which Tennyson had the art of coining after the Greek manner
('lily-cradled,' 'river-sundered,' 'dewy-dashed') for compact description
or ornament. Several additions were made in a later edition; and the
corrections then made show with what sedulous care the poet diversified
the structure of his lines, changing the pauses that break the monotonous
run of blank verse, and avoiding the use of weak terminals when the line
ends in the middle of a sentence. The opening of the poem was in this
manner decidedly improved; yet one may judge that the finest passages are
still to be found almost as they stood in the original version; and the
concluding lines, in which the note of anguish culminates, are left
untouched."

"Nevertheless the blank verse of _Oenone_ lacks the even flow and
harmonious balance of entire sections in the _Morte d'Arthur_ or
_Ulysses_, where the lines are swift or slow, rise to a point and fall
gradually, in cadences arranged to correspond with the dramatic movement,
showing that the poet has extended and perfected his metrical resources.
The later style is simplified; he has rejected cumbrous metaphor; he is
less sententious; he has pruned away the flowery exuberance and lightened
the sensuous colour of his earlier composition."--_Sir Alfred Lyall_.

First published in 1832-3. It received its present improved form in the
edition of 1842. The story of Paris and Oenone may be read in Lempriere,
or in any good classical dictionary. Briefly it is as follows:--Paris
was the son of Priam, King of Troy, and Hecuba. It was foretold that he
would bring great ruin on Troy, so his father ordered him to be slain at
birth. The slave, however, did not destroy him, but exposed him upon
Mount Ida, where shepherds found him and, brought him up as one of
themselves. "He gained the esteem of all the shepherds, and his graceful
countenance and manly development recommended him to the favour of