“ His princess, or indeed the stately Queen,
He answer’d: “Earl, entreat her by my love, 760
Albeit I give no reason but my wish,
That she ride with me in her faded silk.”
Yniol with that hard message went; it fell
Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn:
For Enid, all abash’d she knew not why, 765
Dared not to glance at her good mother’s face,
But silently, in all obedience,
Her mother silent too, nor helping her,
Laid from her limbs the costly-broider’d gift,
And robed them in her ancient suit again, 770
And so descended. Never man rejoiced
More than Geraint to greet her thus attired ”

“ To call it freedom when themselves are free;
Each wanton judge new penal statutes draw, 385
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law;
The wealth of climes where savage nations roam,
Pillag’d from slaves to purchase slaves at home;
Fear, pity, justice, indignation, start,
Tear off reserve, and bare my swelling heart; 390
Till, half a patriot, half a coward grown,
I fly from petty tyrants to the throne.
Yes, brother, curse with me that baleful hour,
When first ambition struck at regal power,
And thus polluting honour in its source, 395
Gave wealth to sway the mind with double force. ”

“ An English wanderer, seated on a crag among the Alps, near the point where three great countries meet, looks down on the boundless prospect, reviews his long pilgrimage, recalls the variety of scenery, of climate, of government, of religion, of national character, which he has observed, and comes to the conclusion, just or unjust, that our happiness depends little on political institutions, and much on the temper and regulation of the mind. ”

“ In the fairy story, Briar Rose is a beautiful princess who was fated to fall asleep in her fifteenth year and remain sleeping for a hundred years. When the princess is overtaken by her long sleep, everything in the castle falls under the same spell. An impenetrable hedge of briars grows up about the castle grounds, and all who strive to force an entrance perish in the attempt. At length, when the hundred years have passed, comes a splendid prince, who hears from an old man the story of the mysterious castle and the sleeping princess. ”

“ ODE ON THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF
WELLINGTON. PUBLISHED IN 1852.
I.
Bury the Great Duke
With an empire’s lamentation,
Let us bury the Great Duke
To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation,
Mourning when their leaders fall, 5
Warriors carry the warrior’s pall,
And sorrow darkens hamlet and hall.
II.
Where shall we lay the man whom we deplore? ”

“ So light to the saddle before her he sprung! 40
“She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur;
They’ll have fleet steeds that follow,” quoth young Lochinvar.
There was mounting ’mong Græmes of the Netherby clan;
Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran;
There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee, 45
But the lost bride of Netherby ne’er did they see.
So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,
Have ye e’er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?
TO A SKYLARK.
Hail to thee, blithe spirit! ”

“ Enoch, your husband: I have ever said
You chose the best among us—a strong man:
For where he fixt his heart he set his hand
To do the thing he will’d, and bore it thro’. 295
And wherefore did he go this weary way,
And leave you lonely? not to see the world—
For pleasure?—nay, but for the wherewithal
To give his babes a better bringing-up
Than his had been, or yours: that was his wish. 300
And if he come again, vext will he be
To find the precious morning hours were lost.
And it would vex him even in his grave,
If he could know his babes were running wild
Like colts about the waste. ”

“ Then answer’d Annie; tenderly she spoke:
‘You have been as God’s good angel in our house.
God bless you for it, God reward you for it,
Philip, with something happier than myself. 425
Can one love twice? can you be ever loved
As Enoch was? ”

“ Him Sir Bedivere 170
Remorsefully regarded thro’ his tears,
And would have spoken, but he found not words,
Then took with care, and kneeling on one knee,
O’er both his shoulders drew the languid hands,
And rising bore him thro’ the place of tombs. 175
But, as he walk’d, King Arthur panted hard,
Like one that feels a nightmare on his bed
When all the house is mute. So sigh’d the King,
Muttering and murmuring at his ear, ‘Quick, quick! ”

