ABSTRACT
Published 1846. Sir Charles Tennyson (p. 211) says that, like Edwin Morris, it was written at Llanberis in summer 1845. But it was almost certainly written on the visit there in 1839. It is in T.Nbk 26; Edwin Morris is to be dated 1839; the song in The Golden Year (ll. 22–51), which is the core of the poem, is to be found on a sheet of the Y.MS of Locksley Hall (1837–8); and the discussion of free trade resembles, as does the poem in general, Audley Court (1838) and Walking to the Mail (1837–8). See also the reference to Charles Babbage (1837), ll. 59–64n. The incorporated song suggests Theocritus, especially vi. Cp. Audley Court (p. 193). The idea of the golden year is based on the classical conception of the great new era, as in Virgil, Eclogue iv. In the earlier draft (H.Lpr 72), Leonard too had doubts about progress; see ll. 59–64n. All variants from T.MS are below; it ends with l. 21 (foot of page).
