TENNYSON'S NEW BOOK.

Otago Witness, Issue 1838, 11 February 1887, Page 13

TENNYSON'S NEW BOOK.

The literary event of the week (writes onr Londofi correspondent, under date December---17) has .been the publication, by thV Messrs-, Macmillan and Co., of the IQDg-espepted volume of Tennyson's poems. -It* is" a." small' book of 200 page?, of which no lees than 150 are devoted to "The Promise' of SMay," a drama which it may be renierlibt' red was produced at the Globe Theatre fonr years ago and proved a hopeless JaUure. Pl^V ipEdgar, (be hero, "the child of evolution," who follows "his own instincts as bis god," was such an unmitigated scoundrel that even a London audience could not tolerate him. OOft f course the play possesses literary merit of a hi#h order, and many passages have. the true Tenjiysonian" ring,"" bat neither as a poem or a drama will it live. The Laureate, however, *has%clearly ' : not lost his old skill as a son'g^ writer. a» the following lines in the second act will showr — - - • What will ye do, and what did ye patty. * • • Wi'thewlid white rose, and the woodbine sfc g*Uy, An' the mldders all mow'd and the 6ky«a bju^— What did ye satty and what did ye do? ' When ye thowt there were nawbpdy watchln' o* And you and your ''ally ws» forliln' tho haay, Atthf end of tl>eda&r. • ' v . -- last kttd h Km. * " _" t ' What did wedV, and what did wo saaj-, ' • Wi' thf briar sa green, and ..Jin willi r sa gragy. An' themiddete hll moVd. a»d tho eky ?a blueDo ye think Ibe gawlii 1 iQ *«' Ht *» JS>u< " ' VV. fti. we rrnwt saSv, »nd vrh»P w mowb do. When me nnd my S«lly was for«>'Ju th^ baUy, t At he end of thedaay, • , For the last lottd hofia:? But what did ye say, and what did ye do, ' Wi the butterilittß out, and the sw .llwe at plfi&.W An' the middt'rsafl m»w'd, »nd the sky blue? W hy, coom tr;eti. cm& teller, I'll tell it t<» you-; V'or me and my Sally we'swoir'd to be true. To be true toeauli ot er, let 'appen what raaiiy, . Till the endof fbed««y . • And the last load hoam. [ . , But the interest of the public is centred in the poerri which gives its name to the, volume— viz., "Locksley Hall: Sixty Years After." In it the hero of that favourite poem— by many identified with the- poefc himself— confesses to his grandson that the views of life he had sketched in Locksley Hall has been falsified by. his subsequent experience. The recantation is complete;the amende as humble as words would make. , it. • " Cousin Amy," who di- d in childbirth within a year of her marriage, is relieved from the hateful accusation of being a jilt. Amy loved me, Amy failed me, Amy was a timid ohlld, is the description substituted- 'for thd " shallow hearted " maiden of immortal fame. The apology to ' The Clown" with whom she mated is almost abject in its abasement: — . . , Worthier soul was he than I am, sound and honest rustic ►quire, Kindh landlord, boou companion— youthful jealousyis a liar. Amy's husband, we are told, Strove for sixty widow'd yea--s to help his homelier brother Uien - -' Served th- pne, »nd built 'be cottage, raised fche . school, and drain'd the fen. i Hears h« now tho voi c that wrong'd him? Who Shalt swear it cannot bi- ? Earth would never touch her woretj were one f n fifty such c he. The Hero of "Locksley Hall" consoled himself for his disappointment, by marrying "Edith, loyal, lowly, sweet,' feminine to her inmost heart, and feminine to .her tender feet " She too, had left him, arid to the old man of 80 the world had grown very grey. His reflections on politics, art, litera- • v ture are couched in the most pessimist vein. He no longer cays, " Better 50 years of . Europe than a cycle of Cathay." Demo* cracy, Zolaism, and irreligion seems to him to be rampant. The sad forebodings which ' characterise the following lines are in strong contrast to the generous aspirations of the poet's youth : — Is it we 1 ! that while we raujie with Science, glorying in th" Time, City phildrnn soak and aud blacken soul and sense la city slime ? There among the glooming alleys Progress halts oti palsied feet, ' .- • Crime ami hu> ger cast our maidens by the thousand on the street. " " ' „'.„ ' . There the master scrimps his haggard sempstress of her daily bread, . - "' ' ! There a single sordid attic holds the living and the ■ dead. > . j There the smouldering fire of fever creep* across the rotted floor, • • ' ... And the crowded couch of incesb ia tbe warrens of j the poor. Nay, your pardon, cry your " Forward," yours aro hope and youth, but I — Eighty -vint rsjeave the dog too lame to follow with the cry. Laire and old. and past his time, and passing now into the night ; Yet I v> ould the rising race were half as eager for • the light. * . i Light, the fading gleam of even? light the ■ Hmraer . j of the dawn ? Aged e< es nmy take the growing glimmer for the gleam withdrawn. •" • Far away beyond her myriad coming changes earth will b« Something other than the wildest modern guess of - you an i me. Earth may reach her earthly-worst, or-Jf she gala her arthly-beefc, , Would she nad her human offspring this ldealman at i est ? ;:.<■. Forward then, but still remember how the course of' •• Time will swerve, -.. -„ _ ; ,. Crook and turn upon Itself in "many a* backward streaming curve. - ■- • Writing well abreast of the hews of the day, Tennyson denounces, in memorable phrase, - the Irish outrages, upon " helpless horse" and' - " innocent cattle," and satirically, advises those who endorse the "perish, lndia" cry to , • "take the suffrage of the flow." The old poetic fire runs through the -poem* but th,e flame is not co well sustained as of yore. Perhaps that may explain the feeling of disappointment which prevails amongst the admirers of Tennyson. ? •!*•:.; - The only other poems included arc the | spirited ode on the opening of theßshibition and " The Fleet-," which was, published last I April, during the war scare. It has ;beeni revised and improved, but is, nevertheless, • not up to the Tennysonian 'standard^. In justification of the sentiments expressed, the Laureate appends a long extract, from Sir Graham Berry's recent paper -before the Colonial Institute. More- than one of the colleagues of the Agent-general. for Victoria would give a good deal to have bsea similarly; .. diotenguißli9d,3 . - ' ;-.