Selections from Wordsworth and Tennyson by William Wordsworth and Alfred Lord Tennyson

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"For the most part he wrote of the every day loves and duties of men and
women; of the primal pains and joys of humanity; of the aspirations and
trials which are common to all ages and all classes and independent even
of the diseases of civilization, but he made them new and surprising by
the art which he added to them, by beauty of thought, tenderness of
feeling, and exquisiteness of shaping."--_Stopford A. Brooke_.

"The tenderness of Tennyson is one of his remarkable qualities--not so
much in itself, for other poets have been more tender--but in combination
with his rough powers. We are not surprised that his rugged strength is
capable of the mighty and tragic tenderness of Rispah, but we could not
think at first that he could feel and realize the exquisite tenderness of
_Elaine_. It is a wonderful thing to have so wide a tenderness, and only
a great poet can possess it and use it well."--_Stopford A. Brooke_.

"Tennyson is a great master of pathos; knows the very tones that go to
the heart; can arrest every one of these looks of upbraiding or appeal by
which human woe brings the tear into the human eye. The pathos is deep;
but it is the majesty not the prostration of grief."--_Peter Bayne_.

"Indeed the truth must be strongly borne in upon even the warmest
admirers of Tennyson that his recluse manner of life closed to him many
avenues of communication with the men and women of his day, and that,
whether as a result or cause of his exclusiveness, he had but little of
that restless, intellectual curiosity which constantly whets itself upon
new experiences, finds significance where others see confusion, and
beneath the apparently commonplace in human character reaches some
harmonizing truth. _Rizpah_ and _The Grandmother_ show what a rich
harvest he would have reaped had he cared more frequently to walk the
thoroughfares of life. His finely wrought character studies are very few
in number, and even the range of his types is disappointingly
narrow."--_Pelham Edgar_.

"No reader of Tennyson can miss the note of patriotism which he
perpetually sounds. He has a deep and genuine love of country, a pride
in the achievements of the past, a confidence in the greatness of the
future. And this sense of patriotism almost reaches insularity of view.
He looks out upon the larger world with a gentle commiseration, and
surveys its un-English habits and constitution with sympathetic contempt.
The patriotism of Tennyson is sober rather than glowing; it is meditative
rather than enthusiastic. Occasionally indeed, his words catch fire, and
the verse leaps onward with a sound of triumph, as in such a poem as _The
Charge of the Light Brigade_ or in such a glorious ballad as _The
Revenge_. Neither of these poems is likely to perish until the glory of
the nation perishes, and her deeds of a splendid chivalrous past sink
into oblivion, which only shameful cowardice can bring upon her. But as
a rule Tennyson's patriotism is not a contagious and inspiring
patriotism. It is meditative, philosophic, self-complacent. It rejoices
in the infallibility of the English judgment, the eternal security of
English institutions, the perfection of English forms of
government."--_W. J. Dawson_.

"Tennyson always speaks from the side of virtue; and not of that new and
strange virtue which some of our later poets have exalted, and which,
when it is stripped of its fine garments, turns out to be nothing else
than the unrestrained indulgence of every natural impulse; but rather of
that old fashioned virtue whose laws are 'self-reverence, self-knowledge,
self-control,' and which finds its highest embodiment in the morality of
the _New Testament_. There is a spiritual courage in his work, a force
of fate which conquers doubt and darkness, a light of inward hope which
burns dauntless under the shadow of death. Tennyson is the poet of
faith; faith as distinguished from cold dogmatism and the acceptance of
traditional creeds; faith which does not ignore doubt and mystery, but
triumphs over them and faces the unknown with fearless heart. The effect
of Christianity upon the poetry of Tennyson may be felt in its general
moral quality. By this it is not meant that he is always preaching. But
at the same time the poet can hardly help revealing, more by tone and
accent than by definite words, his moral sympathies. He is essentially
and characteristically a poet with a message. His poetry does not exist
merely for the sake of its own perfection of form. It is something more
than the sound of one who has a lovely voice and can play skilfully upon
an instrument. It is a poetry with a meaning and a purpose. It is a
voice that has something to say to us about life. When we read his poems
we feel our hearts uplifted, we feel that, after all it is worth while to
struggle towards the light, it is worth while to try to be upright and
generous and true and loyal and pure, for virtue is victory and goodness
is the only fadeless and immortal crown. The secret of the poet's
influence must lie in his spontaneous witness to the reality and
supremacy of the moral life. His music must thrill us with the
conviction that the humblest child of man has a duty, an ideal, a
destiny. He must sing of justice and of love as a sure reward, a
steadfast law, the safe port and haven of the soul."--_Henry Van Dyke_.

