Only such cups as left us friendly-warm, His vast and filthy hands upon my will, 220 Or Heliconian honey in living words, Poor little life that toddles half an hour Crown'd with a flower cr two, and there an end 229 THE WINDOW; OR, THE SONG OF THE WRENS First printed in 1867 at the private press of Sir Ivor Bertie Guest, at Canford Mance, near Wimborne. Only a few copies were printed, and one is rarely found in the market. Reprinted, with variations in the text, and with music by Sir Arthur Sullivan, in December, 1870. This edition had the following preface, which was retained in the edition of 1884, when the poems next appeared: Four years ago Mr. Sullivan requested me to write a little song-cycle, German fashion, for him to exercise his art upon. He had been very successful in setting such old songs, as 'Orpheus with his lute,' and I drest up for him, partly in the old style, a puppet, whose almost only merit is, perhaps, that it can dance to Mr. Sullivan's instrument. I am sorry that my four-year-old pup. pet should have to dance at all in the dark shadow of these days; but the music is now com pleted, and I am bound by my promise. December, 1870. A. TENNYSON. This poem (written in 1828) was printed in 1833, but withdrawn before publication for reasons which the author gives in the following preface to the reprint of 1879: The original Preface to 'The Lover's Tale' states that it was composed in my nineteenth year. Two only of the three parts then written were printed, when, feeling the imperfection of the poem, I withdrew it from the press. One of my friends, however, who, boylike, admired the boy's work, distributed among our common associates of that hour some copies of these two parts, without my knowledge, without the omissions and amendments which I had in contemplation, and marred by the many misprints of the compositor. Seeing that these two parts have of late been mercilessly pirated, and that what I had deemed scarce worthy to live is not allowed to die, may I not be pardoned if I suffer the whole poem at last to come into the lightpanied with a reprint of the sequel a work of my mature life- 'The Golden Supper'? ARGUMENT May, 1879. accom Julian, whose cousin and foster-sister, Camilla, has been wedded to his friend and rival, Lionel, endeavors to narrate the story of his own love for her, and the strange sequel. He speaks (in Parts II. and III.) of having been haunted by visions and the sound of bells, tolling for a funeral, and at last ringing for a marriage; but he breaks away, overcome, as he approaches the Event, and a witness to it completes the tale. I HERE far away, seen from the topmost Between the tufted hills, the sloping seas Hung in mid-heaven, and half-way down rare sails, White as white clouds, floated from sky to sky. |