NEW POEM BY TENNYSON.

Wanganui Herald, Volume X, Issue 2705, 14 February 1876, Page 2

NEW POEM BY TENNYSON.

[The following appears for the first time in the cabinet edition of Tennyson's poems recently published. It is supposed to refer to events in the poet's life.] THE LETTERS. Still on the tower stood the vane, A black yew gloomed the stagnant air, I peered athwart the chancel pane, And saw the altar cold and bare. A clog of- lead was round my feet, A band of pain across my brow ; tc Bold altar, Heaven and earth shall meet Before you hear my marriage vow." I turn'd and humra'd a bitter song * That mocked the wholesome human heart ;' And then we met in wrath and wrong — We met, but only met to part. Full cold my greeting was, and dry ; She faintly smiled, she hardly moved ; I saw with half-unconscious eye ' She wore the colours' l approved/ She took the little ivory chest, ' ' • With half a sigh she turned the key, Then raised her head with lips comprest,' And gave my letters back to me, , Aud gave the trinkets and the rings'. , ' . My gifts, when gift of mine couldpleaseAs looks a father on the things - Of his dead son, I looked on these. She told me all her friends had said ; I raged against the public liar ; She talked as if her love were dead, ■■ • Bat in my words were seeds of fire. " No moie of love ; your sex is known : I never will be twice deceived. Henceforth, I trust the man alone'; The woman oanuofc be believed. " Thro' slander, meanest Bpawn of hell — Aud women's slander is the worst — And you, whom once I loved so well ; Thro' you my life will be accursed." I spoke with heart, and heat, and force, I shook her breast with vain alarms — Like torrents from a mountain source We rushed inte each other's arms. "We parted ; sweetly gleamed the stars, And sweet the vapour-braided blue ; Low breezes fanned the belfry bars, As homeward 03' the church T drew. The very graves appeared to smile, So fresh they rose in shadowed swells ; "Dark porch," said I, " and silent aisle, There comes a sound of marriage bells."