no more.

[Illustration: "TEARS, IDLE TEARS."]



SONG FROM "THE PRINCESS."


        The splendor falls on castle-walls
            And snowy summits old in story:
        The long light shakes across the lakes,
          And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
    Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
    Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

        O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,
          And thinner, clearer, farther going!
        O sweet and far from cliff and scar
          The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
    Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:
    Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

        O love, they die in yon rich sky,
          They faint on hill or field or river;
        Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
          And grow for ever and for ever.
    Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
    And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

[Illustration: "BLOW, BUGLE, BLOW, SET THE WILD ECHOES FLYING, BLOW,
BUGLE; ANSWER, ECHOES, DYING, DYING, DYING."]



FROM "ENOCH ARDEN."


    The mountain wooded to the peak, the lawns
    And winding glades high up like ways to Heaven,
    The slender coco's drooping crown of plumes
    The lightning flash of insect and of bird,
    The lustre of the long convolvuluses
    That coil'd around the stately stems, and ran
    Ev'n to the limit of the land, the glows
    And glories of the broad belt of the world,
    All these he saw; but what he fain had seen
    He could not see, the kindly human face,
    Nor ever hear a kindly voice, but heard
    The myriad shriek of wheeling ocean-fowl,
    The league-long roller thundering on the reef,
    The moving whisper of huge trees that branch'd
    And blossom'd in the zenith, or the sweep
    Of some precipitous rivulet to the wave,
    As down the shore he ranged, or all day long
    Sat often in the seaward-gazing gorge,
    A shipwreck'd sailor, waiting for a sail:
    No sail from day to day, but every day
    The sunrise broken into scarlet shafts
    Among the palms and ferns and precipices;
    The blaze upon the waters to the east;
    The blaze upon his island overhead;
    The blaze upon the waters to the west;
    Then the great stars that globed themselves in heaven,
    The hollower-bellowing ocean, and again
    The scarlet shafts of sunrise--but no sail.

[Illustration: "A SHIPWRECK'D SAILOR, WAITING FOR A SAIL."]



FROM "ENOCH ARDEN."


    But Enoch yearn'd to see her face again;
    'If I might look on her sweet face again
    And know that she is happy.' So the thought
    Haunted and harass'd him, and drove him forth
    At evening when the dull November day
    Was growing duller twilight, to the hill.
    There he sat down gazing on all below;
    There did a thousand memories roll upon him,
    Unspeakable for sadness. By and by
    The ruddy square of comfortable light,
    Far blazing from the rear of Philip's house,
    Allured him, as the beacon-blaze allures
    The bird of passage, till he madly strikes
    Against it, and beats out his weary life.

    For Philip's dwelling fronted on the street,
    The latest house to landward; but behind
    With one small gate that open'd on the waste,
    Flourish'd a little garden square and wall'd:
    And in it throve an ancient evergreen,
    A yew tree, and all round it ran a walk
    Of shingle, and a walk divided it:
    But Enoch shunn'd the middle walk and stole
    Up by the wall, behind the yew; and thence
    That which he better might have shunn'd, if griefs
    Like his have worse or better, Enoch saw.

[Illustration: "STOLE UP BY THE WALL, BEHIND THE YEW."]



THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.


    I.

    Half a league, half a league,
    Half a league onward,
    All in the valley of Death
      Rode the six hundred.
    'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
    'Charge for the guns!' he said:
    Into the valley of Death
      Rode the six hundred.


    II.

    'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
    Was there a man dismay'd?
    Not tho' the soldier knew
      Some one had blunder'd:
    Their's not to make reply,
    Their's not to reason why,
    Their's but to do and die:
    Into the valley of Death
      Rode the six hundred.


    III.

    Cannon to right of them,
    Cannon to left of them,
    Cannon in front of them
      Volley'd and thunder'd;
    Storm'd at with shot and shell,
    Boldly they rode and well,
    Into the jaws of Death,
    Into the mouth of Hell
      Rode the six hundred.


    IV.

