Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign, after William Wordsworth, and is one of the most popular English poets.
 * See also:
 * Locksley Hall (1835; 1842)
 * The Two Voices (1832; 1842)
 * The Princess (1847)
 * In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850)
 * Idylls of the King (1856–1885)

Quotes



 * Like ballad burthen music kept, / As on the Lariano crept / To that fair port, below the castle / Of Queen Theodolind, where we slept; / Or hardly slept, but watched awake / A cypress in the moonlight shake, / The moonlight touching o’er a terrace / One tall agave above the lake.
 * Alfred Tennyson, while contemplating the illuminated Castle of Vezio from the terrace of the Hotel Royal Victoria in Varenna (1830)

The breezes pause and die, Letting the rose-leaves fall''': But the solemn oak-tree sigheth, Thick-leaved, ambrosial, With an ancient melody Of an inward agony, Where Claribel low-lieth.
 * '''Where Claribel low-lieth
 * "Claribel" (1830)

Were thickly crusted, one and all; The rusted nails fell from the knots That held the pear to the gable wall. The broken sheds looked sad and strange: Unlifted was the clinking latch; Weeded and worn the ancient thatch Upon the lonely moated grange. '''She only said, "My life is dreary, He cometh not," she said; She said, "I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!' '''
 * With blackest moss the flower plots
 * "Mariana" (1830)

Remaining from the body, and apart In intellect and power and will, hath heard Time flowing in the middle of the night, And all things creeping to a day of doom.
 * He often lying broad awake, and yet
 * "The Mystic" (1830)

My own sweet Alice, we must die. There's somewhat in this world amiss Shall be unriddled by and by.''' There's somewhat flows to us in life, But more is taken quite away. Pray, Alice, pray, my darling wife, That we may die the self-same day.
 * '''Yet fill my glass: give me one kiss:
 * "The Miller's Daughter" (1832)

I least should breathe a thought of pain. Would God renew me from my birth I'd almost live my life again. So sweet it seems with thee to walk, And once again to woo thee mine — It seems in after-dinner talk Across the walnuts and the wine —
 * Have I not found a happy earth?
 * "The Miller's Daughter" (1832)

Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.''' For now the noonday quiet holds the hill: The grasshopper is silent in the grass: The lizard, with his shadow on the stone, Rests like a shadow, and the winds are dead. The purple flower droops: the golden bee Is lily-cradled: I alone awake. My eyes are full of tears, my heart of love, My heart is breaking, and my eyes are dim, And I am all aweary of my life.
 * mother Ida, many-fountain'd Ida,
 * "Oenone", st. 3 (1832)

These three alone lead life to sovereign power.''' Yet not for power (power of herself Would come uncall'd for) but to live by law, '''Acting the law we live by without fear; And, because right is right, to follow right Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.'''
 * '''Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,
 * "Oenone", st. 14

Wherein at ease for aye to dwell. I said, "O Soul, make merry and carouse, Dear soul, for all is well." '''
 * '''I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house,
 * "The Palace of Art", st. 1 (1832)

Tomorrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the glad New-year; Of all the glad New-year, mother, the maddest merriest day, For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.
 * You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;
 * "The May Queen", st. 1 (1832)

Preluded those melodious bursts that fill The spacious times of great Elizabeth With sounds that echo still.
 * Dan Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath
 * "A Dream of Fair Women", st. 2 (1832)

Stiller than chisell'd marble, standing there; A daughter of the gods, divinely tall, And most divinely fair.'''
 * '''At length I saw a lady within call,
 * "A Dream of Fair Women" (1832), st. 22

She stood, a sight to make an old man young.'''
 * '''Half light, half shade,
 * "The Gardener's Daughter", l. 139-140 (1842)

What sequel?''' Streaming eyes and breaking hearts? Or all the same as if he had not been? Not so. Shall Error in the round of time Still father Truth? O shall the braggart shout For some blind glimpse of freedom work itself Thro' madness, hated by the wise, to law System and empire? Sin itself be found The cloudy porch oft opening on the Sun? And only he, this wonder, dead, become Mere highway dust? or year by year alone Sit brooding in the ruins of a life, Nightmare of youth, the spectre of himself! If this were thus, if this, indeed, were all, Better the narrow brain, the stony heart, The staring eye glazed o'er with sapless days, The long mechanic pacings to and fro, The set gray life, and apathetic end. '''But am I not the nobler thro' thy love? O three times less unworthy! likewise thou Art more thro' Love, and greater than thy years.'''
 * '''Of love that never found his earthly close,
 * "Love and Duty", l. 1- 21 (1842)

The slow sad hours that bring us all things ill, And all good things from evil, brought the night In which we sat together and alone, And to the want, that hollow'd all the heart, Gave utterance by the yearning of an eye, That burn'd upon its object thro' such tears As flow but once a life. '''The trance gave way To those caresses, when a hundred times In that last kiss, which never was the last, Farewell, like endless welcome, lived and died.'''
 * The slow sweet hours that bring us all things good,
 * "Love and Duty" l. 57 - 67 (1842).

