Enoch Arden
e'nok ar'den, a narrative poem by Alfred Tennyson, published in 1864. Tennyson has written no poem, unless it be The Charge of the Light Brigade, which is so popular with all classes of people as is Enoch Arden. Enoch Arden is a sailor who is shipwrecked,-cast away on an island. After years of loneliness he is rescued, and returns to find his wife married to an old friend. For her sake Enoch does not disclose himself. He dies brokenhearted. The poem is a finished and beautiful picture of humble but heroic lives. The passages descriptive of Enoch's renunciation are pathetic:
Now when the dead man come to life beheld
His wife his wife no more, and saw the babe
Hers, yet not his, upon the father's knee,
And all the warmth, the peace, the happiness,
And his own children tall and beautiful,
And him, that other, reigning in his place,
Lord of his rights and of his children's love,-
. . . . .
His wife his wife no more, and saw the babe
Hers, yet not his, upon the father's knee,
And all the warmth, the peace, the happiness,
And his own children tall and beautiful,
And him, that other, reigning in his place,
Lord of his rights and of his children's love,-
. . . . .
He therefore turning softly like a thief,
Lest the harsh shingle should grate underfoot,
And feeling all along the garden wall,
Lest he should swoon and tumble and be found,
Crept to the gate, and open'd it, and closed,
As lightly as a sick man's chamber door,
Behind him, and came out upon the waste.
. . . . .
Lest the harsh shingle should grate underfoot,
And feeling all along the garden wall,
Lest he should swoon and tumble and be found,
Crept to the gate, and open'd it, and closed,
As lightly as a sick man's chamber door,
Behind him, and came out upon the waste.
. . . . .
Then the third night after this,
While Enoch slumber'd motionless and pale,
And Miriam watch'd and dozed at intervals,
There came so loud a calling of the sea,
That all the houses in the haven rang.
He woke, he rose, he spread his arms abroad,
Crying with a loud voice, "A sail! a sail!
I am saved;" and so fell back and spoke no more.
While Enoch slumber'd motionless and pale,
And Miriam watch'd and dozed at intervals,
There came so loud a calling of the sea,
That all the houses in the haven rang.
He woke, he rose, he spread his arms abroad,
Crying with a loud voice, "A sail! a sail!
I am saved;" and so fell back and spoke no more.
So past the strong heroic soul away.
And when they buried him the little port
Had seldom seen a costlier funeral.
And when they buried him the little port
Had seldom seen a costlier funeral.
Volume II · Aiton’s Encyclopedia