THE POET LAUREATE AND THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 5, Issue 280, 10 May 1862, Page 2

THE POET LAUREATE AND THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT.

A irarw edition of the "Idylls of the King" contains the following dedication : — These to his memory, — since he held them dear, Perchance as finding there unconsciously Some image of himself— l dedicate, I dedicate, I consecrate with tears — These Idylls. And indeed he seems to me Scarce other than my own ideal knight, , " Who reverenced his conscience as his king. " Whose glory was redressing human WTong ; " Who spake no slander, no, nor listened to it : " Who loved one only, and who clave to her — '* Her — over all whose realms to their last isle, Commingled with the gloom of imminent "war, The shadow of his loss moved like eclipse, Darkening the world. We have lost him — he is gone; We know him now; all narrow jealousies Are silent ; and we see him as he' moved, How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise, With what sublime repression of himself, And in what limits, and how tenderly; Not swaying to this faction or to that; Not making his high place the lawless perch Of wing'd ambitions, nor a vantage-ground For pleasure ; but thro' all this tract of years Wearing the white flower of a blameless'life, Before a thousand peering littlenesses, / In that fierce light which beats about a throne, And blackens every blot : for where is he Who dares foreshadow for an only son A lovelier life, a more unstained than his ? Or how should England, dreaming of his sons Hope more for these than some inheritance Of such a life, a mind as thine, Thou noble Father of her kina;s to be, „ Laborious for her people and her poorVoice in the rich dawn of an ampler day-Far-sighted summoner of war and waste To fruitful strifes and rivalries of peace — Sweet nature gilded by the gracious gleam Of letters, dear to Science, dear to Art, . . Dear to thy land and ours, a Prince indeed, Beyond all titles, and a household name, Hereafter, through all time, Albert the Good. Break not, O woman's heart, but still endure ; Break not, for thou art Royal, but endure, Remembering all the. beauty of that star Which shone so close beside thee, that ye made One light together, but has past and left The Crown a lonely splendour. May all love, His love, unseen but felt, o'shadow thee ; The love of all thy sons encompass thee, The love of all thy daughters cherish thee, The love of all thy people comfort thee, Till God's love set thee at his side again. Alebed Tennyson.