or where in 'Locksley Hall' a splendidly graphic touch of description is
gained by the alteration of "_droops_ the trailer from the crag" into
"_swings_ the trailer".

So again in 'Love and Duty':--

Should my shadow cross thy thoughts
Too sadly for their peace, _so put it back_.
For calmer hours in memory's darkest hold,

where by altering "so put it back" into "remand it thou," a somewhat
ludicrous image is at all events softened.

What great care Tennyson took with his phraseology is curiously
illustrated in 'The May Queen'. In the 1842 edition "Robin" was the name
of the May Queen's lover. In 1843 it was altered to "Robert," and in
1845 and subsequent editions back to "Robin".

Compare, again, the old stanza in 'The Miller's Daughter':--

How dear to me in youth, my love,
Was everything about the mill;
The black and silent pool above,
The pool beneath it never still,


with what was afterwards substituted:--


I loved the brimming wave that swam