182 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS him is to grow. He never gave to the world a soiled thought, or planted a seed in any mind whose flower and fruit were not good. "The most beautiful char- acter I ever knew," said Lowell amid the shadows of the royal tombs of the Ab- bey, as his white bust was placed among the ghosts ; and so felt those who laid him down to rest in the kindly earth of Mt. Auburn's fields and flowers, on the banks of the calm, rippling Charles ; and so feel those who visit that simple spot, and rest in thought there amid the vines and roses under the trees. He touched all life to make it better, and humanity will ever be grateful to the Heavens that he lived and sang. /f^^W /flLOLta^/% ALFRED TENNYSON* By Clarence Cook (1809- i 892) Few of the world's great poets have woven into their verse so much autobiographical ma- terial as the late Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate of England. All his early poetry is suffused with tints, sombre or bright, and breathes of sounds that recall the landscape of the Lincoln- shire in whose sunniest spot he was born, but in near neighborhood to " the level waste, the round- ing gray " of " the dark fen," and within sight and sound of the M sandy tracts " and " the ocean roaring into cataracts." Later, we find in some of the poems that have made for themselves a place in the heart of all English-speaking people, vivid pictures, in words or phrases, recalling his travels in Italy and Greece ; and in the latter half of his life we follow him to the southern part of England, to Surrey and the Isle of Wight, where we find him in his " careless-ordered garden, close to the edge of a noble down," or " hear the magpie gossip garrulous under a roof of pine." But, to quote the lines that illustrate this autobiographic element in Tennyson's poetry, or that show his happy way of making use of his actual experiences, by which again we are able to get an impression of his way of life, and of the manner of man he was, would be to transfer a goodly portion of his verse to these pages. Alfred Tennyson was born August 5, 1809, at Somersby, Lincolnshire, and
- Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.
