The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson

(No alteration since 1842.)

1

And on her lover’s arm she leant,
And round her waist she felt it fold,
And far across the hills they went
In that new world which is the old:
Across the hills and far away
Beyond their utmost purple rim,
And deep into the dying day
The happy princess follow’d him.

2

“I’d sleep another hundred years,
O love, for such another kiss;”
“O wake for ever, love,” she hears,
“O love, ’twas such as this and this.”
And o’er them many a sliding star,
And many a merry wind was borne,
And, stream’d thro’ many a golden bar,
The twilight melted into morn.

3

“O eyes long laid in happy sleep!”
“O happy sleep, that lightly fled!”
“O happy kiss, that woke thy sleep!”
“O love, thy kiss would wake the dead!”
And o’er them many a flowing range
Of vapour buoy’d the crescent-bark,
And, rapt thro’ many a rosy change,
The twilight died into the dark.

4

“A hundred summers! can it be?
And whither goest thou, tell me where?”
“O seek my father’s court with me!
For there are greater wonders there.”
And o’er the hills, and far away
Beyond their utmost purple rim,
Beyond the night across the day,
Thro’ all the world she follow’d him.

Moral

(No alteration since 1842.)

1

So, Lady Flora, take my lay,
And if you find no moral there,
Go, look in any glass and say,
What moral is in being fair.
Oh, to what uses shall we put
The wildweed-flower that simply blows?
And is there any moral shut
Within the bosom of the rose?

2