7 Alfred (Lord) Tennyson Quotes on Spirituality

Alfred (Lord) Tennyson quotes on spirituality

9. I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house, Wherein at ease for aye to dwell. I said, 'O Soul, make merry and carouse, Dear soul, for all is well.'

32. Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet - Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.

65. 'But, if I lapsed from nobler place, Some legend of a fallen race Alone might hint of my disgrace; 'Some vague emotion of delight In gazing up an Alpine height, Some yearning toward the lamps of night. 'Or if thro' lower lives I came - Tho' all experience past became Consolidate in mind and frame - 'I might forget my weaker lot; For is not our first year forgot? The haunts of memory echo not. 'And men, whose reason long was blind, From cells of madness unconfined, Oft lose whole years of darker mind. 'Much more, if first I floated free, As naked essence, must I be Incompetent of memory: 'For memory dealing but with time, And he with matter, could she climb Beyond her own material prime?

66. 'Moreover, something is or seems, That touches me with mystic gleams, Like glimpses of forgotten dreams - 'Of something felt, like something here; Of something done, I know not where; Such as no language may declare.'

70. Like an Aeolian harp that wakes No certain air, but overtakes Far thought with music that it makes: Such seem'd the whisper at my side: 'What is it thou knowest, sweet voice?' I cried. 'A hidden hope,' the voice replied: So heavenly-toned, that in that hour From out my sullen heart a power Broke, like the rainbow from the shower, To feel, altho' no tongue can prove That every cloud, that spreads above And veileth love, itself is love.

166. She is coming, my own, my sweet; Were it ever so airy a tread, My heart would hear her and beat, Were it earth in an earthy bed; My dust would hear her and beat, Had I lain for a century dead; Would start and tremble under her feet, And blossom in purple and red.

167. A shadow flits before me, Not thou, but like to thee: Ah Christ, that it were possible For one short hour to see The souls we loved, that they might tell us What and where they be.