Our being, lest we rust in ease.''' We all are changed by still degrees, All but the basis of the soul.
 * '''Meet is it changes should control
 * "Love Thou Thy Land", st. 11 (1842)

Be each man's rule, and universal Peace Lie like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Thro' all the circle of the golden year?
 * But we grow old. Ah! when shall all men's good
 * "The Golden Year", st. 3 (1842)

My tough lance thrusteth sure, My strength is as the strength of ten, Because my heart is pure.'''
 * '''My good blade carves the casques of men,
 * "Sir Galahad", st. 1 (1842)

Unboding critic-pen, Or that eternal want of pence, Which vexes public men''', Who hold their hands to all, and cry For that which all deny them — Who sweep the crossings, wet or dry, And all the world go by them.
 * '''I grow in worth, and wit, and sense,
 * "Will Waterproof's Lyrical Monologue", st. 6 (1842)

She in her poor attire was seen; One praised her ankles, one her eyes, One her dark hair and lovesome mien. So sweet a face, such angel grace, In all that land had never been. Cophetua sware a royal oath: "This beggar maid shall be my queen!"
 * As shines the moon in clouded skies,
 * "The Beggar Maid", st. 2 (1842)

Are but dust that rises up, And is lightly laid again.
 * All the windy ways of men
 * "The Vision of Sin", sec. 4 (1842)

Of sense avenged by sense that wore with time." Another said: "The crime of sense became The crime of malice, and is equal blame." And one: "He had not wholly quench'd his power; A little grain of conscience made him sour." At last I heard a voice upon the slope Cry to the summit, "Is there any hope?" To which an answer peal'd from that high land, But in a tongue no man could understand; And on the glimmering limit far withdrawn God made Himself an awful rose of dawn.
 * Then some one spake: "Behold! it was a crime
 * "The Vision of Sin", sec. 5 (1842)

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me.'''
 * '''Break, break, break,
 * "Break, Break, Break" (1842), st. 1

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me.
 * Break, break, break
 * "Break, Break, Break" (1842), st. 4

And the sound of a voice that is still!
 * But oh for the touch of a vanished hand,
 * "Break, Break, Break" (1842)

To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave, To trample round my fallen head, And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save. There let the wind sweep and the plover cry; But thou, go by. Child, if it were thine error or thy crime I care no longer, being all unblest: Wed whom thou wilt, but I am sick of Time, And I desire to rest. Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where I lie: Go by, go by.
 * Come not, when I am dead,
 * "Come not, when I am dead" (1850)

Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands'''. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.
 * '''He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
 * "The Eagle" (1851)

Wild War, who breaks the converse of the wise; But though we love kind Peace so well, We dare not even by silence sanction lies. It might be safe our censures to withdraw, And yet, my Lords, not well; there is a higher law.
 * We love not this French God, the child of hell,
 * "The Third of February, 1852", st. 2 (1852)

I make a sudden sally, And sparkle out among the fern, To bicker down a valley.
 * I come from haunts of coot and hern,
 * "The Brook", st. 1 (1855)

To join the brimming river, For '''men may come and men may go, But I go on forever.'''
 * And draw them all along, and flow
 * "The Brook", st. 5

The vapours weep their burthen to the ground, '''Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath, And after many a summer dies the swan.''' Me only cruel immortality Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms, Here at the quiet limit of the world, A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream The ever-silent spaces of the East, Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.
 * The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
 * "Tithonus", st. 1 (1860)

Yet let your sleep for this one night be sound: I do forgive him!
 * His deeds yet live, the worst is yet to come.
 * "Sea Dreams" (1864) l. 301-303

That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies, That '''a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright, But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.'''
 * And the parson made it his text that week, and he said likewise,
 * "The Grandmother", st. 8 (1864)

Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.'''
 * '''Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet —
 * "The Higher Pantheism", st. 6 (1869)

I pluck you out of the crannies, I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, '''Little flower — but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.'''
 * Flower in the crannied wall,
 * "Flower in the Crannied Wall" (1869)


 * Love lieth deep; Love dwells not in lip-depths.
 * The Lover's Tale (1879), line 466


 * Where love could walk with banish'd Hope no more.
 * The Lover's Tale (1879), line 813

And Hope kiss'd Love, and Love drew in her breath In that close kiss and drank her whisper'd tales. They said that Love would die when Hope was gone. And Love mourn'd long, and sorrow'd after Hope; At last she sought out Memory, and they trod The same old paths where Love had walked with Hope, And Memory fed the soul of Love with tears.
 * Love's arms were wreathed about the neck of Hope,
 * The Lover's Tale (1879), line 815

All the charm of all the Muses often flowering in a lonely word.
 * Thou that singest wheat and woodland, tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd;
 * "To Virgil", st. 3 (1882)

That sees and stirs the surface-shadow there But never yet hath dipt into the abysm'''
 * '''For Knowledge is the swallow on the lake
 * From The Ancient Sage (1885), lines 37-39

