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The Works of Tennyson

The Eversley Edition: Annotated by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Edited by Hallam, Lord Tennyson
Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

expand sectionI. 
POEMS
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POEMS
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ENOCH ARDEN AND IN MEMORIAM
expand sectionVII. 
THE PRINCESS AND MAUD
 V. 
IDYLLS OF THE KING
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BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS
expand sectionIV. 
DEMETER AND OTHER POEMS
expand sectionVIII. 
QUEEN MARY AND HAROLD
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BECKET AND OTHER PLAYS
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[section]
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BECKET.
  
PROLOGUE.
expand sectionI. 
ACT I.
expand sectionII. 
ACT II.
expand sectionIII. 
ACT III.
expand sectionIV. 
ACT IV.
expand sectionV. 
ACT V
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[section]
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[section]
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APPENDIX.

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378

TO THE VICAR OF SHIPLAKE

Vicar of that pleasant spot,
Where it was my chance to marry,
Happy, happy be your lot
In the Vicarage by the quarry:
You were he that knit the knot.
379

Sweetly, smoothly flow your life.
Never parish feud perplex you,
Tithe unpaid, or party strife.
All things please you, nothing vex you;
You have given me such a wife.
Have I seen in one so near
Aught but sweetness aye prevailing?
Or, thro' more than half a year,
Half the fraction of a failing?
Therefore bless you, Drummond dear.
Good she is, and pure and just.
Being conquer'd by her sweetness
I shall come thro' her, I trust,
Into fuller-orb'd completeness;
Tho' but made of erring dust.
You, meanwhile, shall day by day
Watch your standard roses blowing,
And your three young things at play
And your triple terrace growing
Green and greener every May.
Smoothly flow your life with Kate's,
Glancing off from all things evil,
Smooth as Thames below your gates,
Thames along the silent level
Streaming thro' his osier'd aits.
 

Mrs. Drummond Rawnsley.

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