Rest in Peace Lord Tennyson
On this date, October 6, 1892, the British Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson past away at the age of 83. I have always loved his poem Ulysses. It’s a poem I’ll return to when I need inspiration and resilience. His words echo through the ages…
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ulysses
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push 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.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Photo of Tennyson taken by Julia Margaret Cameron circa 1865 via Wikimedia.