Nor yet disproven: wherefore thou be wise, Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt, And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith!'''
 * '''For nothing worthy proving can be proven,
 * From The Ancient Sage (1885), lines 66-69

She feels the Sun is hid but for a night, She spies the summer thro’ the winter bud, She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls, She hears the lark within the songless egg, She finds the fountain where they wail’d ‘Mirage’!
 * She sees the Best that glimmers thro’ the Worst,
 * From The Ancient Sage (1885), lines 72-77


 * The shell must break before the bird can fly.
 * From The Ancient Sage (1885), line 154

Then drink to England, every guest; That man's the best Cosmopolite Who loves his native country best.
 * First pledge our Queen this solemn night,
 * "Hands All Round", l. 1-4 (1885)

Brothers, must we part at last? Shall we not through good and ill Cleave to one another still? Britain's myriad voices call, 'Sons, be welded each and all, Into one imperial whole, One with Britain, heart and soul! One life, one flag, one fleet, one Throne!' Britons, hold your own!
 * Sharers of our glorious past,
 * "Opening of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition by the Queen" (1886), ll. 31–40, quoted in C. C. Eldridge, The Imperial Experience: From Carlyle to Forster (1996), p. 81

You from the haven Under the sea-cliff, You that are watching The gray Magician With eyes of wonder, I am Merlin, And I am dying, ' I'' am Merlin Who follow The Gleam.'''
 * O young Mariner,
 * "Merlin and the Gleam", st. 1 (1889)

A barbarous people, Blind to the magic, And deaf to the melody, Snarl’d at and cursed me. A demon vext me, The light retreated, The landskip darken’d, The melody deaden’d, The Master whisper’d  ‘Follow The Gleam.’ 
 * Once at the croak of a Raven who crost it,
 * "Merlin and the Gleam", st. 3 (1889)


 * Well, Gosse, would you like to know what I think of Churton Collins? I think he's a Louse on the Locks of Literature.
 * Evan Charteris, Life and Letters of Sir Edmund Gosse (1931), p. 197

Of him that utter'd nothing base.
 * This laurel greener from the brows
 * To the Queen, st. 3 (1851)

Who knew the seasons, when to take Occasion by the hand, and make The bounds of freedom wider yet.
 * And statesmen at her council met
 * To the Queen, st. 8 (1851)

And compass'd by the inviolate sea.
 * Broad-based upon her people’s will,
 * To the Queen, st. 9 (1851)

Of good Haroun Alraschid.
 * For it was in the golden prime
 * Recollections of the Arabian Nights, stanza 1, from Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830)

And all his worldly worth for this, To waste his whole heart in one kiss Upon her perfect lips.
 * A man had given all other bliss,
 * Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere

The happy winds upon her played, Blowing the ringlet from the braid.
 * As she fled fast through sun and shade
 * Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere

He lends us; but '''when love is grown To ripeness, that on which it throve Falls off, and love is left alone.'''
 * God gives us love. Something to love
 * To J. S., stanza 4, from Poems (1832)

Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul, While the stars burn, the moons increase, And the great ages onward roll.
 * Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace!
 * To J. S., stanza 18, from Poems (1832)

Nothing comes to thee new or strange. Sleep full of rest from head to feet; Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.
 * Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet!
 * To J. S., stanza 19, from Poems (1832)


 * More black than ash-buds in the front of March.
 * The Gardener's Daughter, line 28, from Poems (1842)

And in the morning of the times.
 * We are ancients of the earth,
 * The Daydream: L'Envoi, lines 231-32, from The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson (1879)

Nor leave his music as of old, But round him ere he scarce be cold Begins the scandal and the cry.
 * For now the poet can not die,
 * To ———, after reading a Life and Letters, stanza 4, from Poems (1850)

That codeless myriad of precedent, That wilderness of single instances.
 * Mastering the lawless science of our law,—
 * Aylmer's Field (1864); reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)


 * Insipid as the queen upon a card.
 * Aylmer's Field (1864); reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

In lands of palm and southern pine; In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine!
 * O Love! what hours were thine and mine,
 * The Daisy, Stanza 1; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Whose crying is a cry for gold.
 * So dear a life your arms enfold,
 * The Daisy, Stanza 24; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

He that runs may read. Most can raise the flowers now, For all have got the seed.
 * Read my little fable:
 * The Flower; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

"I'll never love any but you," the nightingale's hymn in the dark.
 * "I'll never love any but you," the morning song of the lark;
 * The First Quarrel, stanza VI., lines 3-4; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Save that I think this gross hard-seeming world Is our misshaping vision of the Powers Behind the world, that make our griefs our gains.
 * My God, I would not live
 * The Sisters, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Is morning-star to the full round of truth.
 * The golden guess
 * Columbus, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

And to conciliate, as their names who dare For that sweet mother-land which gave them birth Nobly to do, nobly to die.
 * No sound is breathed so potent to coerce
 * Tiresias, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)


 * A princelier-looking man never stept thro' a prince's hall.
 * The Wreck, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

