Introduction - I
I
The development of Tennyson's genius, methods, aims and capacity of
achievement in poetry can be studied with singular precision and fulness
in the history of the poems included in the present volume. In 1842 he
published the two volumes which gave him, by almost general consent, the
first place among the poets of his time, for, though Wordsworth was
alive, Wordsworth's best work had long been done. These two volumes
contained poems which had appeared before, some in 1830 and some in
1832, and some which were then given to the world for the first time, so
that they represent work belonging to three eras in the poet's life,
poems written before he had completed his twenty-second year and
belonging for the most part to his boyhood, poems written in his early
manhood, and poems written between his thirty-first and thirty-fourth
year.
The poems published in 1830 had the following title-page:
"Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, by Alfred Tennyson.
London: Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange, 1830".
They are fifty-six in number and the titles are:--
Claribel..
Lilian. .
Isabel. .
Elegiacs.
The "How" and the "Why".
Mariana. .
To----. Madeline.
The Merman.
The Mermaid. .
Supposed Confessions of a second-rate sensitive mind not in unity with
itself.
The Burial of Love.
To--(Sainted Juliet dearest name.)
Song. The Owl. .
Second Song. To the same. .
Recollections of the Arabian Nights. .
Ode to Memory. .
Song. (I'the the glooming light.)
Song. (A spirit haunts.) .
Adeline. .
A Character. .
Song. (The lint-white and the throstle cock.)
Song. (Every day hath its night.)
The Poet. .
The Poet's Mind. .
Nothing will die.
All things will die.
Hero to Leander.
The Mystic.
The Dying Swan. .
A Dirge. .
The Grasshopper.
Love, Pride and Forgetfulness.
Chorus (in an unpublished drama written very early).
Lost Hope.
The Deserted House. deg.
The Tears of Heaven.
Love and Sorrow.
To a Lady Sleeping.
Sonnet. (Could I outwear my present state of woe.)
Sonnet. (Though Night hath climbed her peak of highest noon.)
Sonnet. (Shall the hag Evil die with child of Good.)
Sonnet. (The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain.)
Love.
Love and Death. .
The Kraken.
The Ballad of Oriana. .
Circumstance. .
English War Song.
National Song.
The Sleeping Beauty. .
Dualisms.
We are Free.
The Sea-Fairies. deg.
Sonnet
to J.M.K. .
[Greek (transliterated): oi rheontes] .
. Of these the poems marked . appeared in the edition of 1842, and
were not much altered.
Those marked were, in addition to the italicised poems, afterwards
included among the 'Juvenilia' in the collected works (1871-1872),
though excluded from all preceding editions of the poems.
deg. Those marked deg. were restored in editions previous to the first
collected editions of the works.
In December, 1832, appeared a second volume (it is dated on the
title-page, 1833):
"Poems by Alfred Tennyson. London: Moxon, MDCCCXXXIII."
This contains thirty poems:--
Sonnet. (Mine be the strength of spirit fierce and free.) deg. deg.
To--. (All good things have not kept aloof.) deg. deg.
Buonaparte. deg. deg.
Sonnet I. (O Beauty passing beauty, sweetest Sweet.)
Sonnet II. (But were I loved, as I desire to be.) deg. deg.
The Lady of Shalott. .
Mariana in the South. .
Eleanore. .
The Miller's Daughter. .
[Greek: phainetai moi kaenos isos theoisin hemmen anaer] .
'none. .
The Sisters. .
To--. (With the Palace of Art.)
The Palace of Art .
The May Queen. .
New Year's Eve. .
The Hesperides.
The Lotos Eaters. .
Rosalind. deg. deg.
A Dream of Fair Women .
Song. (Who can say.)
Margaret. .
Kate.
Sonnet. Written on hearing of the outbreak of the Polish Insurrection.
Sonnet. On the result of the late Russian invasion of Poland. deg. deg.
Sonnet. (As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood.) deg. deg.
O Darling Room.
To Christopher North.
The Death of the Old Year. .
To J. S. .
