The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1892-10-27
(ConclMded.l


Half-dipt in clouds"
"And like creeping sunbeam, slid
From pillar unto pillar"
The "Day Dream" containing
enough jeweled rhymes to gem the
crowns of whole race of poet kings
and the courtship of the Lord of
Burleigh and the village maiden,
with its pathetic conclusion that has
beat in time to many random chord
of grief since it was written, and,
what has always seemed to me to be
the masterpiece of that edition
THE Two Voices" In this poem
one voice counsels suicide as q relief
for physical ills:
Consider we'll" the voice replied
His face that two hours since hath died
Wilt thou find passion, pain, or pride|
of all be dark, vague voice." l said,
These things are wrapt in doubt and dread,
Nor cdnst thou show the dead are deod''
whatever crazy sorrow saith,
No life that breathes with human breath
Has ever truly longed for death.
IT'S life, whereof our nerves are scant,
o life not death for which we pant;
More life, and fuller, that | want"
In spite of the difficulties attend
ing the triple rhyme stanza there is
not forced or labored line in the
poem, subtle and logical as it is, and
the conclusion bears such grand
message of hope, that every man
whose sun of life has been clouded
over, should read it in order that he
may learn to patiently await the
ISSUE"
In 1S47 'The Princess" gained him
fresh laurels, and the popularity of
that work has in no wise diminished
at the present time. Something
may be found in it to suit every
mood, and every age, from cradle
lullaby to sonorous bugle song,
from the dalliance of lovers in the
narrative portion to the sibilant
speech of war-women.
In 1851 Tennyson married Emily
Sellwood (who still survives) and
took up his residence on the Isle of
Wight.
1t has been said that marriage
rings the death knell for genius. Be
this as it may, "Mand," which was
the first work published after his
marriage, marked distinct retro
erosion. Read without the connect
ing stanzas that have been since
added it was about as disjointed a
piece of work as was ever written,
the Garden Song being its only re-
deeming feature. In the same
volume appeared the ''Charge of the
Light Brigade" familiar to every
school boy, yet inferior in descrip-
tive power to Meek's grand and
dramatic poem on ''Balaklava," or
even WhyteMelville's stirring prose
recital detailing that mad gallop of
Lucan's little band of heroes across
the tire-swept glacis and into that
gorge of death where nearly half
their number went down before the
fatal fire of the Russian guns.
But the misogamists who had pre-
dicted the setting of the Tenny-
sonian poetic sun had their pro
phecies laughed to scorn after the
"Idyls of the King" silenced the
critics of two worlds, and his sue
ceeding works proved how happily
domestic life nourished his talent
OF the two sons of this union there
is portrait by Watts, r. A., that
shows two faces of almost feminine
beauty, the younger, Lionel, bear.
ing striking likeness to. Shelly
dreamy, sympathetic face, and with
shining eyes like jewels set in Parar
statue stone"
Thackeray's daughter, Mrs. Anne
Richie, has described the touching
tilial affection shown by the sons
The elder, Hallam, has, she writes
"been for years past the adviser, the
friend and companion of his father
and mother"
T. H. Rearden in an article OF
Tennyson in 1883 says that he wa
apt ''to sit on a stile and remark ;
colts points; to take languid int
rest in turnips and crop rotation
and to have a proper interchange o
courtesies with suspected poacher
on the subject of wood-craft, or will
pretty farmers daughters touching
their SWANS" All of which show
the grand catholicity of the immor
tai bard.
Tennyson has not scrupled to ap
propriate several passages iron
Homer, yet the charge of plagiarism
must be made with caution, for bot
Lucretius and Dante have also Dor
rowed literally from the immorta
lays that were chanted on the shore
of the Eg@an, and even the "diyin
Will" did not disdain to fitch an ide
or two from Palladas, as witness tn
following from the muse of tina
philosophical pagan:
"This life theatre we well may call
Where every actor must perform with art
Or laugh it through and make a farce of al
Or learn to bear with grace his tragic part.
And those who criticize him 70
purloining the Falcon from Bocca
clio should remember that the tale
was common in Arabia long before
the author of the Decammeron wai
born; only, in the Arabian legend i
was a favorite horse which fell {
sacrifice and was served as a repas
for the Byzantine monarch, insteaC
of rare falcon trussed for lady