“ Moved the fair Enid, all in faded silk,
Her daughter. In a moment thought Geraint,
“Here by God’s rood is the one maid for me.”
But none spake word except the hoary Earl:
“Enid, the good knight’s horse stands in the court; 370
Take him to stall, and give him corn, and then
Go to the town and buy us flesh and wine;
And we will make us merry as we may.
Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.”
He spake: the Prince, as Enid pass’d him, fain 375
To follow, strode a stride ”

“ When he reaches the hedge he passes easily through, for the briars have turned to flowers. At the very moment when he finds the princess, the hundred years are completed, and as he kisses her she opens her eyes once more. When the princess wakes, the whole castle revives, and life goes on again as it did a hundred years before. ”

“ Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree’s shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mould’ring heap,
Each in his narrow cell forever laid, 15
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn,
The swallow twitt’ring from the straw-built shed,
The cock’s shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. 20
For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care;
No children run to lisp their sire’s return,
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. ”

“ Not less Geraint believed it; and there fell
A horror on him, lest his gentle wife,
Through that great tenderness for Guinevere, 30
Had suffer’d, or should suffer any taint
In nature: wherefore going to the King,
He made this pretext, that his princedom lay
Close on the borders of a territory,
Wherein were bandit earls, and caitiff knights, 35
Assassins, and all fliers from the hand
Of Justice, and whatever loathes a law:
And therefore, till the King himself should please
To cleanse this common sewer of all his realm,
He craved a fair permission to depart, 40
And there defend his marches ”

“ If the time should ever come when any body of men should band themselves together to persecute those who do not agree with them, and when a man may not “speak the thing he will,” then, no matter how powerful or wealthy Britain may become, I will leave this country. ”

“ And all that Freedom’s highest aims can reach,
Is but to lay proportion’d loads on each.
Hence, should one order disproportioned grow, 375
Its double weight must ruin all below.
Oh, then how blind to all that truth requires,
Who think it freedom when a part aspires! ”

“ Where rougher climes a nobler race display;
Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansion tread,
And force a churlish soil for scanty bread.
No product here the barren hills afford,
But man and steel, the soldier and his sword; 170
No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array,
But winter lingering chills the lap of May;
No zephyr fondly sues the mountain’s breast,
But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest.
Yet still, even here, content can spread a charm, 175
Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm.
Though poor the peasant’s hut, his feasts though small,
He sees his little lot the lot of all ”

“ So said he, and the barge with oar and sail 265
Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan
That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,
Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood
With swarthy webs. Long stood Sir Bedivere
Revolving many memories, till the hull 270
Look’d one black dot against the verge of dawn,
And on the mere the wailing died away.
THE PRISONER OF CHILLON.
I.
My hair is gray, but not with years,
Nor grew it white
In a single night,
As men’s have grown from sudden fears ”

“ Just as one may become satiated with an excess of sweet things, so the poet speaks of even Love, when enjoyed to the full, as bringing with it a feeling of sadness.
82-5. Death is always bringing sorrow into our lives, so that under its shadow we can never be quite happy. ”

“ King Arthur was a mythical king of the Britons who was supposed to have lived and reigned in the sixth century, and to have united the Britons against the Saxon invaders. According to legend he established a famous order of knighthood known as The Order of The Round Table, so called because of the famous round table, presented to King Arthur by a British king, and capable of seating one hundred and fifty knights. In the course of time the knights of the Round Table became corrupt and forgot their vows, and, led by Modred, the king’s nephew, a number of them rose in rebellion against the king. ”

“ The fairy tale in its original form was probably suggested by the changing seasons. In Winter the earth, the fairy princess, begins her long sleep. In the Springtime comes the sun, the fairy prince, and at the touch of his kiss the earth awakes to new life and beauty.
From the poem as here given, The Prologue, L’Envoi and The Epilogue are omitted. In The Prologue the poet tells his companion, Lady Flora, that the sight of her beauty as she lay asleep had called to his mind an image of The Sleeping Beauty, and that in his “day dream” he had recalled the old legend. ”

“ It seems as if when precious things have remained long hidden, they come forth of their own accord to greet those who seek them; for when Fate has decreed that some hidden work shall be revealed, Love follows up the decree and makes the discovery. ”

