FROM KING ARTHUR. FROM 66 KING ARTHUR." 499 BOOK IV. INVOCATION TO LOVE. Hail thou, the ever young, albeit of night Thou, at whose birth broke forth the Founts of Light, Hail, Love the Death-defyer! age to age Ghost-like amidst the unfamiliar Past, Dim shadows flit along the streams of Time; Unknown of ages! Like the wizard's rhyme Voiceless and wan, we question them in vain ; They leave unsolv'd earth's mighty yesterday. Arch power, of every power most dread, most sweet, Yet Terror flies with Joy before thy feet, And, with the Graces, glide unseen the Fates; QUEEN VICTORIA. BOOK VII. Mild, like all Strength, sits crowned Liberty, 1 Venus is sometimes a morning (Eos) sometimes an evening star (Hesperus: see note 3, p. 428. Some of the beauties of this invocation are drawn from the Crphic and Hesiodic mythology. And round her group the Cymrian's1 changless race, Their hero line ;-sweet flower of age—long growth ; Behold the close of thirteen hundred years; Lo! Cymri's daughter on the Saxon throne! And in the heavens one rainbow cloud alone THOMAS NOON TALFOURD. MR SERJEANT TALFOURD's tragedies are “The Athenian Captive,” “ Ion,” and "The Massacre of Glencoe." The two former dramas are constructed on the classical model, the incidents and catastrophe of each piece being independent of the character of the hero, and urged on under the law of an uncontrollable destiny (see note 4, p. 219, supra). Both tragedies are extremely interesting in the conduct of the story, rich in imagery, and pure and elegant in language. The poet has produced a number of small occasional pieces; and he has been twice the biographer of his beloved friend Charles Lamb. MOTHER AND SON-THE REVELATION.3 SCENE-The Hall of Statues in the Palace (at Argos). Thoas. [Alone.] Again I stand within this awful hall; Of vision; for a foul and clinging mist, Like the damp vapour of a long-closed vault, 1 Cymri, Cumbri, the ancient Britons, of whom Arthur was king; hence Cambria, Wales; Cumberland, and the Cumbrae isles, on the coast of the "British" kingdom of Strathclyde. For the Welsh Cymri, see Scott's" Betrothed."-Cerdic, the Saxon founder of the Heptarch kingdom of Wessex, Arthur's antagonist.-White plume, see p. 58, supra. The poet has recently been created a judge. 3 Thoas, an Athenian warrior, captured in battle by the Corinthians, and reduced to slavery by Creon the Corinthian king, is urged by the queen Ismene, originally an Athenian lady, to murder Creon in revenge for the injuries she has suffered from the king. Thoas performs her will, and escapes in remorse to the approaching Athenian army; the city surrenders, and Ismene reveals herself as the mother of Thoas. Is round me. Now its objects start to sight Enter Ismene, richly dressed. Ismene. Noble soldier, I bid thee welcome, with the rapturous heart Thoas. If thy speech is true, And I have something in me which responds By ponderous gloom encircled,-thou hast shown In the black mirror of a lurid lake, Whose waters soon shall cover me,-I've stain'd Ismene. If that just deed, Thoas. 1 The Hero-king of Athens and the founder of her constitution. Here in this very hall -May the strong curse Ismene. Dost doubt my word! Is there no witness in thy mantling blood Which tells thee whence 'twas drawn? Is nature silent? If, from the mists of infancy, no form Of her who, sunk in poverty, forgot Its ills in tending thee, and made the hopes Which glimmer'd in thy smiles her comfort,-gleams When foragers from Corinth toss'd a brand Upon the roof that shelter'd thee; dragg'd out Whom from her bosom they had rent? That child Thoas. Would the solid earth Ismene. Dost mock me? I have clasp'd Sorrow and shame, as if they were my sons, Moulded from mine, to strike the oppressor dead. Thoas. Dost confess That, conscious who I was, thou urged my knife Ismene. Confess I glory in it!— Thy arm hath done the purpose of my will; Long past, which man ne'er guesses at ;—for years 1 Referring to Act iii. Sc. 2. Of daily, silent suffering, which young soldiers Thoas. [Shrinking from her.] I cannot. I will kneel Ismene. Ha! Beware, unfeeling man :— I had opposed, had crush'd all human loves, FROM "ION." ACT II. SCENE 1. ION TO ADRASTUS. Think upon the time When the clear depths of thy yet lucid soul As if about to melt in golden light Shapes of one heavenly vision; and thy heart, ALFRED TENNYSON. MR TENNYSON is the author of a volume of miscellaneous poems, and latterly of a longer composition, the "Princess." The characteristics of his poetry lie rather in its external dress of imagery and language, than in any bias towards a particular line of thought or subject. His pieces might be classed, in the manner of Mr Wordsworth, into Poems of the Affections |