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34
At Mablethorpe;
AN EPISODE IN THE PUBLICATION OF THE “POEMS BY TWO BROTHERS.”
1827.
That evening's sun set rosy o'er the wold,
A burnished shield the level marsh-land lay;
Tall reeds in wonder whispered all the way
As towards the sea their car of triumph rolled;
The whirling mills with voices manifold
Tossed up their arms to cheer; the churches grey—
The lonely churches where the marsh-men pray—
Breathed forth a blessing on the venture bold.
A burnished shield the level marsh-land lay;
Tall reeds in wonder whispered all the way
As towards the sea their car of triumph rolled;
The whirling mills with voices manifold
Tossed up their arms to cheer; the churches grey—
The lonely churches where the marsh-men pray—
Breathed forth a blessing on the venture bold.
Thou far retiring ocean, o'er what sands
Of rippled silver glistening to the stars
Didst thou entice those happy brothers' feet;
With what a rhythm didst thou clap thy hands,
And rear thyself above the shelving bars,
And pause, and fall, their music to repeat!
Of rippled silver glistening to the stars
Didst thou entice those happy brothers' feet;
With what a rhythm didst thou clap thy hands,
And rear thyself above the shelving bars,
And pause, and fall, their music to repeat!
I am indebted to the late Charles Tennyson Turner for this reminiscence. On the afternoon of the appearance of their joint first volume of poems Lord Tennyson and his elder brother took carriage, and, driving across the marsh to Mablethorpe, shared their natural triumph with the waves and winds of the wild eastern shore, and came back with shout and song late at night to the moonlit streets of the little market town of Louth.
The late Lord Tennyson, referring to this sonnet, said he had no recollection of the fact which is the motive of it; but it is fair to his elder brother to reassert that he described the incident as clear in his memory, and that the sonnet was written with his narrative fresh in the writer's ears.
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