wrote The Charge of the Light Brigade; a famous poem, not in a manner
in which he was born to excel--at least in my poor opinion. "Some
one HAD blundered," and that line was the first fashioned and the
keynote of the poem; but, after all, "blundered" is not an exquisite
rhyme to "hundred." The poem, in any case, was most welcome to our
army in the Crimea, and is a spirited piece for recitation.

In January 1855 Maud was finished; in April the poet copied it out
for the press, and refreshed himself by reading a very different
poem, The Lady of the Lake. The author, Sir Walter, had suffered,
like the hero of Maud, by an unhappy love affair, which just faintly
colours The Lady of the Lake by a single allusion, in the description
of Fitz-James's dreams:-


"Then,--from my couch may heavenly might
Chase that worst phantom of the night! -
Again returned the scenes of youth,
Of confident undoubting truth;
Again his soul he interchanged
With friends whose hearts were long estranged.
They come, in dim procession led,
The cold, the faithless, and the dead;
As warm each hand, each brow as gay,
As if they parted yesterday.
And doubt distracts him at the view -
Oh, were his senses false or true?
Dreamed he of death, or broken vow,
Or is it all a vision now?"