“ But, foster’d e’en by freedom, ills annoy.
That independence Britons prize too high
Keeps man from man, and breaks the social tie; 340
The self-dependent lordlings stand alone,
All claims that bind and sweeten life unknown.
Here, by the bonds of nature feebly held,
Minds combat minds, repelling and repell’d;
Ferments arise, imprison’d factions roar, 345
Represt ambition struggles round her shore;
Till, over-wrought, the general system feels
Its motions stop, or frenzy fire the wheels. ”

“ And every stranger finds a ready chair;
Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crown’d,
Where all the ruddy family around
Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail,
Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale, 20
Or press the bashful stranger to his food,
And learn the luxury of doing good. ”

“ King Arthur with those knights who remained loyal to him, drove the army of Modred step by step back into Cornwall and beyond it into the land of Lyonnesse, which was said to have extended from Cornwall to the Scilly Isles, but which has since been submerged by the sea. Here in this waste land a great battle was fought, in which the knights on both sides were killed, until at last only King Arthur and his faithful knight Sir Bedivere remained. ”

“ The man who has been honoured by the world, even if he drops dead in the midst of his triumph, has been paid, and perhaps more than paid, for his good deeds, and if men’s rewards and punishments are balanced up, in the next world, such a man may find that he is in God’s debt. But the speaker, “The Patriot,” is suffering so much injustice and wrong that he is sure that some balance of reward will be due him in the next world. ”

“ The vessel scarce sea-worthy; but evermore
His fancy fled before the lazy wind
Returning, till beneath a clouded moon
He like a lover down thro’ all his blood
Drew in the dewy meadowy morning-breath 660
Of England, blown across her ghostly wall:
And that same morning officers and men
Levied a kindly tax upon themselves,
Pitying the lonely man and gave him it:
Then moving up the coast they landed him, 665
Ev’n in that harbour whence he sail’d before.
There Enoch spoke no word to anyone,
But homeward—home—what home? had he a home? ”

“ Note that even when the barge bearing King Arthur, who represented “the old order” of things, was disappearing, a new day, with a new order of things, was already dawning.
THE PRISONER OF CHILLON.
The story of The Prisoner of Chillon is founded on certain events in the life of Francis Bonnivard, a Swiss patriot, who was imprisoned in the Fortress of Chillon for six years. Bonnivard was born in 1496. He belonged to a noble family, and inherited a rich priory near Geneva. When the republic was attacked in 1519 by Charles III Duke of Savoy, Bonnivard came to its defence. ”

“ According to myth, Leda, who had supplanted Juno in the affections of Jupiter, was forced to flee from heaven to escape the wrath of Juno. Neptune took pity on her and raised the Island of Delos out of the sea in order to afford her a shelter. Here Phoebus and Diana, the twin children of Jupiter and Leda, were born.
7. The Scian and the Teian muse. The island of Chios (Scio) was said to be the birthplace of Homer, and the town of Teos, in Asia Minor, was the birthplace of the poet Anacreon. ”

“ He shall find that though the performance of difficult tasks sometimes threatens to overwhelm him, yet in the end it will bring with it the peace and happiness of a character which has the approbation of God himself. ”

“ The skylark is a European bird, and is not found in America. It makes its nest on the ground but rises high in the air, sometimes beyond the point of vision, to sing. The Canadian Horned Lark, which is common in our fields in early spring, sometimes also sings high in the air above its nest. ”

“ The poet suggests that music appeals to our higher nature,—to what is spiritual and hence eternal in man.
259. Giant Ages. In Greek mythology the Giants were a race of fabulous monsters who made war on Zeus. They were subdued, and great mountains were piled on top of them, beneath which they still struggle. Tennyson here personifies the long ages of time as giants shaking the hills and breaking the shore. ”

“ Enoch Arden was “a rough sailor lad” without education; and Tennyson throughout the poem tries to soften down the prosaic features of his life and to picture him as a man with nobler impulses and resolves. ”

“ An Elegy is a poem or song expressing the writer’s feelings of sorrow or mourning. The churchyard referred to in the poem is that of Stoke Pogis in Buckinghamshire, where Gray’s mother lived during the latter part of her life. ”