You Ask Me, Why, Tho’ Ill at Ease poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
You ask me, why, tho’ ill at ease, Within this region I subsist, Whose spirits falter in the mist, And languish for the purple seas. It is the land that freemen till, That sober-suited Freedom chose, The land, where girt with friends or foes A man may speak the thing he will; A land […]
Ulysses poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: all times […]
To Virgil, Written at the Request of the Mantuans for the N poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Roman Virgil, thou that singest Ilion’s lofty temples robed in fire, Ilion falling, Rome arising, wars, and filial faith, and Dido’s pyre; Landscape-lover, lord of language more than he that sang the “Works and Days,” All the chosen coin of fancy flashing out from many a golden phrase; Thou that singest wheat and woodland, […]
To Virgil poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Written at the Request of the Mantuans for the Nineteenth Centenary of Virgil’s Death Roman Virgil, thou that singest Ilion’s lofty temples robed in fire, Ilion falling, Rome arising, wars, and filial faith, and Dido’s pyre; Landscape-lover, lord of language more than he that sang the Works and Days, All the chosen coin […]
To The Queen poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
O loyal to the royal in thyself, And loyal to thy land, as this to thee– Bear witness, that rememberable day, When, pale as yet, and fever-worn, the Prince Who scarce had plucked his flickering life again From halfway down the shadow of the grave, Past with thee through thy people and their love, […]
To J. S. poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
The wind, that beats the mountain, blows More softly round the open wold, And gently comes the world to those That are cast in gentle mould. And me this knowledge bolder made, Or else I had not dare to flow In these words toward you, and invade Even with a verse your holy woe. […]
To E. Fitzgerald: Tiresias poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
OLD FITZ, who from your suburb grange, Where once I tarried for a while, Glance at the wheeling orb of change, And greet it with a kindly smile; Whom yet I see as there you sit Beneath your sheltering garden-tree, And watch your doves about you flit, And plant on shoulder, hand, and knee, […]
Tithonus poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
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 a summer dies the swan. Me only cruel immortality Consumes; I wither slowly in thine arms, Here at the quiet limit of the world, A white-hair’d […]
The Talking Oak poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Once more the gate behind me falls; Once more before my face I see the moulder’d Abbey-walls, That stand within the chace. Beyond the lodge the city lies, Beneath its drift of smoke; And ah! with what delighted eyes I turn to yonder oak. For when my passion first began, Ere that, which […]
The Ringlet poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
‘Your ringlets, your ringlets, That look so golden-gay, If you will give me one, but one, To kiss it night and day, The never chilling touch of Time Will turn it silver-gray; And then shall I know it is all true gold To flame and sparkle and stream as of old. Till all the […]
The Revenge; A Ballad of the Fleet poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay, And a pinnace, like a fluttered bird, came flying from far away: ‘Spanish ships of war at sea! we have sighted’ Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: ”Fore God I am no coward; But I cannot meet them here, for my ships are out of gear, […]
The Progress of Spring poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
THE groundflame of the crocus breaks the mould, Fair Spring slides hither o’er the Southern sea, Wavers on her thin stem the snowdrop cold That trembles not to kisses of the bee: Come Spring, for now from all the dripping eaves The spear of ice has wept itself away, And hour by hour unfolding […]
The Princess (The Conclusion) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
So closed our tale, of which I give you all The random scheme as wildly as it rose: The words are mostly mine; for when we ceased There came a minute’s pause, and Walter said, ‘I wish she had not yielded!’ then to me, ‘What, if you drest it up poetically?’ So prayed the […]
The Princess (prologue) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Sir Walter Vivian all a summer’s day Gave his broad lawns until the set of sun Up to the people: thither flocked at noon His tenants, wife and child, and thither half The neighbouring borough with their Institute Of which he was the patron. I was there From college, visiting the son,–the son A […]
The Princess (part 7) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
So was their sanctuary violated, So their fair college turned to hospital; At first with all confusion: by and by Sweet order lived again with other laws: A kindlier influence reigned; and everywhere Low voices with the ministering hand Hung round the sick: the maidens came, they talked, They sang, they read: till she […]
The Princess (part 6) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
My dream had never died or lived again. As in some mystic middle state I lay; Seeing I saw not, hearing not I heard: Though, if I saw not, yet they told me all So often that I speak as having seen. For so it seemed, or so they said to me, That all […]
The Princess (part 5) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Now, scarce three paces measured from the mound, We stumbled on a stationary voice, And ‘Stand, who goes?’ ‘Two from the palace’ I. ‘The second two: they wait,’ he said, ‘pass on; His Highness wakes:’ and one, that clashed in arms, By glimmering lanes and walls of canvas led Threading the soldier-city, till we […]
The Princess (part 4) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
‘There sinks the nebulous star we call the Sun, If that hypothesis of theirs be sound’ Said Ida; ‘let us down and rest;’ and we Down from the lean and wrinkled precipices, By every coppice-feathered chasm and cleft, Dropt through the ambrosial gloom to where below No bigger than a glow-worm shone the tent […]
The Princess (part 3) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Morn in the wake of the morning star Came furrowing all the orient into gold. We rose, and each by other drest with care Descended to the court that lay three parts In shadow, but the Muses’ heads were touched Above the darkness from their native East. There while we stood beside the fount, […]
The Princess (part 2) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
At break of day the College Portress came: She brought us Academic silks, in hue The lilac, with a silken hood to each, And zoned with gold; and now when these were on, And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons, She, curtseying her obeisance, let us know The Princess Ida waited: out […]
