Best Tennyson Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“If I were loved, as I desire to be, / What is there in the great sphere of the earth, / And range of evil between death and birth, / That I should fear,- if I were loved by thee?”

Poem True Love Tennyson

Book:The Clockmaker's Daughter

Source: The Clockmaker's Daughter

“The seasonal urge is strong in poets. Milton wrote chiefly in winter. Keats looked for spring to wake him up (as it did in the miraculous months of April and May, 1819). Burns chose autumn. Longfellow liked the month of September. Shelley flourished in the hot months. Some poets, like Wordsworth, have gone outdoors to work. Others, like Auden, keep to the curtained room. Schiller needed the smell of rotten apples about him to make a poem. Tennyson and Walter de la Mare had to smoke. Auden drinks lots of tea, Spender coffee; Hart Crane drank alcohol. Pope, Byron, and William Morris were creative late at night. And so it goes.”

Source: When Found, Make a Verse of

“Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.”

Poetry Ageing Ulysses Tennyson Rumpole

Author:Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Her problem is with pretty,” Tennyson said. "She thinks I’ll need all these dresses in college. Like I would ever in a billion years pledge a sorority. I’ll pack a few of these to be ironic, though. I can wear them to, like, truck stops at night with mascara running down my cheeks and stuff.”

Love Romance Beauty College High School Dresses Ya Young Adult Fiction Teen Fiction Graduation Pretty Glass Girl Laura Anderson Kurk Perfect Glass Sorority Tennyson College Application Truck Stops

Book:Perfect Glass

Source: Perfect Glass

“The Sea-fairies Slow sail'd the weary mariners and saw, Betwixt the green brink and the running foam, Sweet faces, rounded arms, and bosoms prest To little harps of gold; and while they mused, Whispering to each other half in fear, Shrill music reach'd them on the middle sea.”

Poetry Poem Tennyson Sea Fairies

Author:Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Mr Wisdom,' said the girl who had led him into the presence. 'Ah,' said Howard Saxby, and there was a pause of perhaps three minutes, during which his needles clicked busily. 'Wisdom, did she say?' 'Yes. I wrote "Cocktail Time"' 'You couldn't have done better,' said Mr Saxby cordially. 'How's your wife, Mr Wisdom?' Cosmo said he had no wife. 'Surely?' "I'm a bachelor.' Then Wordsworth was wrong. He said you were married to immortal verse. Excuse me a moment,' murmured Mr Saxby, applying himself to the sock again. 'I'm just turning the heel. Do you knit?' 'No.' 'Sleep does. It knits the ravelled sleave of care.' (After a period of engrossed knitting, Cosmo coughs loudly to draw attention to his presence.) 'Goodness, you made me jump!' he (Saxby) said. 'Who are you?' 'My name, as I have already told you, is Wisdom' 'How did you get in?' asked Mr Saxby with a show of interest. 'I was shown in.' 'And stayed in. I see, Tennyson was right. Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers. Take a chair.' 'I have.' 'Take another,' said Mr Saxby hospitably.”

Humour Knitting Wordsworth Tennyson Publisher Cocktail Time

Author:P.G. Wodehouse

“I turn to our father, searching for an ally. "So Dad, is it legal for Bronte to date out of her species?" Dad looks up from his various layers of pepperoni and breadless cheese. "Date?" he says. Apparently the idea of Bronte dating is like an electromagnet sucking away all other words in the sentence, so that's the only word he hears. "You're not funny," Bronte says to me. "No, I'm serious," I tell her. "Isn't he like... a Sasquatch or something?" "Date?" says Dad.”

Bronte Tennyson

Book:Bruiser

Source: Bruiser

“I only remember fighting Ozzy O'Dell once. It was back in second grade. He threw these weird windmill-like punches, which was probably an early sign that the swim team was in his future.”

Tennyson Neal Shusterman Brewster Bruiser

Book:Bruiser

Source: Bruiser

“We have The Idylls of the King in English class this term. I like some things in them, but I detest Tennyson's Arthur. If I had been Guinevere I'd have boxed his ears - but I wouldn't have been unfaithful to him for Lancelot, who was just as odious in a different way. As for Geraint, if I had been Enid I'd have bitten him. These 'patient Griseldas' deserve all they get.”

Arthurian Legend King Arthur Arthurian Tennyson Lancelot Guinevere

Book:Emily Climbs

Source: Emily Climbs

“...the city usually only dulled and interrupted him. He required quiet, and to keep himself to himself, more than any writer he’d known. He was a shy beast who loved his burrow.”

