And laid them; thus he came at length To find a stronger faith his own,
And Power was with him in the night,
Which makes the darkness and the light,
20 And dwells not in the light alone, But in the darkness and the cloud,
As over Sinai's peaks of old,
While Israel made their gods of gold,
Although the trumpet blew so loud.9
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Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again,1
So loud with voices of the birds,
So thick with lowings of the herds,
Day, when I lost the flower of men;
8. A woman of simple faith. Aaron made, and the Israelites worshipped, a 9. After veiling Mount Sinai in a 'thick cloud' and golden calf (32.1-6). signifying the divine presence by 'the voice of the 1. September 15, 1835, the second anniversary of trumpet' (Exodus 19.16), God addresses Moses Hallam's death. from the 'thick darkness' (20.21). Meanwhile
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IN MEMORIAM, EPILOGUE / 1175
5
Who tremblest through thy darkling red On yon swollen brook that bubbles fast2 By meadows breathing of the past,
And woodlands holy to the dead;
Who murmurest in the foliage eaves io A song that slights the coming care,3 And Autumn laying here and there A fiery finger on the leaves;
Who wakenest with thy balmy breath To myriads on the genial0 earth, generative 15 Memories of bridal, or of birth,4 And unto myriads more, of death.
Oh, wheresoever those5 may be, Betwixt the slumber of the poles, Today they count as kindred souls;
20 They know me not, but mourn with me.
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103
On that last night before we went From out the doors where I was bred,6 I dreamed a vision of the dead,
Which left my after-morn content.
5 Methought I dwelt within a hall, And maidens with me; distant hills From hidden summits fed with rills
A river sliding by the wall.
The hall with harp and carol rang, io They sang of what is wise and good And graceful. In the center stood A statue veiled, to which they sang;
And which, though veiled, was known to me, The shape of him I loved, and love 15 Forever. Then flew in a dove And brought a summons from the sea;
And when they learnt that I must go, They wept and wailed, but led the way
2. I.e., reflections of the clouded red light of dawn 6. In 1837 Tennyson and his family moved away quiver on the surface of the fast-moving water. from their home in Lincolnshire, which had been 3. I.e., that disregards future events such as death closely associated with his friendship with Hallam. or the coming of autumn. In section 104 the move seems to occur in 1835, 4. Cf. 'Epilogue,' lines I 17-28 (p. 1187). the year of the third Christmas after Hallam's 5. I.e., the many who remember death. deatb.
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1 138 / ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON 20To where the little shallop' lay At anchor in the flood below; light open boat And on by many a level mead,0And shadowing bluff that made the banks, We glided winding under ranks Of iris and the golden reed; meadow 25 And still as vaster grew the shore And rolled the floods in grander space, The maidens gathered strength and grace And presence, lordlier than before; 30And I myself, who sat apart And watched them, waxed? in every limb; I felt the thews of Anakim,7 The pulses of a Titan's8 heart; grown 35As one would sing the death of war, And one would chant the history Of that great race which is to be,9 And one the shaping of a star; 40Until the forward-creeping tides Began to foam, and we to draw From deep to deep, to where we saw A great ship lift her shining sides.1 The man we loved was there on deck, But thrice as large as man he bent To greet us. Up the side I went, And fell in silence on his neck; 45 Whereat those maidens with one mind Bewailed their lot; I did them wrong: 'We served thee here,' they said, 'so long, And wilt thou leave us now behind?' 50So rapt? I was, they could not win An answer from my lips, but he Replying, 'Enter likewise ye And go with us:' they entered in. entranced And while the wind began to sweep A music out of sheet and shroud,
7. Plural of Anak; a reference to the giant sons of Anak (see Numbers 13.33). 8. Giant of Greek mythology. 9. See the account of the 'crowning race' in 'Epilogue,' lines 128-44. 1. Cf. The Passing of Arthur, lines 361^169, in which Bedivere is left behind as Arthur's barge, the ship of death, sails away. In the present dream vision the speaker is taken aboard, as are his companions, who represent the creative arts of this world?'all the human powers and talents that do not pass with life but go along with it,' as Tennyson said of this passage.
