Who is Alfred Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, invariably known as Alfred Lord Tennyson on all his books, was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the fourth of the twelve children of George Tennyson, clergyman, and his wife, Elizabeth. In 1816 Tennyson was sent to Louth Grammar School, which he disliked so intensely that from 1820 he was educated at home until at the age of 18 he joined his two brothers at Trinity College, Cambridge and with his brother Charles published his first book, Poems by Two Brothers the same year.
His second book, Poems Chiefly Lyrical was published in 1830. In 1833, Tennyson’s best friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who was engaged to his sister, died, inspiring some of his best work including In Memoriam, Ulysses and the Passing of Arthur.
Alfred Tennyson Quotes
1. If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I could walk through my garden forever.
2. Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
3. Hope Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering ‘it will be happier
4. I am a part of all that I have met.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. I will drink life to the lees.
8. Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
9. A lie that is half-truth is the darkest of all lies.
10. Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
The people said, a weed.
11. Sometimes the heart sees what’s invisible to the eye.
12. Be near me when my light is low,
When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick
And tingle; and the heart is sick,
And all the wheels of Being slow.
Be near me when the sensuous frame
Is rack’d with pangs that conquer trust;
And Time, a maniac scattering dust,
And Life, a fury slinging flame.
Be near me when my faith is dry,
And men the flies of latter spring,
That lay their eggs, and sting and sing
And weave their petty cells and die.
Be near me when I fade away,
To point the term of human strife,
And on the low dark verge of life
The twilight of eternal day.
13. The words ‘far, far away’ had always a strange charm.
14. Come friends, it’s not too late to seek a newer world.
15. The quiet sense of something lost
16. Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die
17. I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
18. 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 work with him. Don’t knock your friends. Don’t knock your enemies. Don’t knock yourself.
19. There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.
20. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. Sweet is true love that is given in vain, and sweet is death that takes away pain.
24. I am half-sick of shadows,’ said The Lady of Shalott.
25. I remain
Mistress of mine own self
and mine own soul
26. The shell must break before the bird can fly.
27. 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.
28. So runs my dream, but what am I?
An infant crying in the night
An infant crying for the light
And with no language but a cry.
29. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.
30. O love, O fire! once he drew
With one long kiss my whole soul through
My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.
31. 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 look’d down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side;
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
The Lady of Shalott.
32. My purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset and the baths of all the Western stars until I die.
33. For always roaming with a hungry heart.
34. So sad, so fresh the days that are no more.
35. So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be.
36. The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but on the mastery of his passions.
37. Life is brief but love is LONG .
38. For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.
39. Willows whiten, aspens quiver, little breezes dusk and shiver, thro’ the wave that runs forever by the island in the river, flowing down to Camelot. Four gray walls and four gray towers, overlook a space of flowers, and the silent isle imbowers, the Lady of Shalott.
40. I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.
41. 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!
42. Sunset and evening star
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.
43. A man had given all other bliss,
And all his worldly worth for this
To waste his whole heart in one kiss
Upon her perfect lips.
44. Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
45. Beat, happy stars, timing with things below,
Beat with my heart more blest than heart can tell,
Blest, but for some dark undercurrent woe
That seems to draw—but it shall not be so:
Let all be well, be well.
46. I sometimes find it half a sin,
To put to words the grief i feel,
For words like nature,half reveal,
and half conceal the soul within,
47. So I find every pleasant spot
In which we two were wont to meet,
The field, the chamber, and the street,
For all is dark where thou art not
48. 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.
49. So now I have sworn to bury
All this dead body of hate
I feel so free and so clear
By the loss of that dead weight
50. if you don’t concentrate on what you are doing then the thing that you are doing is not what you are thinking.
51. 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.
52. It is unconceivable that the whole Universe was merely created for us who live in this third-rate planet of a third-rate moon.
53. The old order changeth yielding place to new And God fulfills himself in many ways Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me I have lived my life and that which I have done May he within himself make pure but thou If thou shouldst never see my face again Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.
54. How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life!
55. The city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built forever.
56. 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.
57. Ours is not to wonder why. Ours is just to do or die.
58. Shall love be blamed for want of faith?
59. There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tir’d eyelids upon tir’d eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.
Here are cool mosses deep,
And thro’ the moss the ivies creep,
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.
60. There she weaves by night and day, A magic web with colors gay. She has heard a whisper say, A curse is on her if she stay, To look down to Camelot. She knows not what the curse may be, And so she weaveth steadily, And little other care hath she, The Lady of Shalott.
