Alfred, Lord Tennyson Quotes

525 Sourced Quotes

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
An English home—grey twilight poured
On dewy pasture, dewy trees,
Softer than sleep—all things in order stored,
A haunt of ancient Peace.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet!
Nothing comes to thee new or strange.
Sleep full of rest from head to feet;
Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
And our spirits rushed together at the touching of the lips.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Much less this dreamer, deaf and blind,
Named man, may hope some truth to find,
That bears relation to the mind.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
When I dipt into the future far as human eye could see;
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonders that would be.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Whate'er thy joys, they vanish with the day:
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
No rock so hard but that a little wave may beat admission in a thousand years.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
For this is England's greatest son,
He that gained a hundred fights,
And never lost an English gun.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
My doom is, I love thee still.
Let no man dream but that I love thee still.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
To do him any wrong was to beget
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Mother Ida, many-fountain'd Ida,
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Thou who stealest fire,
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Have I not found a happy earth?
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 —

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

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
And at their feet the crocus brake like fire,
Violet, amaracus, and asphodel,
Lotos and lilies.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Read my little fable:
He that runs may read.
Most can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
One God, one law, one element,
And one far-off divine event,
To which the whole creation moves.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Once at the croak of a Raven who crost it,
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.'

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
She left the web, she left the loom,
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Of old sat Freedom on the heights
The thunders breaking at her feet:
Above her shook the starry lights;
She heard the torrents meet.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Or that eternal lack of pence,
Which vexes public men.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
I loved you, and my love had no return,
And therefore my true love has been my death.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson