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Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Milton
(Alcaics)


              1O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,
              2O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,
              3     God-gifted organ-voice of England,
              4          Milton, a name to resound for ages;
              5Whose Titan angels, Gabriel, Abdiel,
              6Starr'd from Jehovah's gorgeous armouries,
              7     Tower, as the deep-domed empyrean
              8          Rings to the roar of an angel onset--
              9Me rather all that bowery loneliness,
            10The brooks of Eden mazily murmuring,
            11     And bloom profuse and cedar arches
            12          Charm, as a wanderer out in ocean,
            13Where some refulgent sunset of India
            14Streams o'er a rich ambrosial ocean isle,
            15     And crimson-hued the stately palm-woods
            16          Whisper in odorous heights of even.

Notes

1] This poem belongs to a group of poems in which Tennyson experimented in the use of quantity in English metre. Milton, Tennyson noted, is in the metre of the Greek alcaic.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Cornhill Magazine (1863). AP 4 C76 ROBA. Alfred lord Tennyson, Works (London: Macmillan, 1891). tenn T366 A1 1891a Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
First publication date: 1863
RPO poem editor: H. M. McLuhan
RP edition: 3RP 3.81.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/20

Rhyme: unrhyming

Other poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson

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