"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? Not so. Shall Error in the round of time Still father Truth? O shall the braggart shout For some blind glimpse of freedom work itself Thro' madness, hated by the wise, to law System and empire? Sin itself be found The cloudy porch oft opening on the Sun? And only he, this wonder, dead, become Mere highway dust? or year by year alone Sit brooding in the ruins of a life, Nightmare of youth, the spectre of himself! If this were thus, if this, indeed, were all, Better the narrow brain, the stony heart, The staring eye glazed o'er with sapless days, The long mechanic pacings to and fro, The set gray life, and apathetic end. But am I not the nobler thro' thy love? O three times less unworthy! likewise thou Art more thro' Love, and greater than thy years."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"Love and Duty", l. 1- 21 (1842)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred%2C_Lord_Tennyson
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign, after William Wordsworth, and is one of the most popular English poets.
203 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Alfred, Lord Tennyson →
Related Quotes
"My good blade carves the casques of men, My tough lance thrusteth sure, My strength is as the strength of ten, Becaus…"
"...none can truly write his single day, And none can write it for him upon earth."
"I grow in worth, and wit, and sense, Unboding critic-pen, Or that eternal want of pence, Which vexes public men, Who …"
"Like ballad burthen music kept, As on the Lariano crept To that fair port, below the castle Of Queen Theodolind, wher…"
"Where Claribel low-lieth The breezes pause and die, Letting the rose-leaves fall: But the solemn oak-tree sigheth, Th…"
"With blackest moss the flower plots Were thickly crusted, one and all; The rusted nails fell from the knots That held…"
"He often lying broad awake, and yet Remaining from the body, and apart In intellect and power and will, hath heard Ti…"
"Yet fill my glass: give me one kiss: My own sweet Alice, we must die. There's somewhat in this world amiss Shall be u…"
"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…"
"Death's truer name Is "Onward," no discordance in the roll And march of that Eternal Harmony Whereto the world beats …"