. Of these the poems marked . were included in the edition of 1842;
those marked being greatly altered and in some cases almost
rewritten,
deg. those marked deg. being practically unaltered.
deg. deg. To those reprinted in the collected works deg. deg. is added.
In 1842 appeared the two volumes which contained, in addition to the
selections made from the two former volumes, several new poems:--
"Poems by Alfred Tennyson. In two volumes. London: Edward Moxon,
MDCCCXLII."
The first volume is divided into two parts:
(1) Selections from the poems published in 1830, 'Claribel' to the
'Sonnet to J. M. K.' inclusive.
(2) Selections from the poems of 1832, 'The Lady of Shalott' to 'The
Goose' inclusive.
The second volume contains poems then, with two exceptions, first
published.
INTRODUCTION
The Epic.
Morte d'Arthur.
The Gardener's Daughter.
Dora.
Audley Court.
Walking to the Mail.
St. Simeon Stylites.
Conclusion to the May Queen.
The Talking Oak.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere.
Love and Duty.
Ulysses.
Locksley Hall.
Godiva.
The Two Voices.
The Day Dream.
Prologue.
The Sleeping Palace.
The Sleeping Beauty.
The Arrival.
The Revival.
The Departure.
Moral.
L'Envoi.
Epilogue.
Amphion.
St. Agnes.
Sir 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 Poet',
where the edition of 1830 reads:--
And in the bordure of her robe was writ
Wisdom, a name to shake
Hoar anarchies, as with a thunderfit.
This in 1842 appears as:--
And in her raiment's hem was trac'd in flame
Wisdom, a name to shake
All evil dreams of power--a sacred name.
Again, in the 'Lotos Eaters'
_Three thunder-cloven thrones of oldest snow_
Stood sunset-flushed
is changed into
_Three silent pinnacles of aged snow_.
So in 'Will Waterproof' the cumbrous
Like Hezekiah's backward runs The shadow of my days,
was afterwards simplified into
Against its fountain upward runs
The current of my days.
Not less felicitous have been the additions made from time to time. Thus
in 'Audley Court' the concluding lines ran:--
The harbour buoy,
With one green sparkle ever and anon
Dipt by itself.
But what vividness is there in the subsequent insertion of
"Sole star of phosphorescence in the calm."
between the first line and the second.
So again in the 'Morte d'Arthur' how greatly are imagery and rhythm
improved by the insertion of
Across the ridge, and paced beside the mere,
between
Then went Sir Bedivere the second time,
and
Counting the dewy pebbles, fix'd in thought.
There is an alteration in 'none which is very interesting. Till 1884
this was allowed to stand:--
The lizard, with his shadow on the stone,
Rests like a shadow, _and the cicala sleeps_.
No one could have known better than Tennyson that the cicala is loudest
in the torrid calm of the noonday, as Theocritus, Virgil, Byron and
innumerable other poets have noticed; at last he altered it, but at the
heavy price of a cumbrous pleonasm, into "and the winds are dead".
He allowed many years to elapse before he corrected another error in
natural history--but at last the alteration came. In 'The Poet's Song'
in the line--
The swallow stopt as he hunted the _bee_,
the "fly" which the swallow does hunt was substituted for what it does
not hunt, and that for very obvious reasons. But whoever would see what
Tennyson's poetry has owed to elaborate revision and scrupulous care
would do well to compare the first edition of 'Mariana in the South',
'The Sea-Fairies', 'OEnone', 'The Lady of Shalott', 'The Palace of Art'
and 'A Dream of Fair Women' with the poems as they are presented in
1853. Poets do not always improve their verses by revision, as all
students of Wordsworth's text could abundantly illustrate; but it may be
doubted whether, in these poems at least, Tennyson ever made a single
alteration which was not for the better. Fitzgerald, indeed, contended
that in some cases, particularly in 'The Miller's Daughter', Tennyson
would have done well to let the first reading stand, but few critics
would agree with him in the instances he gives. We may perhaps regret
the sacrifice of such a stanza as this--
Each coltsfoot down the grassy bent, Whose round leaves hold the
gathered shower, Each quaintly folded cuckoo pint, And silver-paly
cuckoo flower.
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