1833 1842
Tithonus1
The woods decay, the woods decay and fall, The vapors weep their burthen to the ground, Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath, And after many a summer dies the swan.2
5 Me only cruel immortality Consumes; I wither slowly in thine arms,3 Here at the quiet limit of the world, A white-haired shadow roaming like a dream The ever-silent spaces of the East,
io Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of mom.
Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man? So glorious in his beauty and thy choice, Who madest him thy chosen, that he seemed To his great heart none other than a God!
15 I asked thee, 'Give me immortality.' Then didst thou grant mine asking with a smile, Like wealthy men who care not how they give. But thy strong Hours indignant worked their wills, And beat me down and marred and wasted me,
20 And though they could not end me, left me maimed To dwell in presence of immortal youth, Immortal age beside immortal youth, And all I was in ashes. Can thy love, Thy beauty, make amends, though even now,
25 Close over us, the silver star,4 thy guide, Shines in those tremulous eyes that fill with tears To hear me? Let me go; take back thy gift. Why should a man desire in any way To vary from the kindly race of men,
30 Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance' Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?
A soft air fans the cloud apart; there comes A glimpse of that dark world where I was born. Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals
35 From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure, And bosom beating with a heart renewed. Thy cheek begins to redden through the gloom, Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine, Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild team6
1. A Trojan prince loved by the goddess of the 3. Aurora's arms. dawn, Eos or Aurora, who obtained for him the gift 4. The morning star that precedes the dawn. of living forever but neglected to ask for the gift of 5. What is decreed or ordained as human destiny. everlasting youth. 6. The horses that draw Aurora's chariot into the 2. Some species of swans live for at least fifty sky at daybreak. years.
.
1 138 / ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
40 Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise,
And shake the darkness from their loosened manes,
And beat the twilight into flakes of fire.
Lo! ever thus thou growest beautiful
In silence, then before thine answer given
45 Departest, and thy tears are on my cheek.
Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears,
And make me tremble lest a saying learnt,
In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true?
'The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts.'
50 Ay me! ay me! with what another heart
In days far-off, and with what other eyes
I used to watch?if I be he that watched?
The lucid outline forming round thee; saw
The dim curls kindle into sunny rings;
55 Changed with thy mystic change, and felt my blood
Glow with the glow that slowly crimsoned all
Thy presence and thy portals, while I lay,
Mouth, forehead, eyelids, growing dewy-warm
With kisses balmier than half-opening buds
60 Of April, and could hear the lips that kissed
Whispering I knew not what of wild and sweet,
Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing,
While Ilion like a mist rose into towers.7
Yet hold me not forever in thine East;
65 How can my nature longer mix with thine?
Coldly thy rosy shadows bathe me, cold
Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet
