1809–1892. English poet. { Encyclopædia Britannica }
At a Glance
Rilla of Ingleside (2)
Jane of Lantern Hill (2)
Index to This Page
Crossing the Bar (1)
The Princess: A Medley (2)
Vastness (1)
Crossing the Bar (1889 poem)
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 tho’ 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 crost the bar. (Full text)
Jane of Lantern Hill, chapter 9 (“tides that moving seemed asleep”).
The Princess: A Medley (1895 poem)
O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O, sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! (Part 3, lines 354–57)
Jane of Lantern Hill, chapter 23 (“‘horns of elfland faintly blowing’”).
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the hart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more. (Part 4, lines 21–25)
Rilla of Ingleside, chapter 21 (“the deeps of despair”).
Vastness (1895 poem)
Raving politics, never at rest—as this poor earth’s pale history runs,—
What is it all but a trouble of ants in the gleam of a million million of suns? (Stanza 2)
Rilla of Ingleside, chapter 19 (“‘struggle of ants / In the gleam of a million million of suns’”).
Sources
Tennyson, Lord Alfred. The Complete Poetic Works of Tennyson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company; Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1898. Cambridge Edition. Online at https://archive.org/details/completepoetical00tenn/.