Published 1873, Imperial Library Edition. T. had sent it to Knowles prior to 18 Dec. 1872 (Letters iii); T. is described as having just written’ it, 25 Dec. 1872 (Mem. ii 119). Cp. To the Queen (p. 485). Knowles hoped to be allowed to publish it in the Contemporary Review, New Year 1873. ‘After considering the idea of letting it appear first in the Contemporary, T. wrote to Knowles from Farringford just before Christmas that there would then be no time for the Queen to see it first, and that he preferred to let it find its own way “silently among the people”’ (P. Metcalf, James Knowles, 1980, p. 259; Letters iii).
O loyal to the royal in thyself,
And loyal to thy land, as this to thee—
Bear witness, that rememberable day,
When, pale as yet, and fever-worn, the Prince
Who scarce had plucked his flickering life again
From halfway down the shadow of the grave,
Past with thee through thy people and their love,
And London rolled one tide of joy through all
Her trebled millions, and loud leagues of man
And welcome! witness, too, the silent cry,
The prayer of many a race and creed, and clime –
Thunderless lightnings striking under sea
From sunset and sunrise of all thy realm,
And that true North, whereof we lately heard
A strain to shame us ‘keep you to yourselves;
So loyal is too costly! friends – your love
Is but a burthen: loose the bond, and go.’
Is this the tone of empire? here the faith
That made us rulers? this, indeed, her voice
And meaning, whom the roar of Hougoumont
Left mightiest of all peoples under heaven?
What shock has fooled her since, that she should speak
So feebly? wealthier – wealthier – hour by hour!
The voice of Britain, or a sinking land,
Some third-rate isle half-lost among her seas?
There rang her voice, when the full city pealed
Thee and thy Prince! The loyal to their crown
Are loyal to their own far sons, who love
Our ocean-empire with her boundless homes
For ever-broadening England, and her throne
In our vast Orient, and one isle, one isle,
That knows not her own greatness: if she knows
And dreads it we are fallen.–But thou, my Queen,
Not for itself, but through thy living love
For one to whom I made it o’er his grave
Sacred, accept this old imperfect tale,
New-old, and shadowing Sense at war with Soul,
Ideal manhood closed in real man,
Rather than that gray king, whose name, a ghost,
Streams like a cloud, man-shaped, from mountain peak,
And cleaves to cairn and cromlech still; or him
Of Geoffrey’s book, or him of Malleor’s, one
Touched by the adulterous finger of a time
That hovered between war and wantonness,
And crownings and dethronements: take withal
Thy poet’s blessing, and his trust that Heaven
Will blow the tempest in the distance back
From thine and ours: for some are scared, who mark,
Or wisely or unwisely, signs of storm,
Waverings of every vane with every wind,
And wordy trucklings to the transient hour,
And fierce or careless looseners of the faith,
And Softness breeding scorn of simple life,
Or Cowardice, the child of lust for gold,
Or Labour, with a groan and not a voice,
Or Art with poisonous honey stolen from France,
And that which knows, but careful for itself,
And that which knows not, ruling that which knows
To its own harm: the goal of this great world
Lies beyond sight: yet – if our slowly-grown
And crowned Republic’s crowning common-sense,
That saved her many times, not fail – their fears
Are morning shadows huger than the shapes
That cast them, not those gloomier which forego
The darkness of that battle in the West,
Where all of high and holy dies away.
_______________
¶476. 3. ‘When the Queen and the Prince of Wales went to the thanksgiving at St Paul’s (after the Prince’s dangerous illness) in Feb. 1872’ (T.).
14–17. ‘Canada. A leading London journal had written advocating that Canada should sever her connection with Great Britain, as she was “too costly”: hence these lines’ (T.). Referring to The Times. T. wrote to E. T., 8 Nov. 1872: ‘Lady F[ranklin] has sent me that Canadian bit of the Times. Villa[i]nous!’ (Letters iii); see also T.’s letter to William Kirby, 18 March 1873 (Letters iii).
20. Hougoumont: ‘Waterloo’ (T.).
35. See the Dedication to the Prince Consort (p. 675).
38] 1899; not 1873–98. See p. 671.
39. ‘The legendary Arthur from whom many mountains, hills, and cairns throughout Great Britain are named’ (H.T.).
42. ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth’s’, and ‘Malory’s name is given as Maleorye, Maleore, and Malleor’ (T.).
43. Kathleen Tillotson points out that F. J. Furnivall in 1864 had drawn attention to Arthur’s incest: ‘It was perhaps because of such reference to the incest episode that Tennyson made the disclaimer’ (Mid-Victorian Studies, 1965, p. 98).