een and acute as the sense of loss may be, it purifies
rather than destroys the influence of a hallowed love--its effect is to
idealize and sanctify. This general truth is enforced by several
illustrations."--_Henry E. Shepherd_.

2. NOBLE RAGE. Fierce love of freedom.

6. HIS LICENSE. "Lives without law, because untroubled by the promptings
of a higher nature."

6. FIELD OF TIME. The term of his natural life.

12. WANT-BEGOTTEN REST. Hallam, Lord Tennyson interprets: "Rest--the
result of some deficiency or narrowness."

16. NEVER TO HAVE LOVED. Life is enriched by the mere act of having
loved.

LXIV

"Still brooding on all the possible relations of his old friend to the
life and the love that he has left, the poet now compares him to some
genius of lowly birth, who should leave his obscure home to rise to the
highest office of state, and should sometimes in the midst of his
greatness, remember, as in a dream, the dear scenes of old, and it may
be, the humble villager who was his chosen playmate."--Elizabeth R.
Chapman.

1. DOST THOU, ETC. This section was composed by Tennyson when he was
walking up and down the Strand and Fleet Street in London.

5. INVIDIOUS BAR. Obstacle to success. Invidious is used in the sense
of "offensive."

7. CIRCUMSTANCE. Adverse circumstances.

9. BY FORCE. Strength of character and will.

10. GOLDEN KEYS. Keys of office of state.

11. MOULD. As a minister of the Crown.

14. CROWNING SLOPE. A felicitous phrase. If it were a precipice it
could not be climbed.

15. PILLAR. That on which they build, and which supports them.

21. NARROWER. When he was still in his "low estate."

28. REMEMBER ME. Bradley notes that "the pathetic effect is increased by
the fact that in the two preceding stanzas we are not told that his old
friend does remember him."

LXXXIII

"With the dawning of the New Year, fresh hope quickens in the poet's
breast. He would fain hasten its laggard footsteps, longing for the
flowers of spring and for the glory of summer. Can trouble live in the
spring--the season of life and love and music? Let the spring come, and
he will sing 'for Arthur a sweeter, richer requiem.'"--_Elizabeth R.
Chapman_.

1. NORTHERN SHORE. Robertson explains: "The north being the last to be
included in the widening circle of lengthening daylight as it readies
further and further down from the equator."

2. NEW-YEAR. The natural, not the calendar year.