Alfred Lord Tennyson
A man had given all other bliss, And all his worldly worth for this To waste his whole heart in one kiss Upon her perfect lips.Collection: Heart
I remain Mistress of mine own self and mine own soulCollection: Self
Ring out the grief that saps the mind, for those that were here we see no more.Collection: Grief
The old order changes yielding place to new.Collection: Order
If Nature put not forth her power About the opening of the flower, Who is it that could live an hour?Collection: Nature
Oh that it were possible, After long grief and pain, To find the arms of my true love, Around me once againCollection: True Love
He is all fault who has no fault at all.Collection: Faults
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: Life
Every man, for the sake of the great blessed Mother in Heaven, and for the love of his own little mother on earth, should handle all womankind gently, and hold them in all Honor.Collection: Mom
My purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset and the baths of all the Western stars until I die.Collection: Stars
I can't be anonymous by reason of your confounded photographs. (To Julia Margaret Cameron)Collection: Reason
How many a father have I seen, A sober man, among his boys, Whose youth was full of foolish noise.Collection: Dad
There sinks the nebulous star we call the sun.Collection: Stars
And wheresoe'er thou move, good luck Shall fling her old shoe after.Collection: Moving
The wild swan's death-hymn took the soul Of that waste place with joy Hidden in sorrow: at first to the ear The warble was low, and full and clear.Collection: Swans
Some full-breasted swan That, fluting a wild carol ere her death, Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood With swarthy webs.Collection: Swans
This world was once a fluid haze of light, Till toward the centre set the starry tides, And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast The planets: then the monster, then the man.Collection: Science
The passionate heart of the poet is whirled into folly and vice.Collection: Heart
I come from haunts of coot and hern, I make a sudden sally And sparkle out among the fern, To bicker down a valley.Collection: Valleys
I thought I could not breathe in that fine air That pure severity of perfect light I yearned for warmth and colour which I found In Lancelot.Collection: Light
Willows whiten, aspens quiver, little breezes dusk and shiver, thro' the wave that runs forever by the island in the river, flowing down to Camelot. Four gray walls and four gray towers, overlook a space of flowers, and the silent isle imbowers, the Lady of Shalott.Collection: Running
Guard your roving thoughts with a jealous care, for speech is but the dialer of thoughts, and every fool can plainly read in your words what is the hour of your thoughts.Collection: Jealous
A life of nothing's nothing worth, From that first nothing ere his birth, To that last nothing under earth.Collection: Earth
The old order changeth yielding place to new And God fulfills himself in many ways Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me I have lived my life and that which I have done May he within himself make pure but thou If thou shouldst never see my face again Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.Collection: Life
What are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend?Collection: Prayer
O Blackbird! sing me something well: While all the neighbors shoot thee round, I keep smooth plats of fruitful ground, Where thou may'st warble, eat and dwell.Collection: May
The Lord let the house of a brute to the soul of a man, And the man said, "Am I your debtor?" And the Lord--"Not yet: but make it as clean as you can, And then I will let you a better.Collection: Men
Faith lives in honest doubt.Collection: Faith
O mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies, O skilled to sing of Time or Eternity, God-gifted organ-voice of England, Milton, a name to resound for ages.Collection: Time
Virtue must shape itself in deed.Collection: Shapes
Thoroughly to believe in one's own self, so one's self were thorough, were to do great things.Collection: Believe
It is the little rift within the lute That by and by will make the music mute, And ever widening slowly silence all.Collection: Music
Gone - flitted away, Taken the stars from the night and the sun From the day! Gone, and a cloud in my heart.Collection: I Miss You
Blow trumpet, for the world is white with May.Collection: Blow
And down I went to fetch my bride: But, Alice, you were ill at ease; This dress and that by turns you tried, Too fearful that you should not please. I loved you better for your fears, I knew you could not look but well; And dews, that would have fall'n in tears, I kiss'd away before they fell.Collection: Fall
O son, thou hast not true humility, The highest virtue, mother of them all; But her thou hast not know; for what is this? Thou thoughtest of thy prowess and thy sins Thou hast not lost thyself to save thyself.Collection: Mother
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.Collection: Time
You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; To-morrow'll 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.Collection: Mother