O Ringlet, O Ringlet,
    I kiss’d you night and day,
  And Ringlet, O Ringlet,
    You still are golden-gay,
  But Ringlet, O Ringlet,
    You should be silver-gray: 
  For what is this which now I’m told,
  I that took you for true gold,
  She that gave you’s bought and sold,
          Sold, sold.

  O Ringlet, O Ringlet,
    She blush’d a rosy red,
  When Ringlet, O Ringlet,
    She clipt you from her head,
  And Ringlet, O Ringlet,
    She gave you me, and said,
  ’Come, kiss it, love, and put it by: 
  If this can change, why so can I.’ 
  O fie, you golden nothing, fie
          You golden lie.

O Ringlet, O Ringlet,
I count you much to blame,
For Ringlet, O Ringlet,
You put me much to shame,
So Ringlet, O Ringlet,
I doom you to the flame. 
For what is this which now I learn,
Has given all my faith a turn? 
Burn, you glossy heretic, burn,
Burn, burn.

LII

=Song=

[This first form of the Song in The Princess (’Home they brought her warrior dead’) was published only in Selections from Tennyson.  London:  E. Moxon & Co, 1864.]

  Home they brought him slain with spears. 
    They brought him home at even-fall: 
  All alone she sits and hears
    Echoes in his empty hall,
      Sounding on the morrow.

  The Sun peeped in from open field,
    The boy began to leap and prance,
    Rode upon his father’s lance,
  Beat upon his father’s shield—­
      ‘Oh hush, my joy, my sorrow.’

LIII

=1865-1866=

[Published in Good Words for March 1, 1868 as a decorative page, with an accompanying full page plate by T. Dalziel.  The lines were never reprinted.]

  I stood on a tower in the wet,
  And New Year and Old Year met,
  And winds were roaring and blowing;
  And I said, ’O years that meet in tears,
  Have ye aught that is worth the knowing?

  ’Science enough and exploring
  Wanderers coming and going
  Matter enough for deploring
  But aught that is worth the knowing?’

  Seas at my feet were flowing
  Waves on the shingle pouring,
  Old Year roaring and blowing
  And New Year blowing and roaring.

=The Lover’s Tale= 1833

[It was originally intended by Tennyson that this poem should form part of his 1833 volume.  It was put in type and, according to custom, copies were distributed among his friends, when, on the eve of publication, he decided to omit it.  Again, in 1869, it was sent to press with a new third part added, and was again withdrawn, the third part only—­’The Golden Supper,’ founded on a story in Boccaccio’s Decameron—­being published in the volume, ‘The Holy Grail.’  In 1866,