That coiled around the stately stems, and ran
Even to the limit of the land, the glows
And glories of the broad belt of the world,
All these he saw; but what he fain had seen
He could not see, the kindly human face,
Nor ever hear a kindly voice, but heard
The myriad shriek of wheeling ocean-fowl,
The league-long roller thundering on the reef.
His last poems contain a harsher note, as if old age had brought disillusion and a peevish discontent with the pleasant artifices that had graced his prime. Even the later instalments of the Idylls of the King contain jarring notes, and are often fretful and unhappy in tone. Among the shorter poems, Locksley Hall Sixty Years after (1885) and The Death of Œnone (1892) are sad echoes of the sumptuous imaginings of the years preceding 1842.
3. His Plays. Tennyson’s dramas occupied his later years. He wrote three historical plays—Queen Mary (1875), Harold (1877), and Becket (1884). The last, owing chiefly to the exertions of Sir Henry Irving, the actor-manager, was quite a stage success. None, however, ranks high as a real dramatic effort, though all show much care and skill. The Falcon (1879) is a comedy based on a story from Boccaccio; The Cup (1880) is based on a story from Plutarch, and scored a success, also through the skill of Irving. The Foresters (1892), dealing with the familiar Robin Hood theme, was produced in America.