MargaretFirst printed in 1833.Another of Tennyson’s delicious fancy portraits, the twin sister to Adeline.1O sweet pale Margaret,O rare pale Margaret,What lit your eyes with tearful power,Like moonlight on a falling shower?Who lent you, love, your mortal dowerOf pensive thought and aspect pale,Your melancholy sweet and frailAs perfume of the cuckoo-flower?From the westward-winding flood,From the evening-lighted wood,From all things outward you have wonA tearful grace, as tho’[1]you stoodBetween the rainbow and the sun.The very smile before you speak,That dimples your transparent cheek,Encircles all the heart, and feedethThe senses with a still delightOf dainty sorrow without sound,Like the tender amber round,Which the moon about her spreadeth,Moving thro’ a fleecy night.2You love, remaining peacefully,To hear the murmur of the strife,But enter not the toil of life.Your spirit is the calmed sea,Laid by the tumult of the fight.You are the evening star, alwayRemaining betwixt dark and bright:Lull’d echoes of laborious dayCome to you, gleams of mellow lightFloat by you on the verge of night.3What can it matter, Margaret,What songs below the waning starsThe lion-heart, Plantagenet,[2]Sang looking thro’ his prison bars?Exquisite Margaret, who can tellThe last wild thought of Chatelet,[3]Just ere the falling axe did partThe burning brain from the true heart,Even in her sight he loved so well?4A fairy shield your Genius madeAnd gave you on your natal day.Your sorrow, only sorrow’s shade,Keeps real sorrow far away.You move not in such solitudes,You are not less divine,But more human in your moods,Than your twin-sister, Adeline.Your hair is darker, and your eyesTouch’d with a somewhat darker hue,And less aerially blue,But ever trembling thro’ the dew[4]Of dainty-woeful sympathies.5O sweet pale Margaret,O rare pale Margaret,Come down, come down, and hear me speak:Tie up the ringlets on your cheek:The sun is just about to set.The arching lines are tall and shady,And faint, rainy lights are seen,Moving in the leavy beech.Rise from the feast of sorrow, lady,Where all day long you sit betweenJoy and woe, and whisper each.Or only look across the lawn,Look out below your bower-eaves,Look down, and let your blue eyes dawnUpon me thro’ the jasmine-leaves.[5][1]All editions except 1833 and 1853. Though.[2]1833. Lion-souled Plantagenet. For songs supposed to have been composed by Richard I. during the time of his captivity see Sismondi,Littérature du Midi de l’Europe, vol. i., p. 149, andLa Tour Ténébreuse(1705), which contains a poem said to have been written by Richard and Blondel in mixed Romance and Provençal, and a love-song in Norman French, which have frequently been reprinted. See, too, Barney’sHist. of Music, vol. ii., p. 238, and Walpole’sRoyal and Noble Authors, sub.-tit. “Richard I.,” and the fourth volume of Reynouard’sChoix des Poésies des Troubadours. All these poems are probably spurious.[3]Chatelet was a poet-squire in the suite of the Marshal Damville, who was executed for a supposed intrigue with Mary Queen of Scots. See Tytler,History of Scotland, vi., p. 319, and Mr. Swinburne’s tragedy.[4]1833.And more aërially blue,And ever trembling thro’ the dew.[5]1833. Jasmin-leaves.
First printed in 1833.
Another of Tennyson’s delicious fancy portraits, the twin sister to Adeline.
1
O sweet pale Margaret,O rare pale Margaret,What lit your eyes with tearful power,Like moonlight on a falling shower?Who lent you, love, your mortal dowerOf pensive thought and aspect pale,Your melancholy sweet and frailAs perfume of the cuckoo-flower?From the westward-winding flood,From the evening-lighted wood,From all things outward you have wonA tearful grace, as tho’[1]you stoodBetween the rainbow and the sun.The very smile before you speak,That dimples your transparent cheek,Encircles all the heart, and feedethThe senses with a still delightOf dainty sorrow without sound,Like the tender amber round,Which the moon about her spreadeth,Moving thro’ a fleecy night.
2
You love, remaining peacefully,To hear the murmur of the strife,But enter not the toil of life.Your spirit is the calmed sea,Laid by the tumult of the fight.You are the evening star, alwayRemaining betwixt dark and bright:Lull’d echoes of laborious dayCome to you, gleams of mellow lightFloat by you on the verge of night.
3
What can it matter, Margaret,What songs below the waning starsThe lion-heart, Plantagenet,[2]Sang looking thro’ his prison bars?Exquisite Margaret, who can tellThe last wild thought of Chatelet,[3]Just ere the falling axe did partThe burning brain from the true heart,Even in her sight he loved so well?
4
A fairy shield your Genius madeAnd gave you on your natal day.Your sorrow, only sorrow’s shade,Keeps real sorrow far away.You move not in such solitudes,You are not less divine,But more human in your moods,Than your twin-sister, Adeline.Your hair is darker, and your eyesTouch’d with a somewhat darker hue,And less aerially blue,But ever trembling thro’ the dew[4]Of dainty-woeful sympathies.
5
O sweet pale Margaret,O rare pale Margaret,Come down, come down, and hear me speak:Tie up the ringlets on your cheek:The sun is just about to set.The arching lines are tall and shady,And faint, rainy lights are seen,Moving in the leavy beech.Rise from the feast of sorrow, lady,Where all day long you sit betweenJoy and woe, and whisper each.Or only look across the lawn,Look out below your bower-eaves,Look down, and let your blue eyes dawnUpon me thro’ the jasmine-leaves.[5]
[1]All editions except 1833 and 1853. Though.
[2]1833. Lion-souled Plantagenet. For songs supposed to have been composed by Richard I. during the time of his captivity see Sismondi,Littérature du Midi de l’Europe, vol. i., p. 149, andLa Tour Ténébreuse(1705), which contains a poem said to have been written by Richard and Blondel in mixed Romance and Provençal, and a love-song in Norman French, which have frequently been reprinted. See, too, Barney’sHist. of Music, vol. ii., p. 238, and Walpole’sRoyal and Noble Authors, sub.-tit. “Richard I.,” and the fourth volume of Reynouard’sChoix des Poésies des Troubadours. All these poems are probably spurious.
[3]Chatelet was a poet-squire in the suite of the Marshal Damville, who was executed for a supposed intrigue with Mary Queen of Scots. See Tytler,History of Scotland, vi., p. 319, and Mr. Swinburne’s tragedy.
[4]1833.And more aërially blue,And ever trembling thro’ the dew.
[5]1833. Jasmin-leaves.