    Flash'd all their sabres bare,
    Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
    Sabring the gunners there,
    Charging an army, while
      All the world wonder'd:
    Plunged in the battery-smoke
    Right thro' the line they broke;
    Cossack and Russian
    Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
      Shatter'd and sunder'd.
    Then they rode back, but not
    Not the six hundred.


    V.

    Cannon to right of them,
    Cannon to left of them,
    Cannon behind them
      Volley'd and thunder'd;
    Storm'd at with shot and shell,
    While horse and hero fell,
    They that had fought so well
    Came thro' the jaws of Death,
    Back from the mouth of Hell,
    All that was left of them,
      Left of six hundred.


    VI.

    When can their glory fade?
    O the wild charge they made!
      All the world wondered.
    Honor the charge they made!
    Honor the Light Brigade,
      Noble six hundred!

[Illustration: "BOLDLY THEY RODE AND WELL."]



FROM "THE MAY QUEEN."


    You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;
    To-morrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the glad New-year;
    Of all the glad New-year, mother, the maddest merriest day;
    For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.

    There's many a black black eye, they say, but none so bright as mine;
    There's Margaret and Mary, there's Kate and Caroline:
    But none so fair as little Alice in all the land they say,
    So I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.

[Illustration: THE MAY QUEEN.]



SONG FROM "THE PRINCESS."


    As thro' the land at eve we went,
      And pluck'd the ripen'd ears,
    We fell out, my wife and I,
    O we fell out I know not why,
      And kiss'd again with tears,
    And blessings on the falling out
      That all the more endears,
    When we fall out with those we love
      And kiss again with tears!
    For when we came where lies the child
      We lost in other years,
    There above the little grave,
    O there above the little grave,
      We kiss'd again with tears.

[Illustration: "O THERE ABOVE THE LITTLE GRAVE, WE KISS'D AGAIN WITH
TEARS."]



FROM "HAROLD."


    _Tostig._ What for Norway then?
    He looks for land among us, he and his.

    _Harold._ Seven feet of English land, or something more,
    Seeing he is a giant.

    _Tostig._ That is noble!
    That sounds of Godwin.

    _Harold._ Come thou back, and be
    Once more a son of Godwin.

    _Tostig_ (_turns away_). O brother, brother,
    O Harold--

    _Harold_ (_laying his hand on Tostig's shoulder_). Nay then, come
    thou back to us!

    _Tostig_ (_after a pause turning to him_). Never shall any man
    say that I, that Tostig
    Conjured the mightier Harold from the North
    To do the battle for me here in England,
    Then left him for the meaner! thee!--
    Thou hast no passion for the House of Godwin--
    Thou hast but cared to make thyself a king--
    Thou hast sold me for a cry--
    Thou gavest thy voice against me in the Council--
    I hate thee, and despise thee, and defy thee.
    Farewell for ever!                              [_Exit._

    _Harold._ On to Stamford-bridge!

[Illustration: "NAY THEN, COME THOU BACK TO US!"]



FROM "THE REVENGE."


    And the sun went down, and the stars came out far over the summer sea,
    But never a moment ceased the fight of the one and the fifty-three.
    Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high-built galleons came,
    Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle-thunder and
      flame;
    Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead and her
      shame.
    For some were sunk and many were shatter'd, and so could fight us no
      more--
    God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before?

    And the night went down, and the sun smiled out far over the summer
      sea,
    And the Spanish fleet with broken sides lay round us all in a ring;
    But they dared not touch us again, for they fear'd that we still could
      sting,
    So they watch'd what the end would be.
    And we had not fought them in vain,
    But in perilous plight were we,
    Seeing forty of our poor hundred were slain,
    And half of the rest of us maim'd for life
    In the crash of the cannonades and the desperate strife;
    And the sick men down in the hold were most of them stark and cold,
    And the pikes were all broken or bent, and the powder was all of it
      spent;
    And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side.

[Illustration: "SHIP AFTER SHIP, THE WHOLE NIGHT LONG, WITH HER
BATTLE-THUNDER AND FLAME."]





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Beauties of Tennyson" ***

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