THE LAUREATE'S LATEST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2022, 22 June 1885, Page 2

THE LAUREATE'S LATEST.

The " Times" prints .the following lines by Lord Tennyson " on the reported insufficiency, of the fleet"v->,

You—you-rif you havofail'd to understand— The fleet of England islier all in all— ' On you will come tho curse of all tho land, If that old England fall/ Which Nelson left 6o great—

This isle, the mightiest naval power on earth This one small isle, the lord of every sea— Poor England, what would all these votes be worth, / And what avail thine ancient name'of' Free' Wert thou a fallen State? ■

You—you—who had the ordering of her fleet; If you have only compass'd her disgrace,; Whenall men starve, thewild mob's million , feet ... Will kick you from your place j ' But late, too late. Commenting on the publication of these verses, the St James' Gazette remarks- " Lord Tennyson has contrived to compress a conundrum, a, , iijenace, arid a prophecy into a very short poem in the 'Times' of Thursday. He tells Borne unnamed person in authority that lie runs a'considerable risk of by all the land; he < askspoor very pertinently' what would all tliese votes be worth, were thou a fallen State ?"; and he forebodes that the (aforesaid, 'person in authority will' bo.kicked/'too late, too late' by the' wild mob's million feet.' Tho kicking'would indeed be much too late were it administered forthwith." .