Happy birthday, Tennyson

Winslow Homer

"Moonlight"

Today is the birthday of the Victorian poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson (1806-1892.) During his lifetime he was one of the most famous people in England, and many of his phrases became common sayings in the English language:

"Nature, red in tooth and claw"
"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all"
 "Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die"
"My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure"
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield"
 "Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers"
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new"

Who knew?
Here's a sweet and sad poem called "Tears, Idle Tears."

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more.    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 love below the verge; So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.    Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds To dying ears, when unto dying eyes The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.    Dear as remembered kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd On lips that are for others; deep as love, Deep as first love, and wild with all regret; O Death in Life, the days that are no more! Alfred, Lord Tennyson