Poets' Corner - Alfred, Lord Tennyson

H O M E

In Memoriam
by
Alfred Tennyson

(1849)

Verses:

Preface.

I. through XX.

Poets' Corner Scripting
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Transcribed for Poets' Corner
March 2000 by S.L.Spanoudis

IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.

[Arthur Hugh Hallam]
OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII.

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

STRONG Son of God, immortal Love,: Whom we, that have not seen thy face,; By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove;
Thine are these orbs of light and shade;: Thou madest Life in man and brute;; Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot
Is on the skull which thou hast made.
Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:: Thou madest man, he knows not why,; He thinks he was not made to die;
And thou hast made him: thou art just.
Thou seemest human and divine,: The highest, holiest manhood, thou:; Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours, to make them thine.
Our little systems have their day;: They have their day and cease to be:; They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.
We have but faith: we cannot know;: For knowledge is of things we see;; And yet we trust it comes from thee,
A beam in darkness: let it grow.
Let knowledge grow from more to more,: But more of reverence in us dwell;; That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before,
But vaster. We are fools and slight;: We mock thee when we do not fear:; But help thy foolish ones to bear;
Help thy vain worlds to bear thy light.
Forgive what seem'd my sin in me;: What seem'd my worth since I began;; For merit lives from man to man,
And not from man, O Lord, to thee.
Forgive my grief for one removed,: Thy creature, whom I found so fair.; I trust he lives in thee, and there
I find him worthier to be loved.
Forgive these wild and wandering cries,: Confusions of a wasted youth;; Forgive them where they fail in truth,
And in thy wisdom make me wise.: 1849.

to Verse I.