Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Tithonus” is one of his most loved and anthologized poems. It takes the form of a dramatic monologue addressed to Eos, in which he begs her to deliver him from his senility. . . . 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 shadow roaming like a dream . . . It contains a famous line that might be considered one of the great themes of Greek myth: The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts.
