Magnanimity: Mourning Gladstone Finally Offers a Peerage to Tennyson and Finally the Mourning Poet Accepts It
Arthur Henry Hallam
William Ewart Gladstone
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Forget the jealousy between two men in love.
Forget what beardless envies that in youth
Set one against the other. As they shove
Through later life and search for power or truth,
Or both, remember though the love that both
Had shared, though shared apart. The one went on
To Parliament. The other swore an oath
To rhyme, rhyme, rhyme his stanzas to a dawn
If he could find it in despite of loss.
They both attained height’s goals in spite of brusque
Destruction of the man they loved. The gloss
Of elevation was a pitied husk
(Instead of lifelong love that might have been),
A husk from foe, though waved off from the Queen.
~ Phillip Whidden