"Nightingales warbled without..."

[Flambeau]

Do you know Tennyson's poem that starts like that?
"Nightingales warbled without, whithin was weeping for thee,
Shadows of three dead men walked in the walks with me;
Shados of three dead men, and thou wast one of the three."
And so on. Well, I would like to ask whether you know to whom he is referring. I believe it should be Hallam, but I have not found an explanation anywhere. And of course there are these two other men, of whom I have no idea. Do you?

[Dark Muse]

The poem is called In the Garden at Swainston and it was written after the death of his friend, and the owner of the Swainston mansion, Sir John Simeon.

Tennyson visited Swainston a few times and cliamed to have written Maud upon its grounds.

One of the other men could well have been Hallam, though I do not know the dates of just when the poem was written and when Hallam died.

[Flambeau]

Thank you. I'll see if I can find anything else about it. This poem has an interesting pattern of rhyme and rythm, don't you think?