Ready, be ready to meet the storm! Let your reforms for a moment go! Than a rotten fleet or a city in flames! Ready, be ready to meet the storm! Form, be ready to do or die! Form in Freedom's name and the Queen's! True that we have a faithful ally, But only the devil can tell what he means. THE RINGLET Printed in the 'Enoch Arden' volume, 1864, but afterwards suppressed. 'YOUR ringlets, your ringlets, That look so golden-gay, If you will give me one, but one, Then never chilling touch of Time Will turn it silver-gray; And then shall I know it is all true gold To flame and sparkle and stream as of old. And all her stars decay.' 2 'My ringlet, my ringlet, That art so golden-gay, Now never chilling touch of Time And a lad may wink, and a girl may hint, For my doubts and fears were all amiss, Contributed to 'Good Words,' March, 1868. I STOOD on a tower in the wet, And New Year and Old Year met, But aught that is worth the knowing?' STANZA Contributed to the 'Shakespearean ShowBook,' printed in March, 1884, for a fair got up for the Chelsea Hospital for Women. Nor he that breaks the dams, but he COMPROMISE Addressed to Mr. Gladstone, then Prime Minister, in November, 1884, when the Fran The following 'unpublished fragment' was printed in Ros Rosarum,' an anthology edited by Hon. Mrs. Boyle, 1885: The night with sudden odor reel'd, The following prefatory stanza was contributed in 1891 to Pearl,' an English poem of the 14th century, edited by Mr. Israel Gollancz: We lost you for how long a time, [Other poems by Tennyson mentioned by Shepherd and Luce in their Bibliographies (neither of which is invariably accurate) as. printed, but omitted in the collected editions, are the following: a stanza in the volume of his poems presented to the Princess Louise of Schleswig-Holstein by representatives of the nurses of England; lines on the christening of the daughter of the Duchess of Fife; and lines to the memory of J. R. Lowell. These are not referred to in the Memoir,' and I have not been able to find copies of them.] She brought a vast design to pass, For an early version of the poem (from a MS. in the Library of the Drexel Institute, Philadelphia), see Jones's 'The Growth of the Idylls of the King,' p. 152. Nine of the thirteen stanzas are entirely unlike the poem as finally published. Page 2. And statesmen at her councils met, etc. This stanza was once quoted by Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons with remarkable effect. Lord John Manners, in an argument against political change, had quoted the poet's description of England as A land of old and wide renown Where Freedom slowly broadens down. The retort was none the less effective because the passage was taken from a different poem. Page 4. LEONINE ELEGIACS. The title in 1830 was simply 'Elegiacs.' In line 6' wood-dove' was 'turtle,' and in 15' or ' was 'and.' For the allusion in The ancient poetess singeth,' etc., compare Locksley Hall Sixty Years After': Hesper, whom the poet call'd the Bringer home of all good things.' The reference is to the fragment of Sappho: Εσπερε, πάντα φέρεις· Φέρεις οἶνον, φέρεις αἶγα, Φέρεις ματέρι παῖδα. Byron paraphrases it in 'Don Juan' (iii. 107):— SUPPOSED CONFESSIONS, etc. of a Second-rate Sensitive Mind not in Unity The original title was 'Supposed Confessions with Itself. In the poem as restored the following lines, after line 39, were omitted: A grief not uninformed, and dull, More glorious than the noon of day. And all the Norland whirlwind showers The only other changes are rosy fingers' for waxen fingers' in 42, and man formen' in 169. The Westminster Review' (January, 1831) recognized in this poem an extraordinary combination of deep reflection, metaphysical analysis, picturesque description, dramatic transition, and strong emotion.' Arthur Hallam, in the Englishman's Magazine' (August, 1831), said of it: The Confessions of a Second-rate Sensitive Mind" are full of deep insight into human nature, and into those particular trials which are sure to beset men who think and feel for themselves at this epoch of social development. The title is perhaps ill chosen; not only has it an appearance of quaintness, which has no sufficient reason, but it seems to us incorrect. The mood portrayed in this poem, unless the admirable skill of delineation has deceived us, is rather the clouded season of a strong mind than the habitual condition of one feeble and second-rate.' Page 8. MARIANA. In the 4th line the first reading was the peach to the garden-wall.' Bayard Taylor, writing in 1877 (in International Review,' vol. iv.), quotes the poet as saying: There is my Mariana," for example. A line in it is wrong, and I cannot possibly change it, because it has been so long published; yet it always annoys me. I wrote That held the peach to the garden-wall." Now this is not a characteristic of the scenery I had in mind. The line should be "That held the pear to the gable-wall." Whether this conversation occurred during Taylor's visit to Tennyson in 1857 I cannot say; but the line was changed in the printed poem in 1860, or seventeen years before the review was written. zas, which was made in 1842. The only other change (except the spelling airy' for aery') isamorously' for three times three' in the last stanza (in the errata of the 1830 volume). Page 10. RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. In