After this we hear how they made a “vain pretence”
“Of gladness with an awful sense
Of one mute Shadow watching all.”
They attempt the usual Christmas games, but they have no heart for them, and all pause and listen to the wind in the tree-tops and the rain beating on the window panes. Afterwards they sit in a circle and think of Arthur, they try to sing, but the carols only bring tears to their eyes, for only last year he, too, was singing with them. After this Alfred sits alone and watches for the dawn which rises, bringing light and hope.
LEAVING SOMERSBY
Section 104 brings us to another Christmas. Four years have elapsed since that last described. The Tennysons have left Somersby, with what regret they did so is beautifully told in the four sections immediately preceding this. And now, listening as of old for the Christmas bells, he hears not “four voices of four hamlets round,” but only
“A single peal of bells below,
That wakens at this hour of rest
A single murmur in the breast,
That these are not the bells I know.”