1858.
The daily newspapers of January 28, 1858, contain two original stanzas added, by the Poet Laureate, to the National Anthem, to be sung with it on the occasion of the marriage of the Princess-Royal of England with Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia.
1859.
The Times of May 4, 1859, contains an original poem by Alfred Tennyson, entitled "The War" (better known as "Riflemen, form"), signed T., and beginning:—
"There is a sound of thunder afar,"
The Emperor of the French (then in the zenith of his power and prestige) was not spared in one of the stanzas; apparent and temporary success had not made him respectable in the eyes of the poet who had gibbeted him seven years before in the Examiner when the imperial charlatan first assumed the purple.
These stanzas were not reprinted till 1892, in "The Death of Œnone"; but I had no doubt of their authorship from the day when I first saw them in the Times newspaper, at Teignmouth, in Devonshire. They were very popular, and a composer, or perhaps several composers, "set them to music."
