This little volume of Milnes's has, however, a still greater interest in connexion with Tennyson. For, besides a quotation from Charles Tennyson's sonnets in the Preface, and another from "The Lotos-Eaters" in the introduction to "Ithaca" (p. 28), there is, at page 50, the following extract from a poem never published:
Push'd from his chair of regal heritage
The Present is the vassal of the Past."
Alfred Tennyson.
The poem from which these lines are taken is entitled "The Lover's Tale." It was printed in 1833, but withdrawn before publication, and apparently only a few copies were given away among the writer's personal friends. "Shortly after the publication of his second volume," says Mr. Powell, "Alfred Tennyson printed a poem called 'The Lover's Tale:' this, however, he suppressed, contenting himself with giving a few copies away. It is," he adds, "decidedly unworthy his reputation."[1] Respecting the justice of
- ↑ "The Living Authors of England," by Thomas Powell
Poetical," by Richard Monckton Milnes (London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street, MDCCCXXXIV.), pp. 167.
