Tennyson's Decadence.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 119, 12 September 1885, Page 3

Tennyson's Decadence.

The secret of Lord Tennyson's poetical decadence is out. It is not the effect of age, but of indulgence. The Laureate in his best day cultivated literature like Brougham, Jefery, and Sydney Smith in the early days of the Edinburgh " Review," on a little oatmeal. He kept his muse on hungry and alert, and worked his way up to Olympus, like Goldsmith and so many other Sectors, by fasting and mortification of the flesh. But it Beems that for years back Alfred has changed allthat. He hasbecome like our own pet poet Sam Ward, a&on, vivant, and it is averred as a curious coincidence that the decay of bis verse is synchronous with the development of his appetite? It is. in short, the , ShaksperW case over again-" Fat paunches have lean pafe, °2d dainty bite make fat the ribs but Bankrupt quite the wits." It must be a consolation to, him, however on , retiring below the horizon to see in Lord Sherbrooke, better known «i, "Bob Lowe » a new Btar : break on an amazed world to take his place in the poetio firmament.-" New York World,'.