The Cairo daily bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1870-1872, 1871-12-03
TENNYSON.
A NEW POEM BY THELAUREATE.
THE RING OF THE PURE METAL
NOT IMPAIRED.
From the New York Evening Post.

The next number of Harpers Weekly
will contain, as we announced in our early
editions, new poem by Alfred Tennyson,
first given to the American public in that
paper, from the authors advance sheets,
by arrangement with j. b. Osgood & Co.,
by whom it will be published in book
FORM on Saturday, December 2. The poem
is entitled "The Last Tournament" 1t
1 forms ore of that remarkable scrios of Ar-
thurian poems, THE Idylls of the King"
now rounded out in the fulness of an epic,
and its place is between "Pelleas and Ell
tarra' and "Guinevere'
The Last Tournament is subdued-al-
most sombre-in coloring and tone. The
wall Of November winds is in every line.
The hero is Sir Tristan one of the young
err knights of the Round Table in whom
the growing moral regeneracy of the time
dims the glory of martial deeds. He is
the lover Of Queen Isolt, of Britain, who
is welded to the british and besotted
Mark. At the conclusion of the last tour
nament in which the knights Of the Round
Table engage, Sir Tristram, victor in all
the jousts, rides forth to visit Isolt, who
has been immured by her jealous lord in
the lonely castle of Tintagil Since he
saw her last he has married namesake of
the Queen-the fair, white haired Isolt, Of
Brittany, whom no does not love; and rs
he rides, his mind is veXed with devising
how to smooth it over to one he loves as
we'll as his shallow nature can love. To
please her and show his devotion, he car
ried the rich prize of the tournament to
hang about her neck.
The meeting is beautifully described:
Then pressing day by day thro' Lyonease
Last in rocky hollow, bellng, heard
The hounds Of Mark, and felt the goodly hounds
Yelp at his heart, but turning, past and gained
Tntagil, half in sea, and high on land,
A crown Of tower-.
Down in a casemen. sat,
low sea sunset glorylng round her hair
And gl0ssy.throated grace, Isolt the Queen.
And when she heard the feet Of Tristrsm grind
The spring stone that scaled about her tower,
Flushed, started me, HIM at the doors, and there
Belted his body with her white embrace,
Crying aloud "Not Mark-not Mark, my soul
The footstep hutter'd me at first not he;
Ca, like thro' his own castle steals my Mark.
But war; )r.wise thou stridest through his halls
Who hates thee, as him-ey'n to the death.
Ny soul, felt my haired for my Mark
Quicken within me, and knew that thou vert
Nigh"
To whom Sir Tdstrsm smiling. ~ am here.
Let be thy Mark, seeing he IN not thine"
And draw ing somewhat backward she replied,
'Can he tc WI, ngd who is not ev'n his own,
But save for dread OF thee had beaten me
scratch'd, bitten, blinded, marr'd me somehow
Mark
What rights are his that dare not strike for them 7
Not lit hand-not, tho he found me thus
But hearksn, have ye met him hence he went
To-day for three days hunting-as he said
And 30 returns belize within an hour.
Ma KS way, my s0ul!-but eat not thou with hiInl
Because he hates thee even more than fears;
Nor drink and when thou passsst any wood
Close visor, lest an arrow from the bush
| should leave me all alone with Marx and hell.
MY God, the measure Of my hate for Mark
| Is as the measure Of my love for thee"
30, pluck'y one way by hate and one by love,
Drand oil her force, again she sat. ana ~ AXE
| To Tristram, a. he knelt before her, saying,
| 80 hunter, and o blower oflhe horn,
| Harper, and thou hast been rover too,
| For ere mated with my shambling king,
Ye twain had fallen out about the bride
| OF one--his name il out OF me-the prize,
| II prize she were-(what marvel-she could see
Thine, friend and ever since my craven seeks
| To wreck thee villainously but, o Sir knight,
| What dame or damsel have ye kne.ied to last,
Sir Tristram equivocated, and Queen
lsolt, saddening At his weakness, cries out
81 had forgotten all my strongjoy
To see thee-yearnings f-sy Tor, hourly houI
Here in the neyer-ended afternoon,
o sweeter than all memories Of thee,
Deeper than any yearnings after thee
seem'd those far rolling, westward ,smilinI
seas,
, Watched from this tower. Isolt of Brltair
dAsh'd