Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Idylls of the King (1859)

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For men at most differ as heaven and earth,
But women, worst and best, as heaven and hell.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Blind and naked Ignorance Delivers brawling judgments, unashamed, On all things all day long.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
For as the base man, judging of the good,
Puts his own baseness in him by default
Of will and nature, so did Pelleas lend
All the young beauty of his own soul to hers

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The vow that binds too strictly snaps itself.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The shackles of an old love straitened him,
His honor rooted in dishonor stood,
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Full many a love in loving youth was mine;
I needed then no charm to keep them mine.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
A young man will be wiser by and by;
An old man's wit may wander ere he die.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
For friend and foe were shadows in the mist,
And friend slew friend not knowing whom he slew;

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
And slowly answer'd Arthur from the barge:
The old order changeth, yielding place to new;
And God fulfills himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
So all day long the noise of battle rolled
Among the mountains by the winter sea.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The city is built To music, therefore never built at all, And therefore built forever.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
To reverence the King, as if he were
Their conscience, and their conscience as their King.

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
Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
I am going a long way…
To the island-valley of Avilion;
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Like some full-breasted swan
That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,
Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood
With swarthy webs.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
It is the little rift within the lute,
That by and by will make the music mute,
And ever widening slowly silence all.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
But, friend, to me
He is all fault who hath no fault at all.
For who loves me must have a touch of earth.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
No more subtle master under Heaven Than is the maiden passion for a maid, Not only to keep down the base in man, But teach high thought, and amiable words And courtliness, and the desire of fame, And love of truth, and all that makes a man.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
I will love thee to the death,
And out beyond into the dream to come.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
King am I, whatsoever be their cry;
And one last act of kinghood shalt thou see
Yet, ere I pass.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
You, methinks you think you love me well;
For me, I love you somewhat; rest: and Love
Should have some rest and pleasure in himself,
Not ever be too curious for a boon,
Too prurient for a proof against the grain
Of him ye say ye love: but Fame with men,
Being but ampler means to serve mankind,
Should have small rest or pleasure in herself,
But work as vassal to the larger love,
That dwarfs the petty love of one to one.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
To doubt her fairness were to want an eye,
To doubt her pureness were to want a heart.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Wearing the white flower of a blameless life,
Before a thousand peering littlenesses,
In that fierce light which beats upon a throne,
And blackens every blot.
Of Prince Albert

Alfred, Lord Tennyson