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About this quote

What does it mean?
Past days are as dear and sweet as remembered or imagined kisses, filled with deep regret.
In plain terms
Lost days feel as sweet as kisses, but bring deep regret and sorrow.
What can you take from it?
Memory makes the past feel as real and painful as love.

Where it applies

  • mourning
  • romantic loss
  • introspection

Putting it to work

  • journaling
  • grief therapy
  • poetry writing

Questions to consider

  • Can time feel like a lover?
  • Why does memory intensify regret?

Another view

It equates time with romantic relationships.

More from Alfred (Lord) Tennyson

  1. Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That brings our friends up from the underworld, Sad as the last which reddens over one That sinks with all we lov…

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  2. Bury the Great Duke With an empire's lamentation; Let us bury the Great Duke To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation; Mourning when their leaders fall,…

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  3. God bless the narrow sea which keeps her off, And keeps our Britain, whole within herself, A nation yet, the rulers and the ruled - Some sense of duty, somethi…

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