Such
memories serve to keep the whole world beautiful wherein he moved, and
add to his poetry a sense of presence and a living light.
Old age appears in comparison to every other stage of human existence
as a most undesirable state. We look upon its approaches and its
ravages with alarm. Death itself is far less dreadful, and "the low
door," if it will only open quickly, brings little fear to the
thoughtful mind. But the mystery of decadence, the long sunsetting,
the loss of power--what do they mean? The Latin word _saga_, from
which the French get _la sagesse_, and we "the sage," gives us a
hint of what we do not always understand--the spiritual beauty and the
significance even of loss in age.
Whittier, wearing his silver crown, brought the antique word into use
again, and filled it with fresh meaning for modern men.
TENNYSON
It is difficult at the present time, when Tennyson's poetry has become
a part of the air we breathe, to look back into the world of
literature as it existed before he came.
There is a keen remembrance, lingering ineradicably with the writer,
of a little girl coming to school once upon recitation day, with a
"piece" of her own selection safely stored away in her childish
memory. It was a new poem to the school, and when her turn came to
recite her soul was full of the gleam and glory of Camelot. She felt
as if she were unlocking a treasure-house, and it was with unspeakable
pleasure to herself that she gave, verse after verse, the entire poem
of "The Lady of Shalott.
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