s is most magnificent." Dorothy Wordsworth,
describing the sky-prospect, says: "Far off from us in the western sky we
saw the shapes of castles, ruins among groves, a great spreading wood,
rocks and single trees, a minster with its tower unusually distinct,
minarets in another quarter, and a round Grecian temple also; the colours
of the shy of a bright gray, and the forms of a sober gray, with dome."

"SURPRISED BY JOY--IMPATIENT AS THE WIND"

This sonnet was suggested by the poet's daughter Catherine long after her
death. She died in her fourth year, on June 4, 1812. Wordsworth was
absent from home at the time of her death. The sonnet was published in
1815.

"HAIL, TWILIGHT SOVEREIGN OF A PEACEFUL HOUR"

This sonnet was published in 1815.

"I THOUGHT OF THEE, MY PARTNER AND MY GUIDE"

This sonnet, which concludes "The River Duddon" series, is usually
entitled "After-Thought". The series was written at intervals, and was
finally published in 1820. "The Duddon rises on Wrynose Fell, near to
'Three Shire Stone,' where Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancashire meet."

"SUCH AGE, HOW BEAUTIFUL!"

This sonnet, published in 1827, was inscribed to Lady Fitzgerald at the
time in her seventieth year.

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Alfred Tennyson was born at Somersby, a small hamlet among the
Lincolnshire wolds, on August 6th, 1809. His father, the Rev. George
Clayton Tennyson, the vicar of Somersby, was a man of large and
cultivated intellect, interested in poetry, mathematics, painting, music,
and architecture, but somewhat harsh and austere in manner, and subject
to fits of gloomy depression, during which his presence was avoided by
his family; he was sincerely devoted to them, however, and himself
supervised their education. His mother, Elizabeth Fytche, the daughter
of the Rev Stephen Fytche of Louth, was a kind-hearted, gentle, refined
woman, beloved by her family and friends. Her influence over her sons
and daughters was unbounded, and over none more so than Alfred, who in
after life recognized to the full what he owed to his mother.

The family was large, consisting of twelve sons and daughters, of whom
the eldest died in infancy. Alfred was the fourth child, his brothers
Frederick and Charles being older than he. The home life was a very
happy one. The boys and girls were all fond of books, and their games
partook of the nature of the books they had been readi