There the passions cramp'd no longer shall have scope and breathing-space; I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker rejects constrained emotions and seeks a primal partner to build a lineage.
- In plain terms
- I want wild passion and a strong partner to raise my children.
- What can you take from it?
- Seek freedom in love and legacy.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What does legacy mean to you?
- How do you choose partners?
Another view
The language reflects colonial and racist attitudes common in the era.
More from Alfred (Lord) Tennyson
Woman is the lesser man, and all thy passions, match'd with mine, Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine -
Permalink to quote #103 Mated with a squalid savage - what to me were sun or clime? I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time -
Permalink to quote #105 Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore, And the individual withers, and the world is more and more.
Permalink to quote #102
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