To A Friend
To A Friend
Original Text
The Collected Sonnets of Charles (Tennyson) Turner. Ed. F. B. Pinion and M. Pinion (London: MacMillan Press, 1988) : 93.
1My low deserts consist not with applause
2So kindly -- when I fain would deem it so,
3My sad heart, musing on its proper flaws,
4Thy gentle commendation must forego;
5As toys, which, glued together, hold awhile,
6But, haply brought too near some searching fire,
7Start from their frail compacture, and beguile
8The child, that pieced them, of his fond desire:
9I was a very child for that brief tide,
10Whenas I join'd and solder'd thy good word
11With my poor merits -- 'twas a moment's pride --
12The flames of conscience sunder'd their accord:
13My heart dropt off in sorrow from thy praise,
14Self-knowledge baulk'd self-love so many ways.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2004
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