My friends and brother souls, With all the peoples, great and small, That wheel between the poles.
 * Slav, Teuton, Kelt, I count them all
 * Epilogue to The Charge of the heavy Brigade, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Is in itself a deed.
 * The song that nerves a nation's heart
 * Epilogue to The Charge of the Heavy Brigade, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

And joys to me, Despite of every Faith and Creed, remains The Mystery.
 * What use to brood? This life of mingled pains
 * To Mary Boyle, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

In some fifth act what this wild Drama means.
 * Be patient. Our Playwright may show
 * The Play, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

What's up is faith, what's down is heresy.
 * In our windy world
 * Harold, Act i, Scene 1, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

And touches him who made it.
 * A breath that fleets beyond this iron world
 * Harold, Act iii, Scene 2


 * Old men must die, or the world would grow mouldy, would only breed the past again.
 * Becket, Prologue, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Is like the sea wave, which the more you drink The more you thirst—yea—drink too much, as men Have done on rafts of wreck—it drives you mad.
 * Ambition
 * The Cup, Act i, Scene 3, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

The southern stars a music pealed.
 * The night with sudden odour reeled;
 * The Rosebud, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Is "Onward," no discordance in the roll And march of that Eternal Harmony Whereto the world beats time.
 * Death's truer name
 * The Death of the Duke of Clarence and Avondale

And none can write it for him upon earth.
 * ...none can truly write his single day,
 * Unpublished Sonnet (originally written as a preface to Becket), in Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son, by Hallam T. Tennyson (1897)


 * A good woman is a wondrous creature, cleaving to the right and to the good under all change: lovely in youthful comeliness, lovely all her life long in comeliness of heart.
 * Letter to Emily Sellwood, quoted in Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son, by Hallam T. Tennyson (1897)

Ode to Memory (1830)

 * "Written very early in life" — first published in 1830



From the fountains of the past, To glorify the present; oh, haste, Visit my low desire! Strengthen me, enlighten me!''' I faint in this obscurity, Thou dewy dawn of memory.
 * '''Thou who stealest fire,

Thou leddest by the hand thine infant Hope.''' The eddying of her garments caught from thee The light of thy great presence; and the cope Of the half-attain'd futurity, Though deep not fathomless, Was cloven with the million stars which tremble O'er the deep mind of dauntless infancy.
 * '''In sweet dreams softer than unbroken rest

Thou of the many tongues, the myriad eyes!''' Thou comest not with shows of flaunting vines Unto mine inner eye, Divinest Memory!
 * '''Come forth I charge thee, arise,

From brawling storms, From weary wind, '''With youthful fancy reinspired, We may hold converse with all forms Of the many-sided mind, And those whom passion hath not blinded, Subtle-thoughted, myriad-minded.'''
 * Whither in after life retired

Nothing Will Die (1830)

 * From Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830)

Under my eye? When will the wind be aweary of blowing Over the sky? When will the clouds be aweary of fleeting? When will the heart be aweary of beating? And nature die? Never, oh! never, nothing will die; '''The stream flows, The wind blows, The cloud fleets, The heart beats, Nothing will die.'''
 * When will the stream be aweary of flowing

All things will change Thro’ eternity. ‘Tis the world’s winter; Autumn and summer Are gone long ago; Earth is dry to the centre, But spring, a new comer, '''A spring rich and strange, Shall make the winds blow Round and round, Thro’ and thro’, Here and there, Till the air And the ground Shall be fill’d with life anew.'''
 * Nothing will die;

It will change, but it will not fade. So let the wind range; For even and morn Ever will be Thro’ eternity. Nothing was born; Nothing will die; All things will change.'''
 * '''The world was never made;

The Poet (1830)


With golden stars above; Dower'd with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, The love of love.''' He saw thro' life and death, thro' good and ill, He saw thro' his own soul. The marvel of the everlasting will, An open scroll, Before him lay; with echoing feet he threaded The secretest walks of fame: The viewless arrows of his thoughts were headed And wing'd with flame, Like Indian reeds blown from his silver tongue...
 * '''The poet in a golden clime was born,

Tho' one did fling the fire; Heaven flow'd upon the soul in many dreams Of high desire.'''
 * '''So many minds did gird their orbs with beams,

Like one great garden show'd, And thro' the wreaths of floating dark up-curl'd, Rare sunrise flow'd '''And Freedom rear'd in that august sunrise Her beautiful bold brow, When rites and forms before his burning eyes Melted like snow.'''
 * Thus truth was multiplied on truth, the world

Sunn'd by those orient skies; But round about the circles of the globes Of her keen '''And in her raiment's hem was traced in flame WISDOM, a name to shake All evil dreams of power — a sacred name.''' And when she spake, Her words did gather thunder as they ran, And as the lightning to the thunder Which follows it, riving the spirit of man, Making earth wonder, '''So was their meaning to her words. No sword Of wrath her right arm whirl'd, But one poor poet's scroll, and with his word She shook the world.'''
 * There was no blood upon her maiden robes

