New-York tribune., 1901-01-26
THE QUEENS POET.
SOME "REMINISCENCES OF rENNYsoN.


Canon Rawnsley, whose mother was cousin
OF Emily Sellwood G4ady Tennyson) and who is
a friend by inheritance of the Tennysons, has
given in this volume many attractive glimpses
OF a singularly interesting family. Something Of
his material he has gathered among the ancient
Lincolnshire rustics who lived about Somersby
where Alfred Tennyson was born and who loved
10 talk of the clergyman father, "the cliverest
man T. the county, a great scholard"' This
scholar a hard worker in the three parishes
under his charge did most OF the teaching of his
eleven young children-and died at hfty-two
He was a stalwart man and handsome, as We're
his sons and like Alfred, had voice Of So
norous music like an organ" There are
touching memories of the poets mother, a most
kind and loving little lady, pretty and pale and
delicate, invalid, going about in a wheel chair
drawn by a great dog, and always surrounded on
the country road by her adOring tail sons and
daughters. They revered their father, but 1t
was always TO their mother that Alfred and
Charles, the rhymers, came for encouragement
Rector Tennyson never let them know what he
thought OF their poetry: he used, indeed. TO tell
them TO mind their books, for that they could
never get bread 10y such stuff; but the gentle
little mother delighted in their work, and on
their walks with her would in her turn read her
favorite poems them. Il think can see her
now" said Charles when old man. waiting
on the road for the carrier from South to come
over Tetford Hill. bringing the proofs OF our
first book Of poems for correction
An old farmer pair remembered MI. Alfred"
as being particularly fond Of jam and cats, and
opened eyes Of establishment when told that he
was making thousands by lis poetry Why,
you know" said the old wife. II them daays,
thowt he wur daft He was allus rambling of
quite by hssen. wi'out coat to his back and
wi'out a hat to his head, nor nowt. l remember
as If it were nobbut yisterdaay, my man. as was
a fiddler bit of a fellow. off to Hildreds
theer at Skegsnest, to play fur quolity at a
dance; and he was cooming hoam in the morning
early and be-dashed, who should he light on but
Alr. Alfred, a-raavin' and taarin' upon the sand
hills IN his shirt sleeves an all; and Mr.. Alfred
said, saays he, Good morning. saays he; and
my man saays. Thou poor fool, thou doesn't
knaw morning from night for you know, sir. i
them daays We all thowt he was craazed. Well!
well! And the Queen wants TO make him
lord, poor thingr' It IS tie traditional attitude
OF the prosaic toward the poetic. Another
glimpse OF the youth Alfred is given by the
venerable Miss Rosa Barring, who rosebud
girl treasured many a bit Of gallant verse from
his pen: ALFRED. We all called him, was so
quaint and so chivalrous. such real knight
among men-at least, always fancied so; and,
though we joked one another about his quaint,
with boisterous fits Of fun We were proud as
peaeocks to have been worthy Of notice by him,
and treasured any message he might send
any word OF admiration he let fall" OF all that
band OF fair English girls, the Iairest
Emily Sellwood. whom he first met in the Fairy
Glen at SOmersby. She was a slender creature
OF seventeen, moving in her simple gray gown
through the springtime wood, and he said to
her, Are you a dryad or Dread wandering here?'
There were many chances and changes between
this hour and that when, years later, she be-
came his wife, but neither heart ever wavered
Canon Rawnsley's notes of his talks with the
poet are IN most particulars characteristic. We
the tall, gaunt old man. very distinguished
and foreign looking. picturesquely immaculate in
his attire, with speech Of exquisite nicely OF
phrasing and voice of glorious fulness and
richness. Like all other writers on Tennysoa
RaWnsley makes reiterated mention of the
strange. melancholy organ chant in which the
poet read aloud his own verse. 1t is interesting
TO know that in answer to a question 10
which Of all the lines he had written he was
proudest of. he said Il think am most glad
10 have written the line
The mellow ouzel huted in the elm
Il believe" he added. Il was the first to de-
scribe the ouzePs note a flute note" He
shared with others the theory that poets work
should be finished by the time he is sixty.
Anything I write must be in the next ten
years." he said at fifty. Yet some OF his finest
verse was produced long after his sixtieth year
w. F. Rawnsley. the Canon's brother, remem-
bers the poet as being very sensitive to criti-
oisna, especially when it denied him originality.
They allow me nothing" he once complained.
For instance. The deep means round with
many voices The deep Byron: 'moans.'
Horace; many voices Homer, and so on" He
remembered bitterly the things that had been
SAID OF him by men long dead; and he remarked
with vexation. OF one man whom he had loved.
II wish he had never spoken Of my Battle Of
Brunanburg reminding him Of The House
that Jack Built'r' And then he added:
IN my youth the growIs!
In mine age the owlsi
After death the ghoulsr'
Asked concerning the unusual metre Of The
Charge OF the Light Brigade"-a metre Of which
his companion remembered only one other in
stance. IN Drayton's Battle Of Agincourt"-the
poet said that he did not take it from that, but
from account Of the battle in The London
Times" IN which he found the sentence Some
one had blundered." He kept saying that to
himself and the words kept on sounding in his
head, and made the metre OF the poem. 1t is
recorded OF him that he always found diff
Guilty in doing poems 10 order-a sad difficulty
for a Laureate. The Rawnsleys lay stress on the
poets remarkable knowledge OF nature his
curiously intimate study of smallest flower and
leaf. He lamented the blindness with which peo-
rle go through the world neither seeing nor
hearing the voices or God that are round about
them" TITS sham, this nineteenth century
education" he said. 1T turns men and women
cut IKE machines ana never once makes them
open eyes and ears TO the beauty Of the COM