Inspiration Writer Privacy Tennyson Matthew Pearl

Book:The Dante Chamber

Source: The Dante Chamber

“When critics like Matthew Arnold, for example, suggest that his poetry is deficient in elaborate thought, they only prove, as Matthew Arnold proved, that they themselves could never be great poets. It is no valid accusation against a poet that the sentiment he expresses is commonplace. Poetry is always commonplace; it is vulgar in the noblest sense of that noble word. Unless a man can make the same kind of ringing appeal to absolute and admitted sentiments that is made by a popular orator, he has lost touch with emotional literature. Unless he is to some extent a demagogue, he cannot be a poet. A man who expresses in poetry new and strange and undiscovered emotions is not a poet; he is a brain specialist. Tennyson can never be discredited before any serious tribunal of criticism because the sentiments and thoughts to which he dedicates himself are those sentiments and thoughts which occur to anyone. These are the peculiar province of poetry; poetry, like religion, is always a democratic thing, even if it pretends the contrary.”

Poetry Tennyson Matthew Arnold

Author:G.K. Chesterton

“My office walls are covered with autographs of famous writers - it's what my children call my 'dead author wall.' I have signatures from Mark Twain, Earnest Hemingway, Jack London, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Pearl Buck, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to name a few.”

Children Names Lord Wall Office Mark London My Children Covered Pearls Earnest Bucks Signatures Autographs Dickens Famous Writers Tennyson Kipling

Author:Debbie Macomber

“This is why it is good to remember: if you want to get high, don’t drink whiskey; read Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats, Neruda, Hopkins, Millay, Whitman, aloud and let your body sing.”

Ifs Want Body Remember Drink Your Body Whiskey Getting High Hopkins Tennyson

Author:Natalie

“[In response to Alfred Tennyson's poem "Vision of Sin," which included the line "Every moment dies a man, every moment one is born."] If this were true, the population of the world would be at a stand-still. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of death. I would suggest that the next edition of your poem should read: "Every moment dies a man, every moment 1 [and] 1/16 is born." Strictly speaking, the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 [and] 1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry.”

Ifs Men World Should Believe Long Stills Moments Would Be Dies Next I Believe Born Lines Sin Vision Figures Birth Response Rate Population Excess Accurate Tennyson

Author:Charles Babbage

“All birds during the pairing season become more or less sentimental, and murmur soft nothings in a tone very unlike the grinding-organ repetition and loudness of their habitual song. The crow is very comical as a lover; and to hear him trying to soften his croak to the proper Saint-Preux standard has something the effect of a Mississippi boatman quoting Tennyson.”

Trying Song Effects Lovers Standards Bird Seasons Saint Tone Organs Repetition Sentimental Crow Mississippi Habitual Comical Quoting Tennyson

Book:Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)

“It strikes me as very strange that whereas Tennyson could support most of Mr. Buckley's propositions about free trade, and the private sector, and private enterprise, Tennyson found no difficulty also in lending intellectual support to the idea of Women's Liberation.”

Ideas Found Support Strange Intellectual Difficulty Trade Strikes Liberation Enterprise Propositions Private Sector Free Trade Lending Private Enterprise Tennyson

Author:Germaine Greer

“I view askance a book that remains undisturbed for a year. Oughtn't it to have a ticket of leave? I think I may safely say no bookin my library remains unopened a year at a time, except my own works and Tennyson's.”

Thinking Years May Book Reading My Own Views Remains Library Reading Books Tickets Tennyson

Author:Carolyn Wells

“The novel may be dead as a commercial form. When art forms things die as commercial forms, something happens to the practice of those arts that isn't very pleasant. It used to be that a poet like Tennyson could keep his house and his coach-and-four and his staff of six servants on the income from poetry. That doesn't happen anymore.”

May Art Happens Form Used Dies House Practice Novel Four Poet Six Coaches Things Happen Income Used To Be Servant Pleasant Staff Tennyson

Author:William Monahan

“Tennyson and Browning are poets, and they think; but they do not feel their thought as immediately as the odour of a rose. A thought to Donne was an experience; it modified his sensibility.”

Thinking Feels Poet Rose Sensibility Donne Tennyson

Book:Selected essays

Source: Selected essays

“There Lives More Faith in Honest Doubt, Believe Me, Than Half the Creeds. - Alfred, Lord Tennyson”

Believe Faith Half Lord Doubt Honest Creeds Believe In Me Doubted Faith And Doubt Tennyson

Book:Fried Green Tomatoes, Can't Wait to Get to Heaven, and I Still Dream About You: Three Bestselling Novels

Source: Fried Green Tomatoes, Can't Wait to Get to Heaven, and I Still Dream About You: Three Bestselling Novels

“Mr. Tennyson has said that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of, but he wisely refrains from saying whether they are good or bad things.”

