To E. L. on his travels in Greece.
To E. L. on his travels in Greece. - fact Summary
Dedicated to Edward Lushington
This short lyric is a tribute to Edward Lushington’s travels in Greece. Tennyson, addressing his friend, reads lively sketches of landscape and classical sites and imagines himself transported there. The poem celebrates the poet’s vicarious delight in ancient scenery, mythic presence, and a restored sense of joy or a "golden age," crediting Lushington’s eye and pen for the vivid impressions.
Read Complete AnalysesIllyrian woodlands, echoing falls Of water, sheets of summer glass, The long divine Peneian pass, The vast Akrokeraunian walls, Tomohrit, Athos, all things fair, With such a pencil, such a pen, You shadow forth to distant men, I read and felt that I was there: And trust me, while I turn’d the page, And track’d you still on classic ground, I grew in gladness till I found My spirits in the golden age. For me the torrent ever pour’d And glisten’d—here and there alone The broad-limb’d Gods at random thrown By fountain-urns;-and Naiads oar’d A glimmering shoulder under gloom Of cavern pillars; on the swell The silver lily heaved and fell; And many a slope was rich in bloom From him that on the mountain lea By dancing rivulets fed his flocks, To him who sat upon the rocks, And fluted to the morning sea.
This was first printed in 1853. It has not been altered since. The poem was addressed to Edward Lear, the landscape painter, and refers to his travels.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.