The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1892-10-26
ALFRED TENNYsoN.

sentiment judges blindly of that
which pleases it; the voice of popu-
lar sentiment is lifted to iudiscri-
inmate praise or blame of everything
by which it is moved. The
are made the warp through which
the sympathetic, the wise, the
thoughtless, the foolish, weavcs each
his own passion or GOODNESS, his own
folly or desire. y Warren Cheney.
1t would be impossible to write
critical exegesis of the works, or a
comprehensive biographical sketch,
of the most illustrious poet of the
Victorian age within the prescribed
limits of newspaper article. He
has enjoyed the distinction of hav-
ing been the most written about OF .
any literary celebrity of the century, |
and for fifty years hosts of reviews
and periodicals have published arti-
cles concerning his life and work by.
the most eminent of his contempt
raries. From this mass of biography,
praise and censure, | Collated that
which seemed to possess the most
interest for the general reader, be-
ing not unmindful of the fact that
in this prosaic era even the fame
swept strings of his Tyre gave forth
their inspiring melody to fall upon
thousands of unappreciative ears.
But, as | read, through all the
medley of beileS-iettreS rose the mem
DRY of little blue and gold edition
of his poems that wove around me
subtle spells of musical necromancy
in my ninth year in central New
York State, and "the threads that
first shared attention" have hope
lessly entangled the stray thoughts
and facts that had been collected.
Now that he has gone from us the
mind insensibly reverts, not to his
lyric achievements, but to the white
walled rectory on that tlower-scented
hillslope in drowsy Somersby in Lin
colnshire, where, when the present
century had seen but nine springs
vanish through the gilded gates of
summer, he was born.
Somersby was fitting cradle for
this nursing of the MUSES., with its
tree-shadowed lanes, its ripping
brooks voicing their lulling mono
tones of sweetness, the Holywell
glen, garlanded with autumn snow
drops, the surrounding fens alive
with wild fowl and covered with
aquatic plants, and the grand water
scape of the German Ocean.
And, above all the outward intlu-
ences, there was an intellectual and
moral atmosphere in the home it
self. His father was rector of SOmers-
by, man of culture and refinement,
an athlete, musician and a lingu-
list, and his mother, daughter of the
Rev. Stephen Fytche, was scarcely
inferior to her husband in intellect.
Alfred was the third born, and of
the twelve children of the family
five were poets who ''lisped in num-
bers" at an early age.
We read of the intellectual pas
times of the fedglings in this NEST
of nightingales" with admiration not
altogether unmixed with wonder.
How, gathered around the dining
table, they gave a loose rein to Fancy
and wrote in collaboration intermin-
able histories, strange stories, and
quaint rhymes, through which shone
as through curtained easement, the
pale fires of genius.
And, most happily for the world,
the little group of romancists re-
ceived the most kindly encourage
ment from their parents instead, as
is too often the case, of having their
childish flights of imagination laugh
ed to scor by the carping wisdom
of maturity.
In 1927 appeared little volume
of"Poems by Two Brothers," Charles
and Alfred Tennyson, and the pub
lie received the book with warmer
expressions of approval than are
usually accorded to first ventures of
that character. Coleridge, then at
the zenith of his fame, was prompt
to recognize the merit of the poems,
and made the stanzas of Charles an
object of special praise.
This thin little volume, containing
much that was crude, and effeminate
to the last degree, was the thin
point of wedge" that gradually
opened the gates of the world of
literature to Alfred Tennyson.
Two years later he won the chan
cellor's medal for competitive poem
in blank verse entitled, "Timbuctoo.'
Among the competitors were Thack-
cray and Hallam, and Thackeray
smarting under sense of defeat
seized upon the long array of ex
planatory notes appended to the
poem, and wrote a laughable burles
que, brimming over with the keel
satire that afterwards made hin
famous, and finished with length,
list 'of mirth-provoking exegetica
remarks that caused Tennyson tt
rigidly exclude all prosy explana
tions thereafter from his works.
Thackeray, however, made tn
amende honorable in 1868 when h
eloquently compared the poet to $
giant showing beacon torch on
windy headland," and is reported a
saying that Tennyson was the wises
man he ever knew.
OF "Timbuctoo" the "Athenaum,
Notwithstanding the incongruou
title, said: at would have done ere
dit to any man that ever wrote"
The following year, 1880, he pull
lished an additional volume. Man
of the noamS i'm this and the earlip