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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WAPENTAKE; TO ALFRED TENNYSON by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Poet Analysis

First Line: POET! I COME TO TOUCH THY LANCE WITH MINE
Last Line: FOR THY ALLEGIANCE TO THE POET'S ART.
Subject(s): TENNYSON, ALFRED (1809-1892); TENNYSON, ALFRED TENNYSON, 1ST BARON;
POET! I come to touch thy lance with mine;
Not as a knight, who on the listed field
Of tourney touched his adversary's shield
In token of defiance, but in sign
Of homage to the mastery, which is thine,
In English song; nor will I keep concealed,
And voiceless as a rivulet frost-congealed,
My admiration for thy verse divine.
Not of the howling dervishes of song,
Who craze the brain with their delirious dance,
Art thou, O sweet historian of the heart!
Therefore to thee the laurel-leaves belong,
To thee our love and our allegiance,
For thy allegiance to the poet's art.



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