line 29 the 1830 volume has 'Of breaded blosms'; in 78 'Blackgreen' for 'Black'; in 1 In the volumes of 1830 and 1833, compound words are, with rare exceptions, printed without the hyphen; as silverchiming,' 'gardenbowers,'' mountainstreams,' etc. And in the bordure of her robe was writ Hoar anarchies, as with a thunderfit, The 9th had 'a' for 'one'; and the 14th 'hurl'd' for whirl'd.' In the 1st stanza, the hate of hate,' etc., clearly means the hatred of hate, etc. Rev. F. W. Robertson explains it thus: That is, the Prophet of Truth receives for his dower the scorn of men in whom scorn dwells, hatred from men who hate, while his reward is the gratitude and affection of men who seek the truth which they love, more eagerly than the faults which their acuteness can blame.' A very intelligent lady once told me that she had always understood hate of hate' to mean the utmost intensity of hate, etc., the poet's passions and sensibilities being to those of ordinary men 'as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine.' Shake hands, my friend, across the brink So far far down, but I shall know The only changes in the next three stanzas were 'scritches of the jay' for 'laughters of the jay,' and 'darnel' for darnels.' The following stanzas, with which the poem originally ended (connected closely with the preceding, there being only a comma after the woodbines blow '), have not been restored: VI If thou art blest, my mother's smile Undimmed, if bees are on the wing: Then cease, my friend, a little while, That I may hear the throstle sing His bridal song, the boast of spring. · VII Sweet as the noise in parched plains Thy words will be; thy cheerful tones As welcome to my crumbling bones. The Quarterly Review' for July, 1833, had its fling at the line, If any sense in me remains.' 'This doubt,' it says, is inconsistent with the opening stanza of the piece, and, in fact, too modest; we take upon ourselves to reassure Mr. Tennyson that, even after he shall be dead and buried, as much "sense" will still remain as he has now the good fortune to pos I. The original version has 'a confused dream' in the 3d line; Altho' I knew not' in the 12th; and for the 14th And each had lived in the other's mind and speech.' In the 8th ‘hath' is italicized. III. In the 1st line 'full' was originally 'fierce'; and in the 12th warm was great. VI. The 10th line was originally How long shall the icy-hearted Muscovite.' VII. The 1st line had originally 'dainty' for 'slender.' VIII. The 5th line had 'waltzing-circle' for 'whirling dances.' X. The first line originally began 'But were I loved, etc. XI. The bridesmaid' was Emily Sellwood, who afterwards became the poet's wife; and the marriage was that of his brother Charles to Louisa Sellwood, May 24, 1836. See the 'Memoir,' vol. i. p. 148. Page 27. THE LADY OF SHALOTT. The last four lines of the 1st stanza were originally as follows: The yellow leaved waterlily, The next stanza began thus: — Willows whiten, aspens shiver. The sunbeam-showers break and quiver The first reading of the 3d and 4th stanzas was: Inderneath the bearded barley, The reaper, reaping late and early, Hears her ever chanting cheerly, Like an angel, singing clearly, O'er the stream of Camelot. Piling the sheaves in furrows airy, Beneath the moon, the reaper weary Listening whispers, 't is the fairy, Lady of Shalott.' The little isle is all inrailed No time hath she to sport and play: To look down to Camelot. She knows not what the curse may be; She lives with little joy or fear. Reflecting towered Camelot. The next stanza (Sometimes a troop,' etc.) is unchanged; and the only alteration in the next is went to Camelot' for 'came from Camelot.' In Part III. the 5th line of the 2d and 3d stanzas had down from Camelot; ' the last line of the 3d had ' over green Shalott; 'the 8th line of the 4th was Tirra lirra, tirra lirra; ' and the 3d line of the 5th had water-flower." In Part IV. the latter part of the 1st stanza was as follows: With a steady stony glance The remaining stanzas were as follows: As when to sailors while they roam, Blown shoreward; so to Camelot A longdrawn carol, mournful, holy, Till her eyes were darkened wholly, And her smooth face sharpened slowly, Turned to towered Camelot: For ere she reached, etc. Under tower and balcony, They crossed themselves, their stars they blest, That puzzled more than all the rest, 'The web was woven curiously, The ending of the poem is much improved by the revision. The wellfed wits' (the epithet seems out of keeping here) might well be puzzled' by the parchment, which is as pointless as it is enigmatical; but the new ending, with its introduction of Lancelot, is most pathetic and suggestive. In line 157 the reading in 1842 (and down to 1873) was A corse between,' etc. According to Palgrave (Lyrical Poems by Tennyson'), the poem was suggested by 'an Italian romance upon the Donna di Scalotta, in which Camelot, unlike the Celtic tradition, was placed near the sea.' It is in a very different form that the legend reappears in the 'Idylls of the King.' Page 29. MARIANA. The original form was as follows: Behind the barren hill upsprung With pointed rocks against the light, Madonna,' with melodious moan She, as her carol sadder grew, From her warm brow and bosom down 'Madonna,' with melodious moan When the dawncrimson changed, and past |