Enoch Arden, etc/Experiments/Hendecasyllabics

by Alfred Tennyson

Hendecasyllabics.

O you chorus of indolent reviewers,Irresponsible, indolent reviewers,Look, I come to the test, a tiny poemAll composed in a metre of Catullus,All in quantity, careful of my motion,Like the skater on ice that hardly bears him,Lest I fall unawares before the people,Waking laughter in indolent reviewers.Should I flounder awhile without a tumbleThro’ this metrification of Catullus,They should speak to me not without a welcome, All that chorus of indolent reviewers.Hard, hard, hard is it, only not to tumble,So fantastical is the dainty metre.Wherefore slight me not wholly, nor believe me Too presumptuous, indolent reviewers.O blatant Magazines, regard me rather—Since I blush to belaud myself a moment—As some rare little rose, a piece of inmost Horticultural art, or half coquette-likeMaiden, not to be greeted unbenignly.