Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

Extracts from In Memoriam: ‘Heart-affluence in discursive talk’

CIX

HEART-AFFLUENCE in discursive talk

From household fountains never dry;

The critic clearness of an eye,

That saw thro’ all the Muses’ walk;

Seraphic intellect and force

To seize and throw the doubts of man;

Impassion’d logic, which outran

The hearer in its fiery course;

High nature amorous of the good,

But touch’d with no ascetic gloom;

And passion pure in snowy bloom

Thro’ all the years of April blood;

A love of freedom rarely felt,

Of freedom in her regal seat

Of England; not the schoolboy heat,

The blind hysterics of the Celt;

And manhood fused with female grace

In such a sort, the child would twine

A trustful hand, unask’d, in thine,

And find his comfort in thy face;

All these have been, and thee mine eyes

Have look’d on: if they look’d in vain,

My shame is greater who remain,

Nor let thy wisdom make me wise.