A Victorian poem, newly transcribed and to the best of my knowledge not previously published. Tennyson links.

This is a Victorian poem which I have transcribed from a 19th century handwritten album.

I know who the author was, and am working on transcribing the rest of the album. The poet lived in Lincolnshire, England. She was a contemporary of Alfred Lord Tennyson, and some of her family if not the poet herself were friends of the Tennyson family. The poet lived only a few miles from Somersby, the Tennyson family home.

See if you can spot any Tennyson influence in this poem.

==============================
I love to see the sunset paint
The clouds with crimson and with gold,
I love to see the light grow faint
On winter evenings bleak and cold
When sitting by the fire I gaze
Upon the ever deep'ning gloom,
And watch the ruddy cheerful blaze
Illumining the dusky room.


But still the hour I love the best
Is when the busy day is past,
And all the house-hold are at rest,
My door secured and bolted fast; -
Then in the stillness of the night
I sit alone, my thoughts are free,
And by my solitary light
I can indulge in reverie.

There is no sound within the house
Which can my distant thoughts recall
Unless I hear a lively mouse
Which scampers nimbly in the wall
Or in the hearth raw and cold
The crackling of my friendly fire
Which to my fancy oft has told
A tale of which I never tire

But when the night is dark and wet
I hear the sobbing of the rain,
Which comes with heavy drops to fret
And break against my window pane;
And often when I sit alone,
The troubled winds are fleeting by,
And in their sad fascinating moan
I find the echo of my life.

1861 April


====================