REFERENCES ON TENNYSON'S LIFE AND WORKS

_Alfred, Lord Tennyson: A Memoir_ by Hallam Tennyson. Toronto: The
Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited. Price $2.00.

_Tennyson and his Friends_ edited by Hallam, Lord Tennyson. Toronto: The
Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited.

_Alfred, Lord Tennyson: A Study of his Life and Works_ by Arthur Waugh.
London: William Heinemann.

_Tennyson_ by Sir Alfred Lyall in _English Men of Letters_ series.
Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited.

_Alfred Tennyson_ by Arthur Christopher Benson in _Little Biographies_.
London: Methuen & Co.

_Alfred Tennyson: A Saintly Life_ by Robert F. Horton. London: J. M.
Dent & Co.

_Alfred Tennyson_ by Andrew Lang. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company.

_Tennyson: His Art and Relation to Modern Life_ by Stopford A. Brooke.
London: William Heinemann.

_A Study of the Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson_ by Edward Campbell
Tainsh. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited.

_The Poetry of Tennyson_ by Henry Van Dyke. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons.

_A Tennyson Primer_ by William Macneile Dixon. New York: Dodd, Mead &
Company.

_A Handbook to the Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson_ by Morton Luce.
Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited.

_Tennyson: A Critical Study_ by Stephen Gwynn in the _Victorian Era
Series_. London: Blackie & Sons, Limited.

_Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill, and Other Literary Estimates_ by Frederic
Harrison. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited.

_Lives of Great English Writers from Chaucer to Browning_ by Walter S.
Hinchman and Francis B. Gummere. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

_Personal Sketches of Recent Authors_ by Hattie Tyng Griswold. Chicago:
A. C. McClurg and Company.

_Records of Tennyson, Ruskin, Browning_ by Anne Ritchie. New York:
Harper & Brothers.

_Memories of the Tennysons_ by Rev. H. D. Rawnsley. Glasgow: James
Maclehose and Sons.

_The Teaching of Tennyson_ by John Oats. London: James Bowden.

_Tennyson as a Religious Teacher_ by Charles F. G. Masterman. London:
Methuen & Co.

_The Social Ideals of Alfred Tennyson as Related to His Time_ by William
Clark Gordon. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

_The Religious Spirit in the Poets_ by W. Boyd Carpenter. New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.

_Literary Essays_ by R. H. Hutton. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of
Canada, Limited.

_Victorian Poets_ by Edmund Clarence Stedman. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin
and Company.

_The Greater English Poets of the Nineteenth Century_ by William Morton
Payne. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

_The Masters of English Literature_ by Stephen Gwynn. Toronto: The
Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited.

_A Study of English and American Poets_ by J. Scott Clark. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons.

_The Works of Tennyson with Notes by the Author_ edited with Memoir by
Hallam, Lord Tennyson. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited.

NOTES

OENONE

"The poem of _Oenone_ is the first of Tennyson's elaborate essays in a
metre over which be afterwards obtained an eminent command. It is also
the first of his idylls and of his classical studies, with their
melodious rendering of the Homeric epithets and the composite words,
which Tennyson had the art of coining after the Greek manner
('lily-cradled,' 'river-sundered,' 'dewy-dashed') for compact description
or ornament. Several additions were made in a later edition; and the
corrections then made show with what sedulous care the poet diversified
the structure of his lines, changing the pauses that break the monotonous
run of blank verse, and avoiding the use of weak terminals when the line
ends in the middle of a sentence. The opening of the poem was in this
manner decidedly improved; yet one may judge that the finest passages are
still to be found almost as they stood in the original version; and the
concluding lines, in which the note of anguish culminates, are left
untouched."

"Nevertheless the blank verse of _Oenone_ lacks the even flow and
harmonious balance of entire sections in the _Morte d'Arthur_ or
_Ulysses_, where the lines are swift or slow, rise to a point and fall
gradually, in cadences arranged to correspond with the dramatic movement,
showing that the poet has extended and perfected his metrical resources.
The later style is simplified; he has rejected cumbrous metaphor; he is
less sententious; he has pruned away the flowery exuberance and lightened
the sensuous colour of his earlier composition."--_Sir Alfred Lyall_.

