Part 26 (2/2)

TENNYSON: ”I totally disagree with you By any other arrangement four people would have been unhappy instead of two”

After this I went up to my room The hours kept at Aldworth were peculiar; we dined early and after dinner the poet went to bed At ten o'clock he came downstairs and, if asked, would read his poetry to the coreat care that first night and, placing myself next to him when he came down, I asked him to read out loud to me

TENNYSON: ”What do you want me to read?”

MARGOT: ”Maud”

TENNYSON: ”That was the poe! When it cauard, a ruffian and an atheist! You will live to have as great a contempt for literary critics and the public as I have, , I found on the floor, a volu the laan to read

There is only one man--a poet also--who reads as my host did; and that is my beloved friend, Professor Gilbert Murray When I first heard him at Oxford, I closed ain

Tennyson's reading had the lilt, the tenderness and the rhyth, nor chanting, nor speaking, but a subtle mixture of the three; and the effect uponharan, ”Birds in the high Hall-garden,” and, skipping the next four sections, went on to, ”I have led her home, my love, my only friend,” and ended with:

There has fallen a splendid tear Fro, , my life, my fate; The red rose cries, ”She is near, she is near;”

And the white rose weeps, ”She is late;”

The larkspur listens, ”I hear, I hear;”

And the lily whispers, ”I wait”

She is co, my own, my sweet; Were it ever so airy a tread, My heart would hear her and beat, Were it earth in an earthly bed; My dust would hear her and beat, Had I lain for a century dead; Would start and tremble under her feet, And blossom in purple and red

When he had finished, he pulled me on to his knee and said:

”Manythat ever sounded so well!”

I could not speak

He then told us that he had had an unfortunate experience with a young lady to who on ,

Birds in the high Hall-garden When twilight was falling, Maud, Maud, Maud, Maud, They were crying and calling,

I asked her what bird she thought I ry that I nearly flung her to the ground: 'No, fool!Rook!' said I”

I got up, feeling rather sorry for the young lady, but was so afraid he was going to stop reading that I quickly opened The Princess and put it into his hands, and he went on

I still possess the little Maud, bound in its blue paper cover, out of which he read to us, withafter o for a ith hireat pace over rough ground for two hours I regretted my vanity Except my brother Glenconner I never met such an easy mover The most characteristic feature left on my mind of that as Tennyson's appreciation of other poets

Writing of poets, I coe Wyndha to what has already been published of hi and most lovable of my circle