Isabel
Lord
Alfred
Tennyson
Tennyson, Alfred
Metadata research and editing
DVPP Project Team
Kaitlyn
Fralick
University of Victoria Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry Project
Victoria, BC, Canada
In the public domain
Poem included in the unsigned Tennyson’s Poems
(721-41) (KF2), by John Wilson (Wellesley Index) (AC).
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
31
194
734–735
Eyes not down-dropt nor over-bright, but fed
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Isabel
.
Eyes not down-dropt nor over-bright, but fed
With the clear-pointed flame of chastity,
Clear, without heat, undying, tended by
Pure vestal thoughts in the translucent fane
Of her still spirit : locks not wide dispread,
Madonna-wise, on either side her head,
Sweet lips whereon perpetually did reign
The summer calm of golden charity,
Were fixed shadows of thy fixed mood,
Revered Isabel, the crown and head,
The stately flower of female fortitude,
Of perfect wifehood and pure lowlihead.
The intuitive decision of a bright
And thorough-edged intellect to part
Error from crime—a prudence to withhold—
The laws of wifehood character’d in gold
Upon the blenched tablets of her heart—
A love still burning upward, giving light
To read those laws—an accent very low
In blandishment, but a most silver flow
Of subtle-paced counsel in distress,
Right to the heart and brain, though undescried
Winning its way with extreme gentleness
Through all the outworks of suspicious pride—
A courage to endure and to obey—
A hate of gossip parlance, and of sway,
Crown’d Isabel, through all her placid life
The queen of marriage, a most perfect wife.
The mellowed reflex of a winter moon—
A clear stream flowing with a muddy one,
Till in its onward current it absorbs
With swifter movement and in purer light
The vexed eddies of its wayward brother—
A leaning and upbearing parasite,
Clothing the stem, which else had fallen quite,
With cluster’d flowerbells and ambrosial orbs
Of rich fruit-bunches leaning on each other—
Shadow forth thee :—the world hath not another
(Though all her fairest forms are types of thee,
And thou of God in thy great charity)
Of such a finish’d chasten’d purity.