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Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt.‘The Ancient Sage’ (1885) l. 68
- Break, break, break,
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.‘Break, Break, Break’ (1842) - But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!‘Break, Break, Break’ (1842) - I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.‘The Brook’ (1855) l. 23 - For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.‘The Brook’ (1855) l. 33 - Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1854) - ‘Forward, the Light Brigade!’
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Some one had blundered:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1854) - Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered.‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1854) - Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell.‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ (1854) - Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.‘Crossing the Bar’ (1889) - For though from out our bourne of time and place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.‘Crossing the Bar’ (1889) - A dream of fair women.title of poem (1832)
- He clasps the crag with crookèd hands.‘The Eagle’ (1851)
- The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.‘The Eagle’ (1851) - O Love, O fire! once he drew
With one long kiss my whole soul through
My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.‘Fatima’ (1832) st. 3 - 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.‘The Grandmother’ (1859) st. 8 - Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet—
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.‘The Higher Pantheism’ (1869) - Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful.Idylls of the King ‘The Coming of Arthur’ (1869) l. 284; ‘The Passing of Arthur’ (1869) l. 199
- Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King—
Else, wherefore born?Idylls of the King ‘Gareth and Lynette’ (1872) l. 117 - Elaine the fair, Elaine the loveable,
Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat.Idylls of the King ‘Lancelot and Elaine’ (1859) l. 1 - In me there dwells
No greatness, save it be some far-off touch
Of greatness to know well I am not great.Idylls of the King ‘Lancelot and Elaine’ (1859) l. 447 - His honour rooted in dishonour stood,
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.Idylls of the King ‘Lancelot and Elaine’ (1859) l. 871 - He makes no friend who never made a foe.Idylls of the King ‘Lancelot and Elaine’ (1859) l. 1082
- For man is man and master of his fate.Idylls of the King ‘The Marriage of Geraint’ (1859) l. 355
- It is the little rift within the lute,
That by and by will make the music mute.Idylls of the King ‘Merlin and Vivien’ (1859) l. 388 - And trust me not at all or all in all.Idylls of the King ‘Merlin and Vivien’ (1859) l. 396
- Authority forgets a dying king.Idylls of the King ‘The Passing of Arthur’ (1869) l. 289
- The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.Idylls of the King ‘The Passing of Arthur’ (1869) l. 408 - More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.Idylls of the King ‘The Passing of Arthur’ (1869) l. 415 - To the island-valley of Avilion;
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly.Idylls of the King ‘The Passing of Arthur’ (1869) l. 427 - Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) Prologue - Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) Prologue - That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 1 - For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 5 - And ghastly through the drizzling rain
On the bald street breaks the blank day.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 7 - 'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all. - Be near me when my light is low,
When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick
And tingle; and the heart is sick,
And all the wheels of Being slow.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 50 - And Time, a maniac scattering dust,
And Life, a Fury slinging flame.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 50 - Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 54 - That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 54 - But what am I?
An infant crying in the night:
An infant crying for the light:
And with no language but a cry.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 54 - So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life.of NatureIn Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 55 - Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law—
Though Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against his creed.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 56 - So many worlds, so much to do,
So little done, such things to be.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 73; see Rhodes - Laburnums, dropping-wells of fire.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 83
- There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 96 - He seems so near and yet so far.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 97
- Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 106
- Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 106 - Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 106 - Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 106 - Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land;
Ring in the Christ that is to be.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 106 - One God, one law, one element,
And one far-off divine event,
To which the whole creation moves.In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) canto 131 - Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth.‘The Kraken’ (1830) - There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep.‘The Kraken’ (1830) - Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.‘Lady Clara Vere de Vere’ (1842) st. 7 - On either side the river lie
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.‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1832, revised 1842) pt. 1 - Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver.‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1832, revised 1842) pt. 1 - Only reapers, reaping early
In among the bearded barley,
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly,
Down to towered Camelot.‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1832, revised 1842) pt. 1 - ‘I am half sick of shadows,’ said
The Lady of Shalott.‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1832, revised 1842) pt. 2 - A red-cross knight for ever kneeled
