The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson Quotes

“Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
The people said, a weed.”
― Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson

“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.”
― Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson

“Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow forever and for ever.”
― Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson

“The Flower

Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
The people said, a weed.

To and fro they went
Thro’ my garden-bower,
And muttering discontent
Cur’d me and my flower.

Then it grew so tall
It wore a crown of light,
But thieves from o’er the wall
Stole the seed by night.

Sow’d it far and wide
By every town and tower,
Till all the people cried,
“Splendid is the flower.”

Read my little fable:
He that runs may read.
Most can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed.

And some are pretty enough,
And some are poor indeed;
And now again the people
Call it but a weed.”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson

“The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson

“But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson

“Why are we weigh’d upon with heaviness, And utterly consumed with sharp distress, While all things else have rest from weariness? All things have rest: why should we toil alone, We only toil, who are the first of things, And make perpetual moan, Still from one sorrow to another thrown: Nor ever fold our wings, And cease from wanderings, Nor steep our brows in slumber’s holy balm; Nor harken what the inner spirit sings, “There is no joy but calm!” Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things?”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“Be thou as the immortal are,   Who dwell beneath their God’s own wing A spirit of light, a living star,   A holy and a searchless thing: But oh! forget not those who mourn, Because thou canst no more return.”
― Alfred Tennyson, Complete Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“All things are taken from us, and become
Portions and parcels of the dreadful past”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson

“In that still place she, hoarded in herself, Grew, seldom seen: not less among us lived Her fame from lip to lip. Who had not heard Of Rose, the Gardener’s daughter? Where was he, So blunt in memory, so old at heart, At such a distance from his youth in grief, That, having seen, forgot? The common mouth, So gross to express delight, in praise of her Grew oratory. Such a lord is Love, And Beauty such a mistress of the world.”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“Let what is broken so remain. The Gods are hard to reconcile: ‘Tis hard to settle order once again. There is confusion worse than death, Trouble on trouble, pain on pain, Long labour unto aged breath, Sore task to hearts worn out with  many wars And eyes grow dim with gazing on the pilot-stars.”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“Few from too near inspection fail to lose, Distance on all a mellowing haze bestows; And who is not indebted to that aid Which throws his failures into welcome shade?”
― Alfred Lord Tennyson, Complete Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“And more, my son! for more than once when I
Sat all alone, revolving in myself
The word that is the symbol of myself,
The mortal limit of the Self was loosed,
And past into the Nameless, as a cloud
Melts into Heaven. I touch’d my limbs, the limbs
Were strange not mine – and yet no shade of doubt,
But utter clearness, and thro’ loss of Self
The gain of such large life as match’d with ours
Were Sun to spark – unshadowable in words,
Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world.”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson

“an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!”
― Alfred Tennyson, Complete Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furl’d In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.   There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“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. Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend?”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind, In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works: Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“gales! Blest be the bard, whom golden Fancy loves,   He strays for ever thro’ her blooming bowers, Amid the rich profusion of her groves,   And wreathes his forehead with her spicy flowers Of sunny radiance; but how blest is he Who feels the genuine force of high Sublimity!  ”
― Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Works: Alfred, Lord Tennyson