Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/117

Rh prefixed by Jonson to "The Touchstone of Truth," by J. Warre, published 1630:

The following elegy, though some verses stand in weak contrast to others, which are beautiful, seems too much like the model of "In Memoriam" not to be quoted entire. Mr. Tennyson, the music of whose poetry is almost faultless, has improved on the metre and rhythm of the elder Laureate, but the similitude of some of the verses is very striking:

AN ELEGY.

Though beauty be the mark of praise, And yours of whom I sing be such As not the world can praise too much, Yet 'tis your virtue now I raise.

A virtue like alloy, so gone Throughout your form; as though that move And draw and conquer all men's love, This subjects you to love of one,

Wherein you triumph yet, because 'Tis of yourself, and that you use The noblest freedom, not to choose Against, or faith or honour's laws.

But who could less expect from you, In whom alone love lives again, By whom he is restored to men, And kept, and bred, and brought up true?