VI.

And the soul of the rose went into my blood,
As the music clashed in the hall;
And long by the garden lake I stood,

For I heard your rivulet fall

From the lake to the meadow, and on to the wood, Our wood that is dearer than all;

VII.

From the meadow your walks have left so sweet That, whenever a March-wind sighs,

He sets the jewel-print of your feet

In violets blue as your eyes,

To the woody hollows in which we meet,
And the valleys of Paradise.

VIII.

The slender acacia would not shake

One long milk-bloom on the tree;

The white lake-blossom fell into the lake

As the pimpernel dozed on the lea;

But the rose was awake all night for your sake, Knowing your promise to me;

The lilies and roses were all awake,

They sighed for the dawn and thee.

ΙΧ.

Queen rose of the rose-bud garden of girls,
Come hither, the dances are done,

In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls,
Queen lily and rose in one;

Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls,

To the flowers, and be their sun.

X.

There has fallen a splendid tear

From the passion-flower at the gate.

She is coming, my dove, my dear;

She is coming, my life, my fate;

The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;" And the white rose weeps, "She is late;" The larkspur listens, “I hear, I hear,"

And the lily whispers, "I wait."

XI.

She is coming, my own, my sweet;
Were it ever so airy a tread
My heart would hear her and beat,
Were it earth in an earthy bed;
My dust would hear her and beat,

Had I lain for a century dead;
Would start and tremble under her feet,
And blossom in purple and red.

DE PROFUNDIS.

Out of the Deep, my child, out of the Deep:
Where all that was to be in all that was
Whirled for a million æous through the vast,
Waste dawn of multitudinous eddying light—
Out of the deep, my child, out of the Deep!
Through all this changing world of changeless law,
And every phase of ever heightening life,

And nine long months of ante-natal gloom,
With this last moon, this crescent-her dark orb
Touched with earth's light-thou comest, Darling
Boy;

Our Own; a babe in lineament and limb
Perfect, and prophet of the perfect man;
Whose face and form are hers and mine in one,
Indissolubly married, like our love;

Live and be happy in thyself, and serve

This mortal race, thy kin, so well that men
May bless thee, as we bless thee, O young life,
Breaking with laughter from the dark; and may
The fated channel where thy motion lives
Be prosperously shaped, and sway thy course
Along the years of haste and random youth
Unshattered-then full current through full man;
And last, in kindly curves, with gentlest fall,
By quiet fields, a slowly dying power,
To that last Deep where we and thou are still.
1880.

BUGLE SONG.

FROM "THE PRINCESS."

The splendor falls on castle walls,

And snowy summits old in story; The long light shakes across the lakes,

And the wild cataract leaps in glory. Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying; Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying!

Oh hark, oh hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
Oh sweet and far, from cliff and scar,
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow! let us hear the purple glens replying;
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying!

Oh love, they die in yon rich sky;

They faint on hill, or field, or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow forever and forever.

Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying!

STANZAS FROM "IN MEMORIAM.”

I envy not in any moods

The captive void of noble rage, The linnet born within the cage, That never knew the summer woods;

1 Tennyson has made the Stanza of "In Memoriam" so peculiarly his own, that the verses of other poets who employ it now seem like imitations. But the Stanza was used by Ben Jonson. It also appears in the following remarkable poem, taken from the Luttrell Collection of Broadsides. There is no indication of date or authorship; but the general tone of the composition, the allusions to the national desire for a free Parliament, the mention of a commonwealth, and the absence of any reference to royalty, show that they must have been written by a Republican in the spring of 1660, during the temporary dictatorship of General Monk:

ENGLAND'S VOTE FOR A FREE ELECTION AND A FREE PARLIAMENT.

Great God of Nations, and their Right,

By whose high Auspice Brittain stands
So long, though first 'twas built on Sands,
And oft had sunk but for Thy might;-

In her own Mainland-storms and Seas,
Be present to her now as then,

And let not proud and factions men
Oppose thy will with what they please.

Our Free full Senate's to be made:
O, put it to the publick voice
To make a legal worthy choice,
Excluding such as would invade

The Commonwealth. Let whom we name
Have Wisdome, Foresight, Fortitude,
Be more with Faith than Face endued;
And study Conscience above Fame;-

Such, as not seek to get the Start

In State, by Faction, Power, or Bribes, Ambition's Bands. But move the Tribes By Virtue, Modesty, Desert;

Such as to Justice will adhere,

Whatever great one it offend;

And from the embracéd Truth not bend From Envy, Hatred, Gifts, or Fear;

That by their Deeds will make it known
Whose Dignity they do sustain;
And Life, State, Glory, all they gain,
Count it Great Brittain's, not their own.

Such the old Bruti, Decii were

The Cippi, Curtii, who did give

Themselves for Rome: and would not live, As men, good only for a year.

Such were the great Camilli too,

The Fabii, Scipios; that still thought No work at price enough was bought, That for their country they could do:

And to her honour so did knit,

As all their Acts were understood The Sinews of the Publick Good, And they themselves one soul with it.

These men were truly Magistrates;

These neither practised Force, nor Forms, Nor did they leave the helm in storms, And such they are make happy States.