and once more

The trumpet, and again; at which the storm
Of galloping hoofs bare on the ridge of spears
And riders front to front,

The large blows rained, as here and everywhere
He rode the mellay, lord of the ringing lists,

And all the plain,—brand, mace, and shaft, and shield —
Shocked, like an iron-clanging anvil banged

With hammers;

came

As comes a pillar of electric cloud,

Flaying the roofs and sucking up the drains,

And shadowing down the champaign till it strikes

On a wood, and takes, and breaks, and cracks, and splits, And twists the grain with such a roar that Earth

Reels, and the herdsmen cry;

And on they moved and gained the hall, and there
Rested;

she said

Brokenly, that she knew it, she had failed

In sweet humility;

The two-celled heart beating, with one full stroke,
Life.

The ax foot, beating,' gains additional effect from the monosyllabic words before and after it. The same is true of the

preceding ar foot.

the walls

Blackened about us, bats wheeled and owls whooped.

THE PRINCESS:

A MEDLEY.

PROLOGUE.

SIR WALTER VIVIAN all a summer's day
Gave his broad lawns until the set of sun
Up to the people; thither flocked at noon
His tenants, wife and child, and thither half

1. Sir Walter Vivian. 'The prototype of Sir Walter Vivian was Edmund Henry Lushington, and his son, “an Edmund too" (to retain the idea and change the name), became the husband of Cecilia Tennyson, whose marriage is the theme of the concluding stanzas of In Memoriam. The poet's tribute to his brother-in-law, "the most learned man in England after Thirlwall," will be immediately recalled:

And thou art worthy, full of power;

As gentle, liberal-minded, great,
Consistent; wearing all that weight
Of learning lightly like a flower.'

(Walters, Tennyson, p. 63.)

It has been said that Sir John Simeon, of Swainston, in the Isle of Wight, was the original of Sir Walter Vivian, but this view is not so well supported. See the description in Con. 41 ff., and the note there.

2. Lawns. Glades or open spaces among or between woods; natural pasture-land. The American lawn is not to be thought of. Cf. sloping pasture, 55.

The neighboring borough with their Institute,
Of which he was the patron. I was there
From college, visiting the son — the son

A Walter too with others of our set,

Five others.: we were seven at Vivian Place.

5

And me that morning Walter showed the house,
Greek, set with busts; from vases in the hall
Flowers of all heavens, and lovelier than their names,
Grew side by side; and on the pavement lay
Carved stones of the Abbey-ruin in the park,
Huge Ammonites, and the first bones of Time;
And on the tables every clime and age
Jumbled together: celts and calumets,
Claymore and snowshoe, toys in lava, fans
Of sandal, amber, ancient rosaries,

5. Institute. Mechanics' Institute. What would this be?
8. A Walter too. See note on I.

9. Seven. How many cantos are there of the story proper? 11. Greek. What are some of the characteristics of this style of domestic architecture? Designate a house of this style in your vicinity, and describe the exterior. When did this style become common in England?

Explain.

12. Lovelier than their names. 15. Ammonites. Fossil shells, usually ornamented outside with ribs, knobs, spines, etc., while the under layer is pearly. There is a fossil mollusk called cornu Ammonis, the horn of the god Ammon, who was represented with a ram's head; hence the name. — - First bones of Time. Have you ever seen any in a museum?

17. Jumbled. Prefiguring the medley.' - Celts. Prehistoric weapons of stone or bronze, somewhat resembling a chisel or an axe. - Calumets. Indian tobacco-pipes with stone bowl, and long reed stem ornamented with eagles' feathers.

18. Claymore. A heavy two-handed and double-edged broadsword, used by the Scottish Highlanders.

19. Amber. What is its color? What are sometimes found embedded in it? What is its connection with the discovery of electricity? Rosaries. Describe.

IO

15

Laborious orient ivory sphere in sphere,

The cursed Malayan crease, and battle-clubs
From the isles of palm; and higher on the walls,
Betwixt the monstrous horns of elk and deer,
His own forefathers' arms and armor hung.

And 'This,' he said, 'was Hugh's at Agincourt; And that was old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon :

A good knight he !
With all about him '

We keep a chronicle

which he brought, and I
Dived in a hoard of tales that dealt with knights,
Half-legend, half-historic, counts and kings
Who laid about them at their wills and died;
And, mixed with these, a lady, one that armed
Her own fair head, and sallying thro' the gate,
Had beat her foes with slaughter from her walls.

20. A series of ivory balls of various sizes, one inside another, or carved with extreme delicacy and elaborate design by the Chinese and Burmese. Notice the music of the lines, as dependent upon the preponderance of vowels and following liquids; then the rounder, bolder o's, followed by the thinner e's. Is the o of ivory as much stressed as that of laborious and orient—is there not a weakening of the sound before it passes over into e? How is this paralleled by the succession of balls? Is this a chance effect or a studied one? In this respect does it suggest the artistry of the balls themselves? See if you discover anything else in the poem like this wonderful artistry.

21. Crease. A dagger or short sword, generally with a waved blade and oblique handle. See a picture under the spelling Kris in the Standard Dictionary. Why 'cursed'? What sort of a wound

would the blade make?

25. And This.' An easy transition.

ever read Shakespeare's Henry V.? If not, you can there gain a new pleasure, and at the same time learn of the Battle of Agincourt (1415).

26. Ascalon. Here Richard Coeur-de-Lion won a victory over the Saracens of Saladin (1192).

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