O love, they die in yon rich sky, They faint on hill or field or river; And grow for ever and for ever. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. When a word within a line rimes with one at the end (falls-walls, line one, above) the rime is described as internal. The difference between internal rime and the normal end rime is slight, the latter being, of course, somewhat more emphatic. Note that the refrain of the above stanzas differs markedly from the regular iambic tetrameters of the first four lines. In the refrain the call of a bugle is imitated in words. This adaptation of sound to sense, common in poetry, is called onomatopeia. The adjective is onomatopaic or onomatopoetic. Although the quatrain of iambic tetrameters riming abba had been used previously, it remained for Tennyson to give the meter a great poem. In Memoriam has since given the name to the stanza in which it is written. The following passage is often sung as a Christmas carol. RING OUT, WILD BELLS Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the grief that saps the mind, Ring out a slowly dying cause, Ring out the want, the care, the sin, Ring out false pride in place and blood, Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring in the valiant man and free, Ring in the Christ that is to be. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) In the preceding hymn Tennyson expressed a general appeal for better conditions. In the following poem the newly appointed laureate complimented the great sovereign who was regarded by her contemporaries as the epitome of an age of morality and idealism. A dedication in verse is difficult. Swinburne's self-dedication in his Poems and Ballads, First Series, displays high metrical skill. Whittier's "Proem," Morris's "An Apology," and Masefield's "A Consecration" ably characterize the aims of their respective authors. Happily phrased is William Watson's sonnet offering a volume "To Lord Tennyson." It is safe to say, however, that no dedication has surpassed in felicity the subjoined poem. The reference in the second stanza is to William Wordsworth, who preceded Tennyson as poet laureate. TO THE QUEEN Revered, beloved-O you that hold Than arms, or power of brain, or birth Victoria, since your Royal grace This laurel greener from the brows And should your greatness, and the care Then-while a sweeter music wakes, And thro' wild March the throstle calls, Where all about your palace-walls Take, Madam, this poor book of song; And leave us rulers of your blood "Her court was pure; her life serene; God gave her peace; her land reposed; "And statesmen at her council met Who knew the seasons when to take "By shaping some august decree Which kept her throne unshaken still, Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) As Tennyson lay on his death-bed, Henry van Dyke, author, clergyman, professor, and later ambassador to Holland and Luxemburg, penned the following poem, felicitous in its reference to "Crossing the Bar," and carrying in the fourth and fifth lines the noblest conceivable tribute. The trochaic octame ter lines harmonize well with the tone of stately dignity. TENNYSON In Lucem Transitus, October, 1892 From the misty shores of midnight, touched with splendors of the moon, To the singing tides of heaven, and the light more clear than noon, Passed a soul that grew to music till it was with God in tune. Brother of the greatest poets, true to nature, true to art; depart? Silence here for love is silent, gazing on the lessening sail; Silence here for grief is voiceless when the mighty minstrels fail; Silence here-but, far beyond us, many voices crying, Hail! Henry van Dyke (1852-) Tennyson was buried in London, in the "Poets' Corner" of Westminster Abbey. That venerable Gothic building contains many more immortals now than when Beaumont wrote his poem, and among those recently buried therein are a number of men of letters. Speaking for a British colony, Kipling well terms Westminster "The Abbey that makes us we." Beaumont's name is almost inseparably connected with that of John Fletcher-the two constitute the most famous pair of collaborators in English literature. |