First published in 1832-3. It received its present improved form in the
edition of 1842. The story of Paris and Oenone may be read in Lempriere,
or in any good classical dictionary. Briefly it is as follows:--Paris
was the son of Priam, King of Troy, and Hecuba. It was foretold that he
would bring great ruin on Troy, so his father ordered him to be slain at
birth. The slave, however, did not destroy him, but exposed him upon
Mount Ida, where shepherds found him and, brought him up as one of
themselves. "He gained the esteem of all the shepherds, and his graceful
countenance and manly development recommended him to the favour of
Oenone, a nymph of Ida, whom he married, and with whom he lived in the
most perfect tenderness. Their conjugal bliss was soon disturbed. At
the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, Eris, the goddess of discord, who had
not been invited to partake of the entertainment, showed her displeasure
by throwing into the assembly of gods, who were at the celebration of the
nuptials, a golden apple on which were written the words _Detur
pulchriori_. All the goddesses claimed it as their own: the contention
at first became general, but at last only three, Juno (Here), Venus
(Aphrodite), and Minerva (Pallas), wished to dispute their respective
right to beauty. The gods, unwilling to become arbiters in an affair of
so tender and delicate a nature, appointed Paris to adjudge the prize of
beauty to the fairest of the goddesses, and indeed the shepherd seemed
properly qualified to decide so great a contest, as his wisdom was so
well established, and his prudence and sagacity so well known. The
goddesses appeared before their judge without any covering or ornament,
and each tried by promises and entreaties to gain the attention of Paris,
and to influence his judgment. Juno promised him a kingdom; Minerva,
military glory; and Venus, the fairest woman in the world for his wife."
(Lempriere.) Paris accorded the apple to Aphrodite, abandoned Oenone,
and after he had been acknowledged the son of Priam went to Sparta, where
he persuaded Helen, the wife of Menelaus, to flee with him to Troy. The
ten years' siege, and the destruction of Troy, resulted from this rash
act. Oenone's significant words at the close of the poem foreshadow this
disaster. Tennyson, in his old age concluded the narrative in the poem
called _The Death of Oenone_. According to the legend Paris, mortally
wounded by one of the arrows of Philoctetes, sought out the abandoned
Oenone that she might heal him of his wound. But he died before he
reached her, "and the nymph, still mindful of their former loves, threw
herself upon his body, and stabbed herself to the heart, after she had
plentifully bathed it with her tears." Tennyson follows another
tradition in which Paris reaches Oenone, who scornfully repels him. He
passed onward through the mist, and dropped dead upon the mountain side.
His old shepherd playmates built his funeral pyre. Oenone follows the
yearning in her heart to where her husband lies, and dies in the flames
that consume him.

In Chapter IV of Mr. Stopford Brooke's _Tennyson_, there is a valuable
commentary upon _Oenone_. He deals first with the imaginative treatment
of the landscape, which is characteristic of all Tennyson's classical
poems, and instances the remarkable improvement effected in the
descriptive passages in the volume of 1842. "But fine landscape and fine
figure re-drawing are not enough to make a fine poem. Human interest,
human passion, must be greater than Nature, and dominate the subject.
Indeed, all this lovely scenery is nothing in comparison with the sorrow
and love of Oenone, recalling her lost love in the places where once she
lived in joy. This is the main humanity of the poem. But there is more.
Her common sorrow is lifted almost into the proportions of Greek tragedy
by its cause and by its results. It is caused by a quarrel in Olympus,
and the mountain nymph is sacrificed without a thought to the vanity of
the careless gods. That is an ever-recurring tragedy in human history.
Moreover, the personal tragedy deepens when we see the fateful dread in
Oenone's heart that she will, far away, in time hold her lover's life in
her hands, and refuse to give it back to him--a fatality that Tennyson
treated before he died. And, secondly, Oenone's sorrow is lifted into
dignity by the vast results which flowed from its cause. Behind it were
the mighty fates of Troy, the ten years' battle, the anger of Achilles,
the wanderings of Ulysses, the tragedy of Agamemnon, the founding of
Rome, and the three great epics of the ancient world."

Another point of general interest is to be noted in the poem. Despite
the classical theme the tone is consistently modern, as may be gathered
from the philosophy of the speech of Pallas, and from the tender yielding
nature of Oenone. There is no hint here of the vindictive resentment
which the old classical writers, would have associated with her grief.
Similarly Tennyson has systematically modernised the Arthurian legend in
the _Idylls of the King_, giving us nineteenth century thoughts in a
conventional mediaeval setting.

