In silence round me-the perpetual work Lo! all grow old and die—but see, again, Makes his own nourishment. For he came forth But let me often to these solitudes The passions, at thy plainer footsteps shrink, The swift dark whirlwind that uproots the woods ALFRED TENNYSON: 1810-. Tennyson, the greatest of our living poets, became poet-laureate on the death of Wordsworth in 1850. He is the son of a Lincolnshire clergyman, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. His first volume of poems appeared in 1830, and a second in 1833. These were reprinted, with alterations and additions, in 1842. His larger works are The Princess, a Medley; In Memoriam, a series of beautiful elegiac poems on the death of his friend, Arthur Hallam, son of the historian; Maud; Idylls of the King; and Enoch Arden. FROM THE DYING SWAN.1 Some blue peaks in the distance rose, One willow over the river wept, And shook the wave as the wind did sigh; Chasing itself at its own wild will, And far thro' the marish green and still The tangled water-courses slept, Shot over with purple, and green, and yellow. The wild swan's death-hymn took the soul Hidden in sorrow: at first to the ear The warble was low, and full and clear; And floating about the under-sky, 1 The extracts from Mr Tennyson's poems are made by permission of Mr Tennyson. M Prevailing in weakness, the coronach stole With shawms, and with cymbals, and harps of gold, Thro' the open gates of the city afar, To the shepherd who watcheth the evening-star. FROM LOCKSLEY HALL. VISION OF THE WORLD'S PROGRESS. For I dipt into the future, far as human could see, eye Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue ; Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm, With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thunderstorm; Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law. FROM IN MEMORIAM. THE DIRGE OF THE OLD YEAR. Ring out wild bells to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow : Ring out the grief that saps the mind, For those that here we see no more; Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be. ROBERT BROWNING: 1812-. Robert Browning has the reputation of being one of the most original, and at the same time one of the most unpopular poets of the present day. He was educated at the London University. His chief poems are the drama of Paracelsus, Pipi Passes, Men and Women, and his Dramatic Lyrics. FROM DRAMATIC LYRICS.1 HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD. Oh, to be in England Now that April's there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows- And though the fields look rough with hoary dew, Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower! over, The extracts from the poems of Mr and Mrs Browning are made by permission of Messrs Chapman and Hall. |