Alfred Lord Tennyson Poetry

Lines From "IN MEMORIAM"

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

The hills are shadows and they flow
From form to form and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands
Like clouds they shape themselves and go.

But in my spirit will I dwell,
And dream my dream, and hold it true;
For tho' my lips may breathe adieu,
I cannot think the thing farewell.

CXXIV
That which we dare invoke to bless;
Our dearest faith; our ghastliest doubt;
He, They, One, All, within, without;
The Power in darkness whom we guess;

I found Him not in world or sun,
Or eagle's wing, or insect's eye;
Nor thro' the questions men may try,
The petty cobwebs we have spun:

If ever when faith had fallen asleep,
I heard a voice 'believe no more'
And heard an ever-breaking shore
That tumbled in the Godless deep;

A warmth within the breast would melt
The freezing reason's colder part,
And like a man in wrath the heart,
Stood up and answered ' I have felt.'

No, like a child in doubt and fear:
But that blind clamor made me wise;
Then was I as a child that cries,
But, crying, knows his father is near;

And what I am beheld again
What is and no man understands;
And out of darkness came the hands
That reach thro' nature, molding men."
-Alfred Lord Tennyson


THE LADY OF SHALLOT
"In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining,
Heavily the low sky raining,
Over tower’d Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady Of Shallot.

And down the river’s dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeking all his own mischance,
With a glassy countenance,
Did she look to Camelot;
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.

Lying, robed in snowy white,
That loosely flew to left and right,
The leaves upon her falling light,
Through the noises of the night,
She floated down to Camelot
And as the boat-head wound along,
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady Of Shallot.

Heard a carol mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn’d to tower’d Camelot;
For ere she reached upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady Of Shallot.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high
Silent into Camelot;
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and burgher, lord and dame
And round the prow they read her name,
The Lady Of Shallot.

Who is this? and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near,
Died the sound of royal cheer,
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the knights of Camelot;
But Lancelot mused a little space;
He said, 'She has a lovely face,
God in His mercy lend her grace,
The Lady Of Shallot.' "
-Alfred Lord Tennyson