A passage from Bayne, puts this question clearly: "Oenone wails
melodiously for Paris without the remotest suggestion of fierceness or
revengeful wrath. She does not upbraid him for having preferred to her
the fairest and most loving wife in Greece, but wonders how any one could
love him better than she does. A Greek poet would have used his whole
power of expression to instil bitterness into her resentful words. The
classic legend, instead of representing Oenone as forgiving Paris, makes
her nurse her wrath throughout all the anguish and terror of the Trojan
War. At its end, her Paris comes back to her. Deprived of Helen, a
broken and baffled man, he returns from the ruins of his native Troy, and
entreats Oenone to heal him of a wound, which, unless she lends her aid,
must be mortal. Oenone gnashes her teeth at him, refuses him the remedy,
and lets him die. In the end, no doubt, she falls into remorse, and
kills herself--this is quite in the spirit of classic legend; implacable
vengeance, soul-sickened with its own victory, dies in despair. That
forgiveness of injuries could be anything but weakness--that it could be
honourable, beautiful, brave--is an entirely Christian idea; and it is
because this idea, although it has not yet practically conquered the
world, although it has indeed but slightly modified the conduct of
nations, has nevertheless secured recognition as ethically and socially
right, that Tennyson could not hope to enlist the sympathy and admiration
of his readers for his Oenone, if he had cast her image in the tearless
bronze of Pagan obduracy."

1. IDA. A mountain range in Mysia, near Troy. The scenery is, in part,
idealised, and partly inspired by the valley of Cauteretz. See
_Introduction_, p. xvi.

2. IONIAN. Ionia was the district adjacent to Mysia. 'Ionian,'
therefore, is equivalent to 'neighbouring.'

10. TOPMOST GARGARUS. A Latinism, cf. _summus mons_.

12. TROAS. The Troad (Troas) was the district surrounding Troy.

ILION=Ilium, another name for Troy.

14. CROWN=chief ornament.

22-23. O MOTHER IDA--DIE. Mr. Stedman, in his _Victorian Poets_, devotes
a valuable chapter to the discussion of Tennyson's relation to
Theocritus, both in sentiment and form. "It is in the _Oenone_ that we
discover Tennyson's earliest adaptation of that refrain, which was a
striking beauty of the pastoral elegiac verse;

"'O mother Ida, hearken ere I die,'

"is the analogue of (Theocr. II).

"'See thou; whence came my love, O lady Moon,' etc.

"Throughout the poem the Syracusan manner and feeling are strictly and
nobly maintained." Note, however, the modernisation already referred to.

MOTHER IDA. The Greeks constantly personified Nature, and attributed a
separate individual life to rivers, mountains, etc. Wordsworth's
_Excursion_, Book IV., might be read in illustration, especially from the
line beginning--

"Once more to distant ages of the world."

MANY-FOUNTAIN'D IDA. Many streams took their source in Ida. Homer
applies the same epithet to this mountain.

24-32. These lines are in imitation of certain passages from Theocritus.
See Stedman, _Victorian Poets_, pp. 213 f. They illustrate Tennyson's
skill in mosaic work.

30. MY EYES--LOVE. Cf. Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. ii. 3. 17:

"Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief."

36. COLD CROWN'D SNAKE. "Cold crown'd" is not a compound epithet,
meaning "with a cold head." Each adjective marks a particular quality.
_Crown'd_ has reference to the semblance of a coronet that the hoods of
certain snakes, such as cobras, possess.

37. THE DAUGHTER OF A RIVER-GOD. Oenone was the daughter of the river
Cebrenus in Phrygia.

39-40. AS YONDER WALLS--BREATHED. The walls of Troy were built by
Poseidon (Neptune) and Apollo, whom Jupiter had condemned to serve King
Laomedon of Troas for a year. The stones were charmed into their places
by the breathing of Apollo's flute, as the walls of Thebes are said to
have risen to the strain of Amphion's lyre. Compare _Tithonus_, 62-63:

"Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing,
When Ilion, like a mist, rose into towers."

And cf. also _The Princess_, iii. 326.

42-43. THAT--WOE. Compare _In Memoriam_, V.

50. WHITE HOOVED. Cf. "hooves" for hoofs, in the _Lady of Shalott_, l.
101.

51. SIMOIS. One of the many streams flowing from Mount Ida.

65. HESPERIAN GOLD. The fruit was in colour like the golden apples in
the garden of the Hesperides. The Hesperides were three (or four)
nymphs, the daughters of Hesperus. They dwelt in the remotest west, near
Mount Atlas in Africa, and were appointed to guard the golden apples
which Here gave to Zeus on the day of their marriage. One of Hercules'
twelve labours was to procure some of these apples. See the articles
_Hesperides_ and _Hercules_ in Lempriere.

66. SMELT AMBROSIALLY. Ambrosia was the food of the gods. Their drink
was nectar. The food was sweeter than honey, and of most fragrant odour.

