Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809–92) was Victorian England’s favorite poet. He drew from traditional myth and Celtic legend to compose allegorical narratives about the ideals and failings of his society.
Born in Lincoln in England’s East Midlands, Tennyson studied at Cambridge and published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830,) his first solo anthology at 21. His second collection was met with such condemnation that he did not publish for ten years. However, his third collection of poems was successful and included his famous poem “Ulysses.”
In 1850, Tennyson published his most significant literary work, In Memoriam, a long poem about immortality, change, and evolution. Dedicated to his late friend, the poet Arthur Henry Hallam, it was Queen Victoria’s favorite—she said the book helped to comfort after Albert’s death.
With Victoria’s patronage, Tennyson came to be celebrated as the most important literary voice of his age and was selected Poet Laureate in 1850, succeeding William Wordsworth. Tennyson relocated to the Isle of Wight in 1853, where he wrote Maud, and Other Poems (1855,) “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854,) and Idylls of the King (1859.) He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
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A lie that is half-truth is the darkest of all lies.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Shape your heart to front the hour, but dream not that the hours will last.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Planning, Preparation
Better not be at all than not be noble.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Honor
Cast your cares on God; that anchor holds.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Worry, Anxiety
The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence, but in the mastery, of his passions.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Happiness, Discipline, Self-Control
What is it all but a trouble of ants in the gleam of a million million of suns?
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Blessings, Idleness, Love
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control; these three alone lead one to sovereign power.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
So much to do, so little done, such things to be.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Achievement, Success & Failure
Who are wise in love, love most, say least.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Love
No man ever got very high by pulling other people down. The intelligent merchant does not knock his competitors. The sensible worker does not knock those who work with him. Don’t knock your friends. Don’t knock your enemies. Don’t knock yourself.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Critics, Criticism
I am a part of all that I have met.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Discovery
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
A lie that is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
We shall live to fight again, and to strike another blow.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Endurance, Resolve, Perseverance
The older order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Men may rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Experience
Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Commitment, Dedication, Success
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Change
No rock so hard but that a little wave may beat admission in a thousand years.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Persistence, Perseverance
Hope smiles on the threshold of the year to come, whispering that it will be better.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace;
Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul,
While the stars burn, the moons increase,
And the great ages onward roll.
Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet.
Nothing comes to thee new or strange.
Sleep full of rest from head to feet;
Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Guard your roving thoughts with a jealous care, for speech is but the dialer of thoughts, and every fool can plainly read in your words what is the hour of your thoughts.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Thinking, Thought, Thoughts
Faith is believing where we cannot prove.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Faith, Belief
Man dreams of fame while woman wakes to love.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Men & Women, Women, Men
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Topics: Wisdom, Knowledge
Nor is it wiser to weep a true occasion lost, but trim our sails, and let old bygones be.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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- William Ewart Gladstone British Head of State