World Said Dream Prayer This World Bad Things Refrain Tennyson

Author:Samuel Butler

“Contemporary fantasists all bow politely to Lord Tennyson and Papa Tolkien, then step around them to go back to the original texts for inspiration--and there are a lot of those texts. We have King Arthur and his gang in English; we've got Siegfried and Brunhild in German; Charlemagne and Roland in French; El Cid in Spanish; Sigurd the Volsung in Icelandic; and assorted 'myghtiest Knights on lyfe' in a half-dozen other cultures. Without shame, we pillage medieval romance for all we're worth.”

Source: The Rivan Codex: Ancient Texts of THE BELGARIAD and THE MALLOREON

“It does, Tennyson, because there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. There’s a fine line between being assertive and being a bully. And you’re on the wrong side of both lines.”

Doe Sides Lines Fine Arrogance Bully Fine Lines Assertive Tennyson Being Assertive

Book:Bruiser

Source: Bruiser

“I get no sense from his note at all,” said Will, bounding to his feet, “except that he can quote Tennyson’s lesser poetry. Sophie, how quickly can you have Tessa ready?” “Half an hour,” said Sophie, not looking up from the dress. “Meet me in the courtyard in half an hour, then,” said Will. “I’ll wake Cyril. And be prepared to swoon at my finery.”

Said Hours Half Feet Ready Dresses Notes Prepared Be Prepared Sophie Tennyson

Author:Cassandra Clare

“Chemistry has the same quickening and suggestive influence upon the algebraist as a visit to the Royal Academy, or the old masters may be supposed to have on a Browning or a Tennyson. Indeed it seems to me that an exact homology exists between painting and poetry on the one hand and modem chemistry and modem algebra on the other. In poetry and algebra we have the pure idea elaborated and expressed through the vehicle of language, in painting and chemistry the idea enveloped in matter, depending in part on manual processes and the resources of art for its due manifestation.”

“Lonnie says it doesn't take long to write a song if you're stricken with a severe case of the Tennysons. He wasn't necessarily talking about a chart-climber.”

Ifs Writing Long Song Talking Cases Songwriting Severe Climbers Tennyson

Book:Baja Oklahoma

Source: Baja Oklahoma

“The kind of poetry to avoid in the pretty-pretty kind that pleased our grandmothers, the kind that Longfellow and Tennyson, good poets at their best, wrote at their worst.”

Kind Worst Poet Grandmother Tennyson

Author:Clifton Fadiman

“Do you know, a horrible thing has happened to me. I have begun to doubt Tennyson.”

Knows Doubt Happened Horrible Do You Know Horrible Things Tennyson

Book:Selected Letters

Source: Selected Letters

“If there is one word that describes the meaning of character, it is the word honor. Without honor, civilization would not long exist. Without honor, there could be no dependable contracts, no lasting marriages, no trust or happiness. What does the word honor mean to you? To me, honor is summarized in this expression by the poet Tennyson, "Man's word [of honor] is God in man."”

Ifs Men Mean Long Doe Character Happiness Trust Poet Expression Honor Civilization Lasting Contracts One Word Dependable Lasting Marriage No Trust Tennyson

Author:Ezra Taft Benson

“Home they brought her warrior dead: She nor swooned, nor uttered cry: All her maidens, watching, said, 'She must weep or she will die.' Then they praised him, soft and low, Called him worthy to be loved, Truest friend and noblest foe; Yet she neither spoke nor moved. Stole a maiden from her place, Lightly to the warrior stepped, Took the face-cloth from the face; Yet she neither moved nor wept. Rose a nurse of ninety years, Set his child upon her knee- Like summer tempest came her tears- 'Sweet my child, I live for thee.' -Alfred Lord Tennyson”

Years Children Said Home Faces Dies Lord Cry Tears Sweet Summer Lows Moved Rose Worthy Warrior Thee My Children Knees Spokes Nurse Foe Ninety Truest Tempest Maidens Tennyson

Author:Colleen Houck

“The little bee returns with evening's gloom, To join her comrades in the braided hive, Where, housed beside their might honey-comb, They dream their polity shall long survive. Charles Tennyson Turner - A Summer Night in the Bee Hive The happiness of the bee & the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that & to wonder at it.”

Knows Men Littles Long Dream Might Night Wonder Return Summer Evening Honey Bees Gloom Comrade Dolphins Combs Hives Turner Summer Nights Tennyson Little Bee

Author:Jacques Yves Cousteau

“Tennyson seems to be the patron saint of the wishy washies, which is perhaps why I admire him so much, not only as a poet, but as a man.”

Men Seems Poet Saint Admire Patron Tennyson

Author:A. N. Wilson

“Prayer works in the mind as a healing force. It calms the patient, enlightens the physician, guides the surgeon, and it often victoriously applies the power of the spirit when all seems lost. It proves, over and over again, the truth of Tennyson's words: "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." Prayer puts us on God's side. It aligns us with life's higher purposes, aims, and ideals. Prayer is dedicating our thought, feeling and action to the expression of goodness. It is to become like a window through which the light of God shines.”