Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Never, oh! never, nothing will die;The stream flows,The wind blows,The cloud fleets,The heart beats,Nothing will die.”

“Above,the fair hall-ceiling stately set Many an arch high up did lift,And angels rising and descending met With interchange of gift.”

“For men may come and men may go, but I go on forever...”

“Words, like nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within.”

“Not once or twice in our fair island-story,The path of duty was the way to glory.”

“What rights are those that dare not resist for them?”

“I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.”

“Shape your heart to front the hour, but dream not that the hours will last.”

“We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;“Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson”

“She hath no loyal knight and true, The Lady of Shalott.”

“I know her by her angry air, Her brightblack eyes, her brightblack hair, Her rapid laughters wild and shrill, As laughter of the woodpecker From the bosom of a hill. 'Tis Kate--she sayeth what she will; For Kate hath an unbridled tongue, Clear as the twanging of a harp. Her heart is like a throbbing star. Kate hath a spirit ever strung Like a new bow, and bright and sharp As edges of the scymetar. Whence shall she take a fitting mate? For Kate no common love will feel; My woman-soldier, gallant Kate, As pure and true as blades of steel. Kate saith "the world is void of might". Kate saith "the men are gilded flies". Kate snaps her fingers at my vows; Kate will not hear of lover's sighs. I would I were an armèd knight, Far famed for wellwon enterprise, And wearing on my swarthy brows The garland of new-wreathed emprise: For in a moment I would pierce The blackest files of clanging fight, And strongly strike to left and right, In dreaming of my lady's eyes. Oh! Kate loves well the bold and fierce; But none are bold enough for Kate, She cannot find a fitting mate.”

“And ah for a man to arise in me,That the man I am may cease to be!”

“So now I have sworn to buryAll this dead body of hateI feel so free and so clearBy the loss of that dead weight”

“Theirs not to make reply,Theirs not to reason why,Theirs but to do and die.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I falter where I firmly trod, And falling with my weight of cares Upon the great world's altar-stairs That slope thro' darkness up to God, I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, And gather dust and chaff, and call To what I feel is Lord of all, And faintly trust the larger hope.”

“I cannot rest from travel; I will drink Life to the lees.”

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

“Tell thou the King and all his liars, that IHave founded my Round Table in the North,And whatsoever his own knights have swornMy knights have sworn the counter to it -- and sayMy tower is full of harlots, like his court,But mine are worthier, seeing thy professTo be none other than themselves -- and sayMy knights are all adulterers like his own,But mine are truer, seeing they professTo be none other; and say his hour is come,The heathen are upon him, his long lanceBroken, and his Excalibur a straw.”

“Life is brief but love is LONG .”

“Thine are these orbs of light and shade;Thou madest Life in man and brute;Thou madest Death; and lo, thy footIs on the skull which thou hast made.”

“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.”

“Matched with an aged wife, I mete and doleUnequal laws unto a savage race,That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.”

“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

“Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.”

“Sunset and evening starAnd 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 deepTurns 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 PlaceThe flood may bear me far,I hope to see my Pilot face to faceWhen I have crossed the bar.”

“Seal'd her minefrom her first sweet breathMine, and mine by right, from birth till deathMine, mine-our fathers have sworn.”

“All day within the dreamy house,The doors upon their hinges creaked;The blue fly sang in the pane; the mouseBehind the mouldering wainscot shrieked,Or from the crevice peered about.Old faces glimmered through the doors,Old footsteps trod the upper floors,Old voices called her from without. . . .”

“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.”

“So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be.”

“The woman's cause is man's. They rise or sinkTogether. Dwarf'd or godlike, bound or free; miserable, How shall men grow?--Let her beAll that not harms distinctive womanhood.”

“Come friends, it's not too late to seek a newer world.”

“The shell must break before the bird can fly.”

“if you don't concentrate on what you are doing then the thing that you are doing is not what you are thinking.”

“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.”

“Sweet is true love that is given in vain, and sweet is death that takes away pain.”

“Tis a morning pure and sweet,And a dewy splendour fallsOn the little flower that clingsTo the turrets and the walls;'Tis a morning pure and sweet,And the light and shadow fleet;She is walking in the meadow,And the woodland echo rings;In a moment we shall meet;She is singing in the meadow,And the rivulet at her feetRipples on in light and shadowTo the ballad that she sings.”

“Dark house, by which once more I standHere in the long unlovely street,Doors, where my heart was used to beatSo quickly, waiting for a hand,A hand that can be clasp'd no more -Behold me, for I cannot sleep,And like a guilty thing I creepAt earliest morning to the door.He is not here; but far awayThe noise of life begins again,And ghastly thro' the drizzling rainOn the bald street breaks the blank day.”

“A man had given all other bliss,And all his worldly worth for thisTo waste his whole heart in one kissUpon her perfect lips.”

“She sleeps: her breathings are not heardIn palace chambers far apart.The fragrant tresses are not stirr'dThat lie upon her charmed heartShe sleeps: on either hand upswellsThe gold-fringed pillow lightly prest:She sleeps, nor dreams, but ever dwellsA perfect form in perfect rest.”

“The wind sounds like a silver wire,And from beyond the noon a fireIs pour'd upon the hills, and nigherThe skies stoop down in their desire;And, isled in sudden seas of light,My heart, pierced thro' with fierce delight,Bursts into blossom in his sight.”

“A louse in the locks of literature.”

“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!”

“Come, my friendsTis not too late to seek a newer worldPush 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”

“Follow the deer? Follow the Christ the King. Live pure, speak true,right wrong, Follow the King-- Else, wherefore born? ”

“More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

“She saw the snowy poles of moonless Mars, That marvellous round of milky light Below Orion, and those double stars Whereof the one more brightIs circled by the other”

“O love, O fire! once he drewWith one long kiss my whole soul throughMy lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.”

“I am half-sick of shadows,' said The Lady of Shalott.”