Theos-Talk Archives (January 2007 Message tt00386)

Quote for Sun., Jan 21
   
  
   Oh sad No More! Oh sweet No More!
   ......Oh strange No More! 
   By a mossed brookbank on a stone 
   I smelt a wildweed-flower alone; 
   There was a ringing in my ears, 
   And both my eyes gushed out with tears, 
   Surely all pleasant things had gone before, 
   Lowburied fathom deep beneath with 
      thee, No More!
            - Tennyson (The Gem, 1831)
  
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Story behind the Quote:
  
THE "GEM' AND BLAVATSKY
  
   Bertram Keightly, H.P. Blavatsky's 
proof reader for her magazine "Lucifer" 
wrote of an uncanny example of what 
appears to have been Blavatsky's 
ability to accurately read the astral 
light. The poem below was used to 
lead off her occult story "Karmic Visions."  
The following account is taken from 
the Blavatsky Collected Writings, vvolume IX (pp. 319-22):
  
   Oh sad No More! Oh sweet No More!
   ......Oh strange No More! 
   By a mossed brookbank on a stone 
   I smelt a wildweed-flower alone; 
   There was a ringing in my ears, 
   And both my eyes gushed out with tears, 
   Surely all pleasant things had gone before, 
   Lowburied fathom deep beneath with thee, No More!
            - Tennyson (The Gem, 1831)
  
   There is an interesting story 
connected with this particular poem. 
According to Bertram Keightly ... H.P.B. 
always wrote her Lucifer editorials herself, 
"and she had a fancy for very often 
heading (them) with some quotation, and 
it used to be one of my troubles that 
she very seldom gave a reference for 
these, so that I had much work, and 
even visits to the British Museum Reading 
Room, in order to verify and check 
them, even when I did manage, with 
much entreaty, and after being most 
heartily 'cussed,' to extract some 
reference from her.
        
     "One day she handed me as usual 
the copy of her contribution, a story 
for the next issue headed with a 
couple of four line stanzas. I went 
and plagued her for a reference and 
would not be satisfied without one. 
She took the manuscript and when I 
came back for it, I found she had 
just written 'Alfred Tennyson' under 
the verses. Seeing this I was at 
a loss for I knew my Tennyson pretty 
well and was certain that I had 
never read these lines in any poem 
of his, nor were they at all in his 
style. I hunted up my Tennyson, 
could not find them; consulted everyone 
I could get at -also in vain. Then 
back I went to H.P.B. and told her 
all this and said that I was sure 
these lines could not be Tennyson's, 
and I dared not print them with his 
name attached, unless I could give 
an exact reference. H.P.B. just damned 
me and told me to get out and go to 
Hell. It happened that the Lucifer 
copy must go to the printers that 
same day. So I just told her that I 
should strike out Tennyson's name 
when I went, unless she gave me a 
reference before I started. Just on 
starting I went to her again, and 
she handed me a scrap of paper on 
which were written the words: 
"The Gem - 1831." 'Well, H.P.B.,' I 
said, 'this is worse than ever; for 
I am dead certain that Tennyson has 
never written any poem called "The Gem."' 
All H.P. B. said was just: 'Go out 
and be off.'
      
     "So I went to the British Museum 
Reading Room and consulted the folk 
there, but they could give me no help 
and they one and all agreed that the 
verse's could not be, and were not 
Tennyson's. As a last resort, I asked 
to see Mr. Richard Garnett, the famous 
Head of the Reading Room in those 
days, and was taken to him. I explained 
to him the situation and he also 
agreed in feeling sure the verses 
were not Tennyson's. But after thinking 
quite a while, he asked me if I had 
consulted the Catalogue of Periodical 
Publications'. I said no, and asked 
where that came in. 'Well," said 
Mr. Garnett, 'I have a dim recollection 
that, there was once a brief-lived 
magazine called the "Gem." It might 
be worth your looking it up.' I did so, 
and in the volume for the year given 
in H.P.B's note, I found a poem of 
a few stanzas signed 'Alfred Tennyson' 
and containing the two stanzas quoted 
by H.P.B. verbatim as she had written 
them down. And anyone can now read 
them in the second volume of "Lucifer"; 
but I have never found them even in 
the supposedly most complete and 
perfect edition of Tennyson’s Works,"
  
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