University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Works of Tennyson

The Eversley Edition: Annotated by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Edited by Hallam, Lord Tennyson

expand sectionI. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionVII. 
 V. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionIV. 
collapse sectionVIII. 
expand section 
expand section 
expand sectionIX. 


211

SHOW-DAY AT BATTLE ABBEY, 1876.

A garden here—May breath and bloom of spring—
The cuckoo yonder from an English elm
Crying ‘with my false egg I overwhelm
The native nest:’ and fancy hears the ring
Of harness, and that deathful arrow sing,
And Saxon battleaxe clang on Norman helm.
Here rose the dragon-banner of our realm:
Here fought, here fell, our Norman-slander'd king.
O Garden blossoming out of English blood!
O strange hate-healer Time! We stroll and stare
Where might made right eight hundred years ago;
Might, right? ay good, so all things make for good—
But he and he, if soul be soul, are where
Each stands full face with all he did below.