Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson | Page 3

'The Sleeping Beauty' in 'The Day Dream', which was adopted with some alterations from the 1830 poem, and only one of these poems was afterwards suppressed, 'The Skipping Rope', which was, however, allowed to stand till 1851. In 1843 appeared the second edition of these poems, which is merely a reprint with a few unimportant alterations, and which was followed in 1845 and in 1846 by a third and fourth edition equally unimportant in their variants, but in the fourth 'The Golden Year' was added. In the next edition, the fifth, 1848, 'The Deserted House' was included from the poems of 1830. In the sixth edition, 1850, was included another poem, 'To--, after reading a Life and Letters', reprinted, with some alterations, from the 'Examiner' of 24th March, 1849.
The seventh edition, 1851, contained important additions. First the Dedication to the Queen, then 'Edwin Morris,' the fragment of 'The Eagle,' and the stanzas, "Come not when I am dead," first printed in 'The Keepsake' for 1851, under the title of 'Stanzas.' In this edition the absurd trifle 'The Skipping Rope' was excised and finally cancelled. In the eighth edition, 1853, 'The Sea-Fairies,' though greatly altered, was included from the poems of 1830, and the poem 'To E. L. on his Travels in Greece' was added. This edition, the eighth, may be regarded as the final one. Nothing afterwards of much importance was added or subtracted, and comparatively few alterations were made in the text from that date to the last collected edition in 1898.
All the editions up to, and including, that of 1898 have been carefully collated, so that the student of Tennyson can follow step by step the process by which he arrived at that perfection of expression which is perhaps his most striking characteristic as a poet. And it was indeed a trophy of labour, of the application "of patient touches of unwearied art". Whoever will turn, say to 'The Palace of Art,' to '‘none,' to the 'Dream of Fair Women,' or even to 'The Sea-Fairies' and to 'The Lady of Shalott,' will see what labour was expended on their composition. Nothing indeed can be more interesting than to note the touches, the substitution of which measured the whole distance between mediocrity and excellence. Take, for example, the magical alteration in the couplet in the 'Dream of Fair Women':--
One drew a sharp knife thro' my tender throat?Slowly,--and nothing more,
into
The bright death quiver'd at the victim's throat;?Touch'd; and I knew no more.
Or, in the same poem:--
What nights we had in Egypt!?I could hit His humours while I cross'd him.?O the life I led him, and the dalliance and the wit,
into
We drank the Libyan Sun to sleep, and lit?Lamps which outburn'd Canopus.?O my life In Egypt!?O the dalliance and the wit,?The flattery and the strife.
Or, in 'Mariana in the South':--
She mov'd her lips, she pray'd alone,?She praying, disarray'd and warm?From slumber, deep her wavy form?In the dark lustrous mirror shone,
into
Complaining, "Mother, give me grace?To help me of my weary load".?And on the liquid mirror glow'd?The clear perfection of her face.
How happy is this slight alteration in the verses 'To J. S.' which corrects one of the falsest notes ever struck by a poet:--
A tear Dropt on my tablets as I wrote.
A tear Dropt on the letters as I wrote.
or where in 'Locksley Hall' a splendidly graphic touch of description is gained by the alteration of "droops the trailer from the crag" into "swings the trailer".
So again in 'Love and Duty':--
Should my shadow cross thy thoughts?Too sadly for their peace, so put it back.?For calmer hours in memory's darkest hold,
where by altering "so put it back" into "remand it thou," a somewhat ludicrous image is at all events softened.
What great care Tennyson took with his phraseology is curiously illustrated in 'The May Queen'. In the 1842 edition "Robin" was the name of the May Queen's lover. In 1843 it was altered to "Robert," and in 1845 and subsequent editions back to "Robin".
Compare, again, the old stanza in 'The Miller's Daughter':--
How dear to me in youth, my love,?Was everything about the mill;?The black and silent pool above,?The pool beneath it never still,
with what was afterwards substituted:--
I loved the brimming wave that swam?Through quiet meadows round the mill,?The sleepy pool above the dam,?The pool beneath it never still.
Another most felicitous emendation is to be found in 'The Poet', where the edition of 1830 reads:--
And in the bordure of her robe was writ?Wisdom, a name to shake?Hoar anarchies, as with a thunderfit.
This in 1842 appears as:--
And in her raiment's hem was trac'd in flame?Wisdom, a name to shake?All evil dreams of power--a sacred name.
Again, in the 'Lotos Eaters'
Three thunder-cloven thrones of oldest snow?Stood sunset-flushed
is changed into
Three silent pinnacles of aged snow.
So in 'Will Waterproof' the cumbrous
Like Hezekiah's backward runs The shadow of my days,
was afterwards