Lady Clara Vere de Vere (1832)
Of me you shall not win renown: You thought to break a country heart For pastime, ere you went to town. At me you smiled, but unbeguiled I saw the snare, and I retired; The daughter of a hundred earls, You are not one to be desired.
 * Lady Clara Vere de Vere,
 * Stanza 1

Is worth a hundred coats-of-arms.'''
 * '''A simple maiden in her flower
 * Stanza 2

And my disdain is my reply. The lion on your old stone gates Is not more cold to you than I.
 * You sought to prove how I could love,
 * Stanza 3

Which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere.
 * Her manners had not that repose
 * Stanza 5

The grand old gardener and his wife Smile at the claims of long descent.
 * From yon blue heaven above us bent,
 * Stanza 7

From yon blue heavens above us bent The gardener Adam and his wife Smile at the claims of long descent. Howe'er it be, it seems to me, ''' 'Tis only noble to be good. Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood.'''
 * Trust me, Clara Vere de Vere,
 * Stanza 7

The Lotos-Eaters (1832)
In which it seemed always afternoon.
 * In the afternoon they came unto a land
 * St. 1

Than petals from blown roses on the grass, Or night-dews on still waters between walls Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass; Music that gentlier on the spirit lies, Than tir'd eyelids upon tir'd eyes.
 * There is sweet music here that softer falls
 * Choric Song, st. 1


 * There is no joy but calm!
 * Choric Song, st. 2

Should life all labour be?''' Let us alone. Time driveth onward fast, And in a little while our lips are dumb. Let us alone. '''What is it that will last? All things are taken from us, and become Portions and parcels of the dreadful past.''' Let us alone. What pleasure can we have To war with evil? Is there any peace In ever climbing up the climbing wave? All things have rest, and ripen toward the grave In silence; ripen, fall and cease: Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.
 * '''Death is the end of life; ah, why
 * Choric Song, st. 4

In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.
 * Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,
 * Choric Song, st. 8

Than labour in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave and oar; O, rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more.
 * Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil, the shore
 * Choric Song, st. 8

The Lady of Shalott (1832)

 * [[s:Poems (Tennyson, 1843)/Volume 1/The Lady of Shalott|Full text online at Wikisource]



Long fields of barley and of rye, That clothe the wold and meet the sky; And through the field the road runs by To many-towered Camelot.
 * On either side the river lie
 * Pt. I, st. 1

Little breezes dusk and shiver Through the wave that runs for ever By the island in the river Flowing down to Camelot.
 * Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
 * Pt. I, st. 2

And sometimes thro' the mirror blue The knights come riding two and two: She hath no loyal knight and true, ⁠The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights To weave the mirror's magic sights, For often thro' the silent nights A funeral, with plumes and lights ⁠And music, went to Camelot:

Or when the moon was overhead, Came two young lovers lately wed; "I am half sick of shadows," said ⁠The Lady of Shalott.
 * Pt. II, st. 3 - 4

Thick-jewelled shone the saddle-leather, The helmet and the helmet-feather Burned like one burning flame together, As he rode down to Camelot.
 * All in the blue unclouded weather
 * Pt. III, st. 3

He flashed into the crystal mirror, "Tirra lirra," by the river Sang Sir Lancelot.
 * From the bank and from the river
 * Pt. III, st. 4

She made three paces through the room, She saw the water-lily bloom, She saw the helmet and the plume, She looked down to Camelot.''' Out flew the web and floated wide; '''The mirror cracked from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott.'''
 * '''She left the web, she left the loom,
 * Pt. III, st. 5

That loosely flew to left and right — The leaves upon her falling light — Thro' the noises of the night, She floated down to Camelot: And as the boat-head wound along The willowy hills and fields among, They heard her singing her last song, The Lady of Shalott. '''Heard a carol, mournful, holy, Chanted loudly, chanted lowly, Till her blood was frozen slowly, And her eyes were darkened wholly, Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.''' For ere she reach'd upon the tide The first house by the water-side, Singing in her song she died, The Lady of Shalott.
 * Lying, robed in snowy white

Knight and Burgher, Lord and Dame, And around the prow they read her name, The Lady of Shalott. Who is this? And what is here? And in the lighted palace near Died the sound of royal cheer; And they crossed themselves for fear, All the Knights at Camelot; But Lancelot mused a little space He said, "She has a lovely face; God in his mercy lend her grace, The Lady of Shalott."
 * Out upon the wharfs they came,
 * Pt. IV, st. 6

Ulysses (1842)


By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.'''
 * '''It little profits that an idle king,
 * l. 1-5

Life to the lees''': all times I have enjoy'd Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea: '''I am become a name; For always roaming with a hungry heart Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments, Myself not least, but honour'd of them all'''; And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
 * '''I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
 * 13 -17

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move.'''
 * '''I am part of all that I have met;
 * l. 18 - 21

To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! As tho' to breath were life.''' Life piled on life Were all too little, and of one to me Little remains: but every hour is saved From that eternal silence, something more, A bringer of new things; and vile it were For some three suns to store and hoard myself, And this gray spirit yearning in desire '''To follow knowledge like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.'''
 * '''How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
 * l. 22-32

