XLVI
[Published in The Keepsake for 1851: an illustrated annual, edited by Miss Power. London: David Bogue. To this issue of the Keepsake Tennyson also contributed ‘Come not when I am dead’ now included in the collected Works.]
What time I wasted youthful hours
One of the shining wingèd powers,
Show’d me vast cliffs with crown of towers,
As towards the gracious light I bow’d,
They seem’d high palaces and proud,
Hid now and then with sliding cloud.
He said, ‘The labour is not small;
Yet winds the pathway free to all:—
Take care thou dost not fear to fall!’