72. WHATEVER OREAD. A classical construction. The Oreads were mountain
nymphs.

78. FULL-FACED--GODS. This means either that not a face was missing, or
refers to the impressive countenances of the gods. Another possible
interpretation is that all their faces were turned full towards the board
on which the apple was cast. Compare for this epithet _Lotos Eaters_, 7;
and _Princess_, ii. 166.

79. PELEUS. All the gods, save Eris, were present at the marriage
between Peleus and Thetis, a sea-deity. In her anger Eris threw upon the
banquet-table the apple which Paris now holds in his hand. Peleus and
Thetis were the parents of the famous Achilles.

81. IRIS. The messenger of the gods. The rainbow is her symbol.

83. DELIVERING=announcing.

89-100. These lines, and the opening lines of the poem are among the best
of Tennyson's blank verse lines, and therefore among the best that
English poetry contains. The description owes some of its beauty to
Homer. In its earlier form, in the volume of 1832-3, it is much less
perfect.

132. A CRESTED PEACOCK. The peacock was sacred to Here (Juno).

103. A GOLDEN CLOUD. The gods were wont to recline upon Olympus beneath
a canopy of golden clouds.

104. DROPPING FRAGRANT DEW. Drops of glittering dew fell from the golden
cloud which shrouded Here and Zeus. See _Iliad_, XIV, 341 f.

105 f. Here was the queen of Heaven. Power was therefore the gift which
she naturally proffered.

114. Supply the ellipsis.

121-122. POWER FITTED--WISDOM. Power that adapts itself to every crisis;
power which is born of wisdom and enthroned by wisdom (i.e. does not owe
its supremacy to brute strength).

121-122. FROM ALL-ALLEGIANCE. Note the ellipsis and the inversion.

128-131. WHO HAVE ATTAINED--SUPREMACY. Cf. _Lotos Eaters_, l. 155 f, and
_Lucretius_, 104-108.

The gods, who haunt
The lucid interspace of world and world
Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind,
Nor ever falls the least white star of snow,
Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans.

137. O'ERTHWARTED WITH=crossed by.

142 f. Compare the tone of Pallas' speech with what has been said in the
introduction, p. liv f., concerning Tennyson's love of moderation and
restraint, and his belief in the efficacy of law.

Compare also the general temper of the _Ode on the Death of the Duke of
Wellington_, and especially ll. 201-205.

144--148. Yet these qualities are not bestowed with power as the end in
view. Power will come without seeking when these great principles of
conduct are observed. The main thing is to live and act by the law of
the higher Life,--and it is the part of wisdom to follow right for its
own sake, whatever the consequences may be.

151. SEQUEL OF GUERDON. To follow up my words with rewards (such as Here
proffers) would not make me fairer.

153-164. Pallas reads the weakness of Paris's character, but disdains to
offer him a more worldly reward. An access of moral courage will be her
sole gift to him, so that he shall front danger and disaster until his
powers of endurance grow strong with action, and his full-grown will
having passed through all experiences, and having become a pure law unto
itself, shall be commensurate with perfect freedom, i.e., shall not know
that it is circumscribed by law.

This is the philosophy that we find in Wordsworth's _Ode to Duty_.

Stern Lawgiver! Yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face:
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong,
And the most ancient heavens, through thee,
are fresh and strong.

165-167. Note how dramatic this interruption is.

170. IDALIAN APHRODITE. Idalium was a town in Cyprus; an island where
the goddess was especially worshipped. She was frequently called Cypria
or the Cyprian.

171. FRESH AS THE FOAM. Aphrodite was born from the waves of the sea,
near the Island of Cyprus.

NEW-BATHED IN PAPHIAN WELLS. Paphos was a town in Cyprus. Aphrodite was
said to have landed at Paphos after her birth from the sea-foam. She is
sometimes called the Paphian or Paphia on this account.

184. SHE SPOKE AND LAUGH'D. Homer calls her "the laughter-loving
Aphrodite."

195-l97. A WILD--WEED. The influence of beauty upon the beasts is a
common theme with poets. Cf. Una and the lion in Spenser's _Faery Queen_.

204. THEY CUT AWAY MY TALLEST PINES. Evidently to make ships for Paris's
expedition to Greece.

235-240. THERE ARE--DIE. Lamartine in _Le Lac_ (written before 1820)
has a very similar passage.

250. CASSANDRA. The daughter of King Priam, and therefore the sister of
Paris. She had the gift of prophecy.

260. A FIRE DANCES. Signifying the burning of Troy.

THE EPIC AND MORTE D'ARTHUR

First published, with the epilogue as here printed, in 1842. The _Morte
d'Arthur_ was subsequently taken out of the present setting, and with
substantial expansion appeared as the final poem of the _Idylls of the
King_, with the new title, _The Passing of Arthur_.

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