63 Quotes & Sayings By Alfred 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 Tennyson

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depths of some devine 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. Alfred Tennyson

T is not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’ We are not now that strength which in old days Mov’d 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 Tennyson

But thy strong Hours indignant work’d their wills, And beat me down and marr’d and wasted me, And tho’ they could not end me, left me maim’d To dwell in presence of immortal youth, Immortal age beside immortal youth, And all I was, in ashes. - Tithonus Alfred Tennyson

Let me go: take back thy gift: Why should a man desire in any way To vary from the kindly race of men, Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?... Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears, And make me tremble lest a saying learnt, In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true?‘ The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts.’- Tithonus Alfred Tennyson

I came in haste with cursing breath, And heart of hardest steel; But when I saw thee cold in death, I felt as man should feel. For when I look upon that face, That cold, unheeding, frigid brown, Where neither rage nor fear has place, By Heaven! I cannot hate thee now! Alfred Tennyson

Dear as remembered kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd On lips that are for others; deep as love, Deep as first love, and wild with all regret; O Death in Life, the days that are no more! Alfred Tennyson

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 Tennyson

I myself beheld the King Charge at the head of all his Table Round, And all his legions crying Christ and him, And break them; and I saw him, after, stand High on a heap of slain, from spur to plume Red as the rising sun with heathen blood, And seeing me, with a great voice he cried, "They are broken, they are broken! " for the King, However mild he seems at home, nor cares For triumph in our mimic wars, the jousts– For if his own knight cast him down, he laughs Saying, his knights are better men than he– Yet in this heathen war the fire of God Fills him: I never saw his like: there lives No greater leader. Alfred Tennyson

There rolls the deep where grew the tree O earth, what changes hast thou seen! There where the long street roars hath been. The stillness of the central sea. Alfred Tennyson

Music that gentlier on the spirit lies, Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes. Alfred Tennyson

Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of hell. Alfred Tennyson

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but on the mastery of his passions. Alfred Tennyson

O love, O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew. Alfred Tennyson

Wearing all that weight of learning like a flower. Alfred Tennyson

That loss is common would not make My own less bitter, rather more: Too common! Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break. Alfred Tennyson

Forgive my grief for one removed Thy creature whom I found so fair I trust he lives in Thee and there I find him worthier to be loved. Alfred Tennyson

And at the closing of the day She loosed the chain, and down she lay; The broad stream bore her far away, The Lady of Shallot. Alfred Tennyson

No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not work those who who work with him. Don't knock your friends. Don't knock your enemies. Don't knock yourself. Alfred Tennyson

He makes no friends who never made a foe. Alfred Tennyson

Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades Forever and forever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! As though to breathe were life! Alfred Tennyson

Forerun thy peers, thy time, and let Thy feet, millenniums hence, be set In midst of knowledge, dream'd not yet. Alfred Tennyson

All precious things discovered late To those that seek them issue forth, For Love in sequel works with Fate, And draws the veil from hidden worth Alfred Tennyson

I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair. Alfred Tennyson

I wither slowly in thine arms; here at the quiet limit of the world, a white hair'd shadow roaming like a dream. Alfred Tennyson

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves a shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me. Now folds the lily all her sweetness up, and slips into the bosom of the lake: So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip into my bosom and be lost in me. Alfred Tennyson

Behold, we know not anything; I can but trust that good shall fall At last -- far off -- at last, to all, And every winter change to spring. Alfred Tennyson

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light; The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Alfred Tennyson

Authority forgets a dying king Alfred Tennyson

Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me. O, well for the fisherman's boy, That he shouts with his sister at play! O, well for the sailor lad, That he sings in his boat on the bay! And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill; But O for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still! Break, break, break, At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me. Alfred Tennyson

Let us hush this cry of 'Forward', till ten thousand years have gone. Alfred Tennyson

The quiet sense of something lost Alfred Tennyson

I embrace the purpose of God and the doom assigned Alfred Tennyson

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. Alfred Tennyson

Virtue - to be good and just -Every heart, when sifted well, Is a clot of warmer dust, Mix'd with cunning sparks of hell.- The Vision of Sin Alfred Tennyson

Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die Alfred Tennyson

Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of DeathRode the six hundred. Alfred Tennyson

There has fallen a splendid tear From the passion-flower at the gate. She is coming, my dove, my dear; She is coming, my life, my fate. The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;" And the white rose weeps, "She is late;" The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;" And the lily whispers, "I wait." She is coming, my own, my sweet; Were it ever so airy a tread, My heart would hear her and beat, Were it earth in an earthy bed; My dust would hear her and beat, Had I lain for a century dead, Would start and tremble under her feet, And blossom in purple and red. Alfred Tennyson

A lie that is half-truth is the darkest of all lies. Alfred Tennyson

Praise to our Indian brothers, and the dark face have his due! Thanks to the kindly dark faces who fought with us, faithful and few, Fought with the bravest among us, and drove them, and smote them, and slew. That ever upon the topment roof our banner in India blew. Alfred Tennyson

What rights are those that dare not resist for them? Alfred Tennyson