Alfred Lord Tennyson
A still small voice spake unto me, 'Thou art so full of misery, Were it not better not to be?Collection: Art
Trust me not at all, or all in all.Collection: Trust
And out of darkness came the hands that reach through nature, moulding men.Collection: Nature
Let me go: take back thy gift: Why should a man desire in any way To vary from the kindly race of men, Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance Where all should pause, as is most meet for all? ...Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears, And make me tremble lest a saying learnt, In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true? ‘The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts.’ - TithonusCollection: Dark
Her court was pure, her life serene; God gave her peace; her land reposed; A thousand claims to reverence closed.Collection: Sad
I know transplanted human worth will bloom to profit otherwhere.Collection: Profit
With a little hoard of maxims preaching down a daughter's heart.Collection: Daughter
I will be deafer than the blue-eyed cat, And thrice as blind as any noonday owl, To holy virgins in their ecstasies.Collection: Cat
I have led her home, my love, my only friend. There is none like her, none, And never yet so warmly ran my blood, And sweetly, on and on Calming itself to the long-wished for end, Full to the banks, close on the prom- ised good.Collection: Home
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 summer dies the swan. Me only cruel immortality Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms, Here at the quiet limit of the world.Collection: Summer
It is unconceivable that the whole Universe was merely created for us who live in this third-rate planet of a third-rate moon.Collection: Moon
Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls.Collection: Girl
I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house, Wherein at ease for aye to dwell.Collection: House
Are God and Nature then at strife, That Nature lends such evil dreams? So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life; ... 'So careful of the type', but no. From scarped cliff and quarried stone She cries, 'A thousand types are gone: I care for nothing, all shall go' ... Man, her last work, who seemed so fair, Such splendid purpose in his eyes, Who rolled the psalm to wintry skies, Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer, Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation's final law- Tho' Nature red in tooth and claw With ravine, shrieked against his creed.Collection: Dream
Where love could walk with banish'd Hope no more.Collection: Life
O Love! what hours were thine and mine, In lands of palm and southern pine; In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine!Collection: Love
Ah, why Should life all labour be?Collection: Life
Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.Collection: Death
Dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, The love of love.Collection: Love
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 forever and forever. Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying! And answer, echoes, answer! dying, dying, dying.Collection: Love
But every page having an ample marge, And every marge enclosing in the midst A square of text that looks a little blot.Collection: Book
I wind about, and in and out, - With here a blossom sailing, - And here and there a lusty trout, - And here and there a grayling.Collection: Lakes
How fares it with the happy dead?Collection: Happiness
Sweet is every sound, sweeter the voice, but every sound is sweet.Collection: Sweet
Short swallow-flights of song, that dip Their wings in tears, and skim away.Collection: Song
As the husband is the wife is; thou art mated with a clown, As the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down.Collection: Art
Half the night I waste in sighs, Half in dreams I sorrow after The delight of early skies; In a wakeful dose I sorrow For the hand, the lips, the eyes, For the meeting of the morrow, The delight of happy laughter, The delight of low replies.Collection: Dream
And what delights can equal those That stir the spirit's inner deeps, When one that loves but knows not, reaps A truth from one that loves and knows?Collection: Delight
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades Forever and forever 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!Collection: Travel
Science grows and Beauty dwindles.Collection: Science
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, But vaster.Collection: Soul
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs the deep.Collection: Moon
I am going a long way With these thou seëst-if indeed I go (For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)- To the island-valley of Avilion, Where falls not hail or rain or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies Deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns And bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea, Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.Collection: Happiness
Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; 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.Collection: Time
That loss is common would not make My own less bitter, rather more: Too common! Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break.Collection: Morning
Of love that never found his earthly close, What sequel? Streaming eyes and breaking hearts; Or all the same as if he had not been?Collection: Love
Arise, go forth, and conquer as of old.Collection: Military
One so small Who knowing nothing knows but to obey.Collection: Knowing Nothing