His daughter and his housemaid were the boys: But while he jested thus, A thought flashed thro' me which I clothed in act, : We follow'd up the river as we rode, 190 195 200 And rode till midnight when the college lights 205 210 215 197-200. 1847-48 :— Which brought and clapt upon us, we tweezer'd out 203. Not introduced till 1851. 204. 1847-50. We rode. 206. 1847-48. and then. 207-9. Added in 1850. 210. 1847-48. Inscribed too dark for legible, and gain'd. 212. 1847-48. But could not hear. There stood a bust of Pallas for a sign, By two sphere lamps blazon'd like Heaven and Earth With constellation and with continent, A plump-arm'd Ostleress and a stable wench In laurel her we ask'd of that and this, : And who were tutors. "Lady Blanche” she said, we." 220 225 230 "Hers are One voice, we cried; and I sat down and wrote, In such a hand as when a field of corn Bows all its ears before the roaring East; "Three ladies of the Northern empire pray Your Highness would enroll them with your own, As Lady Psyche's pupils." This I seal'd: The seal was Cupid bent above a scroll, 235 And o'er his head Uranian Venus hung, And raised the blinding bandage from his eyes : 240 I gave the letter to be sent with dawn; And then to bed, where half in doze I seem'd 222. 1847-48. archway. 226. Tennyson seems fond of this Gallicism (donner sur); cf. The Gardener's Daughter, and Gareth and Lynette, This, yielding, gave into a grassy walk, Two great entries (As when the west wind tosses a deep cornfield, rushing down with furious blast). 238-41. 1847-48. (A Cupid reading) to be sent with dawn. 239. 1850. And over him. For the best commentary on this, see the speech of Pausanias in Plato's Symposium, pp. 180-88. To float about a glimmering night, and watch 245 244. Tennyson, in his letter to Mr. Dawson, says that this was suggested to him by "the sea one night at Torquay, when Torquay was the most lovely sea-village in England, tho' now a smoky town. The sky was covered with thin vapour, and the moon behind it" (Life, i. 257). 1 3 4 As thro' the land at eve we went, We fell out, my wife and I, When we fall out with those we love And kiss again with tears'! *** For when we came where lies the child There above the little grave, O there above the little grave, This song was added in 1850, but the fourth and thirteenth lines were added in 1851; lines 6-9 inclusive were omitted after 1850, and not reinserted till 1867. The lilac, with a silken hood to each, II AT break of day the College Portress came: And zoned with gold; and now when these were on, And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons, 5 She, curtseying her obeisance, let us know I first, and following thro' the porch that sang All round with laurel, issued in a court Compact of lucid marbles, boss'd with lengths 10 Of classic frieze, with ample awnings gay Betwixt the pillars, and with great urns of flowers. The Muses and the Graces, group'd in threes, Enring'd a billowing fountain in the midst; And here and there on lattice edges lay 15 There at a board by tome and paper sat, With two tame leopards couch'd beside her throne, All beauty compass'd in a female form, 20 The Princess; liker to the inhabitant Of some clear planet close upon the Sun, Than our man's earth; such eyes were in her head, And so much grace and power, breathing down From over her arch'd brows, with every turn 25 And to her feet. She rose her height, and said: "We give you welcome: not without redound Of use and glory to yourselves ye come, II 29. 1847-48. Of fame and profit unto yourselves. |