That ever with a frolic welcome took The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed Free hearts, free foreheads — you and I are old; '''Old age hath yet his honor and his toil. Death closes all; but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.'''
 * Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me —
 * l. 46-53

The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep Moans round with many voices. '''Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die.'''
 * The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
 * l. 54-62

It may be that we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. ''' Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are — One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.'''
 * It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
 * l. 63-70

The Day-Dream (1842)


That strove in other days to pass, Are wither'd in the thorny close, Or scatter'd blanching on the grass. He gazes on the silent dead: "They perish'd in their daring deeds." This proverb flashes thro' his head, "The many fail: the one succeeds."
 * The bodies and the bones of those
 * The Arrival, st. 2

And round her waist she felt it fold, And far across the hills they went In that new world which is the old: '''Across the hills, and far away Beyond their utmost purple rim, And deep into the dying day The happy princess follow'd him.'''
 * And on her lover's arm she leant,
 * The Departure, st. 1

O happy sleep, that lightly fled! O happy kiss, that woke thy sleep! O love, thy kiss would wake the dead!
 * O eyes long laid in happy sleep!
 * The Departure, st. 3

Beyond their utmost purple rim, Beyond the night, across the day, Thro' all the world she follow'd him.'''
 * '''And o'er the hills, and far away
 * The Departure, st. 4

And if you find no moral there, Go, look in any glass and say, What moral is in being fair. '''Oh, to what uses shall we put The wildweed-flower that simply blows? And is there any moral shut Within the bosom of the rose?'''
 * So, Lady Flora, take my lay,
 * Moral, st. 1

Morte D'Arthur (1842)
Laid widow’d of the power in his eye That bow’d the will.
 * Authority forgets a dying king,
 * Lines 121-123

Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon''', And flashing round and round, and whirl'd in an arch, Shot like a streamer of the northern morn, Seen where the moving isles of winter shock By night, with noises of the northern sea. So flash'd and fell the brand Excalibur.
 * '''The great brand
 * Lines 136-142

Make broad thy shoulders to receive my weight
 * My end draws nigh; 't is time that I were gone.
 * Lines 163-164

And every chance brought out a noble knight.
 * When every morning brought a noble chance,
 * Lines 230-231

Lady Clare (1842)

 * Full text online



And clouds are highest up in air. Lord Ronald brought a lily-white doe To give his cousin, Lady Clare.
 * It was the time when lilies blow,

Nor for my lands so broad and fair; He loves me for my own true worth, And that is well," said Lady Clare.
 * "He does not love me for my birth

"I will speak out, for I dare not lie, Pull off, pull off the brooch of gold, And fling the diamond necklace by." "Nay now, my child," said Alice the nurse, "But keep the secret all you can." She said, "Not so; but I will know If there be any faith in man".
 * "If I'm a beggar born," she said

She was no longer Lady Clare: She went by dale, and she went by down, With a single rose in her hair. The lily-white doe Lord Ronald had brought Leapt up from where she lay. Dropped her head in the maiden's hand. And followed her all the way.
 * She clad herself in a russet gown,

I am but as my fortunes are: I am a beggar born," she said, "And not the Lady Clare".
 * "If I come dressed like a village maid,

And I," said he, "the lawful heir, We two will wed to-morrow morn, And you shall still be Lady Clare".
 * "If you are not the heiress born,

Tears, Idle Tears (1850)


Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy Autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more.'''
 * '''Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
 * St. 1

That brings our friends up from the underworld, Sad as the last which reddens over one That sinks with all we love below the verge; So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
 * Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
 * St. 2

And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned On lips that are for others; deep as love, Deep as first love, and wild with all regret; O Death in Life, the days that are no more!
 * Dear as remembered kisses after death,
 * St. 4

Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington (1852)


With an empire's lamentation'''; Let us bury the Great Duke To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation; Mourning when their leaders fall, Warriors carry the warrior's pall, And sorrow darkens hamlet and hall.
 * Bury the Great Duke
 * St. I

As fits an universal woe, Let the long, long procession go, And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow, And let the mournful martial music blow; The last great Englishman is low.
 * Lead out the pageant: sad and slow,
 * St. III

And, as the greatest only are, In his simplicity sublime.''' O good gray head which all men knew, O voice from which their omens all men drew, O iron nerve to true occasion true, O fallen at length that tower of strength Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew!
 * '''Rich in saving common-sense,
 * St. IV

Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew.
 * That tower of strength
 * St. IV

He that gained a hundred fights, And never lost an English gun.
 * For this is England's greatest son,
 * St. VI

Him who cares not to be great But as he saves or serves the state. Not once or twice in our rough island-story The path of duty was the way to glory.''' He that walks it, only thirsting For the right, and learns to deaden Love of self, before his journey closes, He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting Into glossy purples, which outredden All voluptuous garden-roses.
 * '''Yea, let all good things await
 * St. VIII

Lay your earthly fancies down, And in the vast cathedral leave him, God accept him, Christ receive him!
 * Speak no more of his renown,
 * St. IX

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854)

