New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-10-10
And when he laughs his little eyes
Are swallOw'd In his pamperd cheek.

And when he laughs his little eyes
Are swallow'd in his pamperd cheek.
He brims his beaker to the top,
With jokes you never heard before
And sometimes with a twinkling dron
ITO those who will not taste 1t morem
Onward from the point Of Tennyson,. A..
contact with the world Of which he give. =.
one vignette in this poem to Mine Ho.,.
there is no break in his development nor IA ths,.
anything cventful recorded. The progress Of ~.
genius is marked by the steadiness Of his o,,.
famous tide. TOO full for sound and foam
and his bographer has naught to do but ~.
forth the traits Of the man as he travels on fr,.
one province Of knowledge to another srn,-
one peak of poesy to the next. 1t cannot =.
said that he had to wait long for recognize,
Mill praised him at the very outset In word.
which fructified In the forties he was famou.
This is not the place to traverse his poetic,,
expansion. Suffice 1t to say that his work grew
with his sympathies and mind, moving eve,
further and further beyond the confines OF M,
sonal sentiment or taste to realms Of profound
humanity. Halam was the cause Of I'm M
moriam" but 1t Is no irreverence to say tina,
the hero of that elegy almost fades into inse
nificance beside the broad stream Of deepe,
issues with which Tennyson occupied himself
The praises that touched him were those CON-
ing from people. sometimes very humble and oh
scure. to whom he had done good. To divine
the human in divinity, to pierce to what IA
divine in daily life this was his highest ambI
ton, and not In the presence Of his lightest
song is 1t possible to forget this noble aspiration.
1t is suggestive, too. to note the close tie be.
tween him and urban life in spite OF his long re-.
tirement in the country. Whether at Earring.
ford or AldwOrth. on the Surrey downs. he wa,
as keenly alive to the movement OF modern
thought as though dwelling in the heart OF
great city. He lived among fields and forests
the sea was his highest MISUNDERSTANDING" h.
used to say, water Is the element love bes,
of all the four"-but English politics. Continental
events the slow steps Of science. everything tina,
holds mems minds on high levels he lived with
as he lived with the flowers In Sis garden. Al
the Sterling Club he used to meet Carlyle. Ros.
ers, Barry Cornwall. Thackeray Dickens. Fors
ter, Lander. Maclise. Leigh Hunt and Tom
Campbell. and 1t might easily be presumed that
he talked shop largely But he had wider
interests II have heard says his son, that
he always showed an eager interest In the
events and in the great scientific discoveries and
time. His talk largely touched upon politics.
philosophy and theology. and the new specu.
latons rife on every SIDE Upon the projects OF
reform. or the great movements Of philanthropy
he reflected much" When ne did touch upon
the particular passion Of his life. poetry he bore
himself with the authority that came from deep
scholarship in the literature OF his subject and
a wonderfully disciplined taste. but also with a
winning modesty. Reporting one OF his CONVEX
sations on poetry. Aubrey de We're makes this
contribution to the present memoir:
II was easy to see that to discern The beautiful
in all around US and to reveal that beauty to
others was his special poetic vocation In these
conversations he never uttered a word that was
disparaging or tainted with the spirit Of rival.
ship one OF the poets least like himself Crabbe,
was among those whose merits he affirmed most
unequivocally. especially his gift Of hard
pathos The only poet | heard him criticise
roughly or unfairly was himself Compare" he
once said to me. compare the heavy handling
OF my workmanship with the exquisite lightness
Of touch In Keats" Another time he read aloud