TENNYSON AND HIS FRIENDS

JUNE BRACKEN AND HEATHER

(Dedication of “The Death of Œnone” to Emily, Lady Tennyson)

There on the top of the down,
The wild heather round me and over me June’s high blue,
When I look’d at the bracken so bright and the heather so brown,
I thought to myself I would offer this book to you,
This, and my love together,
To you that are seventy-seven,
With a faith as clear as the heights of the June-blue heaven,
And a fancy as summer-new
As the green of the bracken amid the gloom of the heather.

Emery Walker, Ph.sc.