'Mine be the power which ever to its sway
Will win _the wise at once_--
We, for once, are wise, and he has won _us_--
'Will win the wise at once; and by degrees
May into uncongenial spirits flow,
Even as the great gulphstream of Flori_da_
Floats far away into the Northern seas
The lavish growths of southern Mexi_co_!'--p. 1.
And so concludes the sonnet.
The next piece is a kind of testamentary paper, addressed 'To ----,' a
friend, we presume, containing his wishes as to what his friend should
do for him when he (the poet) shall be dead--not, as we shall see, that
he quite thinks that such a poet can die outright.
'Shake hands, my friend, across the brink
Of that deep grave to which I go.
Shake hands once more; I cannot sink
So far--far down, but I shall know
Thy voice, and answer from below!'
Horace said 'non omnis moriar,' meaning that his fame should
survive--Mr. Tennyson is still more vivacious, 'non _omnino_
moriar,'--'I will not die at all; my body shall be as immortal as my
verse, and however _low I may go_, I warrant you I shall keep all my
wits about me,--therefore'
'When, in the darkness over me,
The four-handed mole shall scrape,
Plant thou no dusky cypress tree,
Nor wreath thy cap with doleful crape,
But pledge me in the flowing grape.
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