 * Based upon the military confrontation known as The Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava of the Crimean War

Half a league onward All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred:''' 'Forward the Light Brigade Charge for the guns' he said Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
 * '''Half a league half a league
 * St. 1

Was there a man dismay'd? Not tho' the soldier knew Some one had blunder'd: '''Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of death Rode the six hundred.'''
 * "Forward, the Light Brigade!"
 * St. 2

Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred.'''
 * '''Cannon to right of them,
 * St. 3

While horse and hero fell, They that had fought so well Came thro' the jaws of Death Back from the mouth of Hell, All that was left of them, Left of six hundred.
 * Storm'd at with shot and shell,
 * St. 5

Maud; A Monodrama (1855)


All that I saw (for her eyes were downcast, not to be seen) Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null, Dead perfection, no more.
 * Perfectly beautiful: let it be granted her: where is the fault?
 * Part I, section ii

That oiled and curled Assyrian Bull.
 * That jewelled mass of millinery,
 * Part I, section vi, stanza 6


 * One still strong man in a blatant land.
 * Part I, section x, stanza 5

That the man I am may cease to be!
 * And ah for a man to arise in me,
 * Part I, section x, stanza 6

I long'd so heartily then and there To give him the grasp of fellowship; But while I past he was humming an air, Stopt, and then with a riding whip, Leisurely tapping a glossy boot, And curving a contumelious lip, Gorgonised me from head to foot With a stony British stare.
 * Who shall call me ungentle, unfair,
 * Part I, section xiii, stanza 2

For the black bat, night, has flown, Come into the garden, Maud, I am here at the gate alone; And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad, And the musk of the rose is blown.
 * Come into the garden, Maud,
 * Part I, section xxii, stanza 1

And the planet of Love is on high, Beginning to faint in the light that she loves On a bed of daffodil sky, To faint in the light of the sun she loves, To faint in his light, and to die.
 * For a breeze of morning moves,
 * Part I, section xxii, stanza 2

The flute, violin, bassoon; All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd To the dancers dancing in tune; Till a silence fell with the waking bird, And a hush with the setting moon.
 * All night have the roses heard
 * Part I, section xxii, stanza 3

Come hither, the dances are done, In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls, Queen lily and rose in one; Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls, To the flowers, and be their sun.
 * Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls,
 * Part I, section xxii, stanza 9

From the passion-flower at the gate. She is coming, my dove, my dear; She is coming, my life, my fate; The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;" And the white rose weeps, "She is late;" The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;" And the lily whispers, "I wait."
 * There has fallen a splendid tear
 * Part I, section xxii, stanza 10

Were it ever so airy a tread, My heart would hear her and beat, Were it earth in an earthy bed; My dust would hear her and beat, Had I lain for a century dead; Would start and tremble under her feet, And blossom in purple and red.
 * She is coming, my own, my sweet;
 * Part I, section xxii, stanza 11

Not thou, but like to thee: Ah Christ, that it were possible For one short hour to see The souls we loved, that they might tell us What and where they be.
 * A shadow flits before me,
 * Part II, section iv, stanza 3

Queen Mary: A Drama (published 1876)
May love a puppy cur for no more reason Than that the twain have been tied up together.
 * A mastiff dog
 * Act i, scene 4

Makes a faith hated, and is furthermore No perfect witness of a perfect faith In him who persecutes.
 * To persecute
 * Act iii, scene 4

To strike too soon is oft to miss the blow.
 * In statesmanship
 * Act iii, scene 6

Woman is various and most mutable.
 * My lord, you know what Virgil sings—
 * Act iii, scene 6

A kindness from him, for his heart was rich— Of such fine mould that if you sowed therein The seed of Hate, it blossomed Charity.
 * To do him any wrong was to beget
 * Act iv, scene 1

By Him that was the Truth, 'How hard it is For the rich man to enter into heaven!' Let all rich men remember that hard word.
 * Remember that sore saying spoken once
 * Act iv, scene 3


 * Come out, my lord, it is a world of fools.
 * Act iv, scene 3


 * Unalterably and pesteringly fond.
 * Act v, scene 1

The Revenge (1878)
And a pinnace, like a fluttered bird, came flying from far away: "Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted fifty-three!" Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: "'Fore God I am no coward; But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are out of gear, And the half my men are sick. I must fly, but follow quick. We are six ships of the line; can we fight with fifty-three?"
 * At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay,
 * St. 1

You fly them for a moment to fight with them again. But I've ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore. I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord Howard, To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain."
 * Then spake Sir Richard Grenville: "I know you are no coward;
 * St. 2

Good Sir Richard, tell us now, For to fight is but to die! There'll be little of us left by the time this sun be set." And Sir Richard said again: "We be all good English men. Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil, For I never turn'd my back upon Don or devil yet."
 * "Shall we fight or shall we fly?
 * St. 4

The little Revenge ran on sheer into the heart of the foe, With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety sick below; For half of their fleet to the right and half to the left were seen, And the little Revenge ran on through the long sea-lane between.
 * Sir Richard spoke and he laughed, and we roared a hurrah, and so
 * St. 5

Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886)
She with all the breadth of man.
 * She with all the charm of woman,
 * Line 48

Christian love among the Churches looked the twin of heathen hate.
 * Love your enemy, bless your haters, said the Greatest of the great;
 * Line 85


 * Charm us, orator, till the lion look no larger than the cat.
 * Line 112

Teach your flattered kings that only those who can not read can rule.
 * You that woo the Voices—tell them "Old Experience is a fool";
 * Line 131

Paint the mortal shame of nature with the living hues of art.
 * Authors—essayist, atheist, novelist, realist, rhymester, play your part,
 * Line 139

Warless? War will die out late then. Will it ever? late or soon? Can it, till this outworn earth be dead as yon dead world the moon?
 * Who can fancy warless men?
 * Line 172


 * Yet the moonlight is the sunlight and the sun himself will pass.
 * Line 182


 * Is there evil but on earth? or pain in every peopled sphere?
 * Line 197

Well, be grateful for the sounding watchword "Evolution" here.
 * Is there evil but on earth? Or pain in every peopled sphere?
 * Line 198

And Reversion ever dragging Evolution in the mud.
 * Evolution ever climbing after some ideal good
 * Line 200

Forward, till you see the Highest Human Nature is divine.
 * Follow you the star that lights a desert pathway, yours or mine.
 * Line 275


 * Love will conquer at the last.
 * Line 280

Cold upon the dead volcano sleeps the gleam of dying day.
 * Fires that shook me once, but now to silent ashes fall'n away.
 * Stanza 21


 * Staled by frequence, shrunk by usage into commonest commonplace!
 * Stanza 38

Here and there my lord is lower than his oxen or his swine.
 * Here and there a cotter's babe is royal—born by right divine;
 * Stanza 63


 * Nor is he the wisest man who never proved himself a fool.
 * Stanza 124

Crossing the Bar (1889)


And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea.
 * Sunset and evening star,
 * St. 1

And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.
 * Sunset and evening star,
 * St. 2

And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark.
 * Twilight and evening bell,
 * St. 3

The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.
 * For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
 * St. 4

The Foresters, Robin Hood and Maid Marion (1892)
Whate'er thy griefs, in sleep they fade away, To sleep! to sleep! Sleep, mournful heart, and let the past be past: Sleep, happy soul, all life will sleep at last.
 * Whate'er thy joys, they vanish with the day:
 * Song, Act I, Scene ii

I am only merry for an hour or two Upon a birthday: if this life of ours Be a good glad thing, why should we make us merry Because a year of it is gone? but Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come Whispering 'It will be happier;' and old faces Press round us, and warm hands close with warm hands, And thro' the blood the wine leaps to the brain Like April sap to the topmost tree, that shoots New buds to heaven, whereon the throstle rock'd Sings a new song to the new year — and you, Strike up a song, my friends, and then to bed.
 * Friends,
 * Act I, Scene III

Never— Till Nature, high and low, and great and small Forgets herself, and all her loves and hates Sink again into Chaos.
 * Forget thee…
 * Act I, Scene III

His following but can keep his followers true. I am one with mine. Traitors are rarely bred Save under traitor kings.
 * Robin: No man who truly loves and truly rules
 * Act II, Scene i

Misattributed

 * The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.
 * Quoted in A Dictionary of Quotations, in Most Frequent Use by D.E. Macdonnel (1809) translated from French: Le bonheur de l'homme en cette vi ne consiste pas á être sans passions: il consiste à en être le maître.


 * Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die
 * Misquote of the lines "Theirs not to reason why, / theirs but to do and die" from The Charge of the Light Brigade

Quotes about Tennyson
But more of reverence in us dwell; That mind and soul, according well, May make one music, as before."
 * [A]nswers to questions about ethical meaning cannot come from science. Tennyson... knew that the "good life"... required their successful integration. Tennyson called these two sources knowledge and reverence, personified as mind and soul. And he spoke of their union... "Let knowledge grow from more to more
 * Stephen Jay Gould, "The Tooth and Claw Centennial," Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History (1995)


 * Tennyson knew his magician's business.
 * Aldous Huxley in "Magic", Texts and Pretexts (1930)

I hope he's not like Tennyson. I'd rather have him play a fiddle Than rise and bow and speak an idyll.
 * Should Heaven send me any son,
 * Dorothy Parker, "A Pig's-Eye View of Literature" from Sunset Gun (1927); reproduced in Not So Deep as a Well: Collected Poems (1937), p. 110.


 * The news came to the village — the dire news which spread across the land, filling men's hearts with consternation — that Byron was dead. Tennyson was then about a boy of fifteen. "Byron was dead! I thought the whole world was at an end," he once said, speaking of those bygone days. "I thought everything was over and finished for everyone — that nothing else mattered. I remembered I walked out alone, and carved 'Byron is dead' into the sandstone."
 * Anne Isabella Thackeray, Lady Ritchie, Records of Tennyson, Ruskin, and Robert and Elizabeth Browning (1892)