ALFRED TENNYSON. 1809 [BORN at Somersby, Lincolnshire, England, 1809, being the third of the seven sons of Rev. George Clayton Tennyson, D.D., rector of Somersby; entered Trinity College, Cambridge, about 1827, together with his two elder brothers, Frederick and Charles. A small anonymous volume of Poems by Two Brothers (1827) contained the earliest published verses of Charles and Alfred; in 1825 the eldest brother, Frederick, gained the medal for a Greek poem, and in 1829 Alfred obtained the Chancellor's medal for an English poem (Timbuctoo) of 250 lines. One of his chief competitors for this prize was his most intimate college friend, Arthur H. Hallam (d. 1833), to whose memory, in later years, the poem In Memoriah was dedicated. In 1830 he published a small volume of Poems Chiefly Lyrical; in 1832 his third volume of poems appeared, containing the Lady of Shalott, Enone, The May Queen, and The Lotos Eaters. In 1842 a new edition of his poems, in two volumes, was issued, which contained Morte d'Arthur, Locksley Hall, and other noted pieces. The Princess was given to the public in 1847, In Memoriam in 1850. In 1851 he succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate. Maud and other poems appeared in 1855. The Idyls of the King was issued in 1858, and has been generally accepted as his greatest poetical effort. The Holy Grail and other poems, published in 1869, completed the Arthurian legend. His other principal works include Enoch Arden (1864), Gareth and Lynette (1872), Queen Mary, a drama (1875), Harold (1877). He has lived for the most part a retired life in the Isle of Wight, not much caring to cultivate society, but greatly beloved by his intimate friends. Wordsworth pronounced him to be" decidedly the first of our living poets," an opinion which has been accepted by critics and reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic. In December, 1883, Mr. Tennyson was appointed a Baron of the United Kingdom.] MARIANA. "Mariana in the moated grange." Measure for Measure. WITH blackest moss the flower-plots That held the peach to the garden- The broken sheds look'd sad and strange: Unlifted was the clinking latch: She only said, "My life is dreary, Her tears fell with the dews at even; She could not look on the sweet heaven, When thickest dark did trance the She drew her casement-curtain by, And glanced athwart the glooming flats. She only said, "The night is dreary, She said, "I am aweary, aweary, Upon the middle of the night, crow: The cock sung out an hour ere light: In sleep she seemed to walk forlorn, morn About the lonely moated grange. She only said, "The day is dreary; About a stone-cast from the wall A sluice with blacken'd waters slept, All silver-green with gnarled bark: And so she weaveth steadily, And moving thro' a mirror clear Winding down to Camelot : Sometimes a troop of damsels glad, Goes by to tower'd Camelot; But in her web she still delights And music, went to Camelot: PART III. A bow-shot from her bower-eaves, A redcross knight forever kneeled That sparkled on the yellow field, The gemmy bridle glitter'd free, As he rode down to Camelot : Beside remote Shalott. In the stormy east-wind straining, Heavily the low sky raining Over tower'd Camelot; And down the river's dim expanse - Did she look to Camelot. |