ABSTRACT
Published 1889. It is not in the Virginia trial edition of 1889. Its subject is the death in April 1886 of T.’s son Lionel (born 1854) in the Red Sea when returning from India where he had caught fever. His host had been Lord Dufferin (1826–1902), the Governor-General of India (1884–8) and an old friend of T.’s. Dufferin took care of Lionel for the months of his illness before the fatal journey. Since the poem acts as the introduction to 1889 (see ll. 15–16), it was probably written in that year or in 1888 (supported by its placing in H.Nbk 55). T. would have had it in mind since 1886. He uses the In Memoriam stanza. Martin (pp. 558–9) compares In Memoriam vi 13–16 (p. 350).
