Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-02-23
0Wurtester @aiIp Spp.
From Thackeray's New Magazine.
TITHONUS,
BY ALFRED TENNYso,

TITHONUs.
BY ALFRED TENNYsoN
Ay me! ay me! the woods decay and fall,
The vapors weep their burden to the ground
Man comes and tills the earth and lies beneath
And after many summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes: wither slowly in thine arms
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
"A whlte-haired shadow roaming like a dream
The ever silent spaces of the East,
tar-folded mists, and cleaning halls of morn.
Alas! for this gray shadow once man
SO glorious in his beauty and thy choice.
W no madest him thy chosen, that he seem'd
10 his great heart none other than a Cod
ask d thee, "Give me immortality
Then didst thou grant mine asking with a smile,
Like wealthy men who not how they give
But thy strong Hours indignant work'd their wills,
And beat me down and marr'd and wasted me-
And though they could not end me- left me maim'd
10 dwell in presence ofimmortal youth,
Immortal age beside immortal youth,
And all was, in ashes. Can thy love,
Thy beauty, make amends, though even now,
Close over u.s. the silver star, thy guide,
Shines i'll those tremulous eyes that fill with tears
To hear me- Let me go take back thy gift
Why should a man desire in any way
To vary from the kindly race of men,
Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance
Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?
A soft air fans the cloud apart; there comes
glimpse of that dark world where was born.
Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals
From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure,
And bosom beating with heart renewd.
Thy cheek begins to redden through the gloom
Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine,
Ere yet they blind the stars, and that wild team
Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise,
And shake the darkness from their loosen'd names,
And beat the twilight into fakes of fire.
Lo! ever thus thou growest beautiful
In silence, then before thine answer given
Departest, and thy tears my cheek.
Why wilt thou scare with thy tears,
And make me tremble lest a saying learnt
In days far-Of, on that dark earth be true!
"The Gods themselves can not recall their gifts.n
Ay me! ay me! with what another heart
In days far-of, and with what other eyes
/ used totwatch-ifI be he that watch'd-
The lucid outline forming round thee,
The dim curls kindle into sunny rings
Changed with thy mystic change, and felt my blood
Glow with the glow that slowly crimson'd all
Thy presence and thy portals, while lay,
Mouth, forehead eyelids, growing dewy-warm
With kisses balmier than halfopening buds
OF April and could hear the lips that kissd
Whispering knew not what of wild and sweet,
Like that strange song heard Apollo sing
While lion like mist rose into towers.
Yet hold me not forever in thine East:
How can my nature longer mix with thine7
Colby thy rosy shadows battle me, cold
Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet
Upon thy glimmering thresholds, when the steam
Floats up from those dim fields about the homes
Of happy men that have the power to die,
And grassy barrows of the happier dead
Release me, and restore me to the ground
Thou seest all things, thou wilt see my grave:
Thou wilt renew thy beauty morn by morn;
/ earth in earth forget these empty courts,
And thee returning on thy silver wheels.