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1832, revised 1842) pt. 3 - ‘Tirra lirra,’ by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1832, revised 1842) pt. 3 - She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room.‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1832, revised 1842) pt. 3 - 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.‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1832, revised 1842) pt. 3 - In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove;
In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 19 - This is truth the poet sings,
That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things. - But the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that Honour feels.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 105
- For I dipped into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 119 - Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 121 - Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 123 - Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 127 - Science moves, but slowly slowly, creeping on from point to point.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 134
- Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 137 - Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 141
- I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 178
- Forward, forward let us range,
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 181 - Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.‘Locksley Hall’ (1842) l. 184
- Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.‘The Lotos-Eaters’ (1832) Choric Song, st. 1 - There is no joy but calm!‘The Lotos-Eaters’ (1832) Choric Song, st. 2
- Nor at all can tell
Whether I mean this day to end myself,
Or lend an ear to Plato where he says,
That men like soldiers may not quit the post
Allotted by the Gods.‘Lucretius’ (1868) l. 145 - She only said, ‘My life is dreary,
He cometh not,’ she said;
She said, ‘I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!’‘Mariana’ (1830) st. 1; see Shakespeare - Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null,
Dead perfection, no more.Maud (1855) pt. 1, sect. 2 - Come into the garden, Maud,
For the black bat, night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone.Maud (1855) pt. 1, sect. 22, st. 1 - Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls.Maud (1855) pt. 1, sect. 22, st. 9
- 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.’Maud (1855) pt. 1, sect. 22, st. 10 - She is coming, my own, my sweet;
Were it ever so airy a tread,
My heart would hear her and beat,
Were it earth in an earthy bed.Maud (1855) pt. 1, sect. 22, st. 11 - After it, follow it,
Follow The Gleam.‘Merlin and The Gleam’ (1889) st. 9 - And blessings on the falling out
That all the more endears,
When we fall out with those we love
And kiss again with tears!The Princess (1847), pt. 2, song (added 1850) - A classic lecture, rich in sentiment,
With scraps of thundrous epic lilted out
By violet-hooded Doctors, elegies
And quoted odes, and jewels five-words-long,
That on the stretched forefinger of all Time
Sparkle for ever.The Princess (1847) pt. 2, l. 352 - The path of duty was the way to glory.‘Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington’ (1852) st. 8
- A haunt of ancient Peace.‘The Palace of Art’ (1832) st. 22
- Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea.The Princess (1847) pt. 3, song (added 1850) - The splendour falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story:
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.The Princess (1847) pt. 4, song (added 1850) - O sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!The Princess (1847) pt. 4, song (added 1850) - O love, they die in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill or field or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow for ever and for ever.The Princess (1847) pt. 4, song (added 1850) - Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
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.The Princess (1847) pt. 4, l. 21, song (added 1850) - So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.The Princess (1847) pt. 4, l. 30, song (added 1850)
- Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds.The Princess (1847) pt. 4, l. 31, song (added 1850) - Dear as remembered kisses after death.The Princess (1847) pt. 4, l. 36, song (added 1850)
- Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more.The Princess (1847) pt. 4, l. 39, song (added 1850) - Man is the hunter; woman is his game.The Princess (1847) pt. 5, l. 147
- Home they brought her warrior dead.
She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:
All her maidens, watching said,
‘She must weep or she will die.’The Princess (1847) pt. 6, song (added 1850) - The woman is so hard
Upon the woman.The Princess (1847) pt. 6, l. 205 - Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk.The Princess (1847) pt. 7, l. 161, song (added 1850) - Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,
And all thy heart lies open unto me.The Princess (1847) pt. 7, l. 167, song (added 1850) - Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake.The Princess (1847) pt. 7, l. 171, song (added 1850) - The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.The Princess (1847) pt. 7, l. 206, song (added 1850) - At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay.‘The Revenge’ (1878) st. 1
- My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.‘Sir Galahad’ (1842) - Alone and warming his five wits,
The white owl in the belfry sits.‘Song—The Owl’ (1830) - The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
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.‘Tithonus’ (1860, revised 1864) l. 1 - It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an agèd wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race.‘Ulysses’ (1842) l. 1 - I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart.‘Ulysses’ (1842) l. 16 - Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.‘Ulysses’ (1842) l. 22
- Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life.‘Ulysses’ (1842) l. 24; see Adams - To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.‘Ulysses’ (1842) l. 31 - This is my son, mine own Telemachus.‘Ulysses’ (1842) l. 33
- Old age hath yet his honour 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.‘Ulysses’ (1842) l. 51 - It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides.‘Ulysses’ (1842) l. 69 - 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.‘Ulysses’ (1842) l. 74 - Every moment dies a man,
Every moment one is born.‘The Vision of Sin’ (1842) pt. 4, st. 9; see Babbage