The Princess (part 1) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
A prince I was, blue-eyed, and fair in face, Of temper amorous, as the first of May, With lengths of yellow ringlet, like a girl, For on my cradle shone the Northern star. There lived an ancient legend in our house. Some sorcerer, whom a far-off grandsire burnt Because he cast no shadow, had […]
The Princess: A Medley: Thy Voice is Heard poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Thy voice is heard thro’ rolling drums, That beat to battle where he stands; Thy face across his fancy comes, And gives the battle to his hands: A moment, while the trumpets blow, He sees his brood about thy knee; The next, like fire he meets the foe, And strikes him dead for thine […]
The Princess: A Medley: Tears, Idle Tears poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy Autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more. Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That brings our friends […]
The Princess: A Medley: Our Enemies have Fall’n poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Our enemies have fall’n, have fall’n: the seed, The little seed they laugh’d at in the dark, Has risen and cleft the soil, and grown a bulk Of spanless girth, that lays on every side A thousand arms and rushes to the Sun. Our enemies have fall’n, have fall’n: they came; The leaves were […]
The Princess: A Medley: O Swallow poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying South, Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves, And tell her, tell her, what I tell to thee. O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each, That bright and fierce and fickle is the South, And dark and true and tender is the North. O Swallow, Swallow, […]
The Princess: A Medley: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white; Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk; Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font: The fire-fly wakens: waken thou with me. Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost, And like a ghost she glimmers on to me. Now lies the earth all […]
The Princess: A Medley: Home they Brought her Warrior Dead poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Home they brought her warrior dead: She nor swoon’d nor utter’d cry: All her maidens, watching, said, “She must weep or she will die.” Then they praised him, soft and low, Call’d him worthy to be loved, Truest friend and noblest foe; Yet she neither spoke nor moved. Stole a maiden from her place, […]
The Princess: A Medley: Come down, O Maid poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height: What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd sang) In height and cold, the splendour of the hills? But cease to move so near the Heavens, and cease To glide a sunbeam by the blasted Pine, To sit a star upon the sparkling spire; And come, for […]
The Princess: A Medley: Ask me no more poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea; The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape, With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape; But O too fond, when have I answer’d thee? Ask me no more. Ask me no more: what answer should I give? I love not […]
The Princess: A Medley: As thro’ the land poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
As thro’ the land at eve we went, And pluck’d the ripen’d ears, We fell out, my wife and I, O we fell out I know not why, And kiss’d again with tears. And blessings on the falling out That all the more endears, When we fall out with those we love And kiss […]
The Passing Of Arthur poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
That story which the bold Sir Bedivere, First made and latest left of all the knights, Told, when the man was no more than a voice In the white winter of his age, to those With whom he dwelt, new faces, other minds. For on their march to westward, Bedivere, Who slowly paced among […]
The Palace of Art poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house, Wherein at ease for aye to dwell. I said, “O Soul, make merry and carouse, Dear soul, for all is well.” A huge crag-platform, smooth as burnish’d brass I chose. The ranged ramparts bright From level meadow-bases of deep grass Suddenly scaled the light. Thereon I built […]
The Owl poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
When cats run home and light is come, And dew is cold upon the ground, And the far-off stream is dumb, And the whirring sail goes round, And the whirring sail goes round; Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits. When merry milkmaids click the latch, And rarely […]
The Oak poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Live thy life, Young and old, Like yon oak, Bright in spring, Living gold; Summer-rich Then; and then Autumn-changed, Soberer hued Gold again. All his leaves Fall’n at length, Look, he stands, Trunk and bough, Naked strength. *** Lord Alfred Tennyson […]
The Miller’s Daughter poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
It is the miller’s daughter, And she is grown so dear, so dear, That I would be the jewel That trembles in her ear: For hid in ringlets day and night, I’d touch her neck so warm and white. And I would be the girdle About her dainty dainty waist, And her heart would […]
The Merman poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
I Who would be A merman bold, Sitting alone Singing alone Under the sea, With a crown of gold, On a throne? II I would be a merman bold, I would sit and sing the whole of the day; I would fill the sea-halls with a voice of power; But at night […]
The Mermaid poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
I Who would be A mermaid fair, Singing alone, Combing her hair Under the sea, In a golden curl With a comb of pearl, On a throne? II I would be a mermaid fair; I would sing to myself the whole of the day; With a comb of pearl I would comb […]
The Marriage Of Geraint poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
The brave Geraint, a knight of Arthur’s court, A tributary prince of Devon, one Of that great Order of the Table Round, Had married Enid, Yniol’s only child, And loved her, as he loved the light of Heaven. And as the light of Heaven varies, now At sunrise, now at sunset, now by night […]
The Lord of Burleigh poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
IN her ear he whispers gaily, ‘If my heart by signs can tell, Maiden, I have watch’d thee daily, And I think thou lov’st me well.’ She replies, in accents fainter, ‘There is none I love like thee.’ He is but a landscape-painter, And a village maiden she. He to lips, that fondly falter, […]
The Letters poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
Still on the tower stood the vane, A black yew gloomed the stagnant air, I peered athwart the chancel pane And saw the altar cold and bare. A clog of lead was round my feet, A band of pain across my brow; “Cold altar, Heaven and earth shall meet Before you hear my marriage […]