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Lord Alfred Tennyson
(6 Aug 1809 - 6 Oct 1892)
English poet who succeeded William Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850, which position he held for 42 years. His famous works include The Charge of the Light Brigade.
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Science Quotes by Lord Alfred Tennyson (25 quotes)
… the tender ash / Delays to clothe herself when all the woods are green.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
From 'O Swallow, Swallow, Flying South', in The Princess; A Medley (1847), 70.
And this grey spirit yearning in desire, To follow knowledge like a sinking star, beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
From poem, 'Ulysses', collected in The Complete Poetical Works of Tennyson (1909), Vol. 2, 89.
Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life; ...
'So careful of the type', but no.
From scarped cliff and quarried stone
She cries, 'A thousand types are gone:
I care for nothing, all shall go' ...
Man, her last work, who seemed so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who rolled the psalm to wintry skies,
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law—
Tho’ Nature red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against his creed...
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life; ...
'So careful of the type', but no.
From scarped cliff and quarried stone
She cries, 'A thousand types are gone:
I care for nothing, all shall go' ...
Man, her last work, who seemed so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who rolled the psalm to wintry skies,
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law—
Tho’ Nature red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against his creed...
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850), Cantos 56-57. Collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 176.
Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life…
So careful of the type, but no.
From scarped cliff and quarried stone
She cries, “A thousand types are gone;
I care for nothing, all shall go.”
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life…
So careful of the type, but no.
From scarped cliff and quarried stone
She cries, “A thousand types are gone;
I care for nothing, all shall go.”
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
From poem, 'In Memoriam A.H.H.' written between 1833-50, and first published anonymously in 1850. Collected in Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson (1860), Vol.2, 64.
Come, my friends,
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
From poem, 'Ulysses', collected in Walter James Turner (ed.), Great Names: Being an Anthology of English & American Literature from Chaucer to Francis Thompson (1926), 198.
Evolution ever climbing after some ideal good,
And Reversion ever dragging Evolution in the mud.
And Reversion ever dragging Evolution in the mud.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
'Locksley Hall Sixty Years After' (1886), collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 522.
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;—
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
I pluck you out of the crannies;—
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
In The Holy Grail: and Other Poems (1870), 165.
Forward, forward let us range,
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
'Locksley Hall' (1842), collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 94.
Here about the beach I wandered, nourishing a youth sublime
With the fairy tales of science, and the long result of Time.
With the fairy tales of science, and the long result of Time.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
'Locksley Hall' (1842), collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 90.
I [Man] the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
In 'Locksley Hall', Poems (1842), Vol. 1, 110.
I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.…
And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river;
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.…
And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river;
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
From 'Song of the Brook' (1842), collected in The Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson (1873), 142.
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
'Locksley Hall' (1842), collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 93.
Like truths of Science waiting to be caught—
Catch me who can…
Catch me who can…
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
In poem, 'The Golden Year', collected in The Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson (1861), 180.
Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts.
And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts.
Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest,
Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the west.
Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro’ the mellow shade.
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid.
And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts.
Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest,
Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the west.
Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro’ the mellow shade.
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
From 'Locksley Hall' (1842), collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 90.
Mastering the lawless science of our law,—
That codeless myriad of precedent,
That wilderness of single instances.
That codeless myriad of precedent,
That wilderness of single instances.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
'Aylmer’s Field.' The Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate (1869), 341.
Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new,
That which they have done but earnest of the things which they shall do.
That which they have done but earnest of the things which they shall do.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
Stanza in poem 'Locksley Hall' (1842) in The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson (1880), 64.
Nature, red in tooth and claw.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850), Canto 56. Collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 176.
Science grows and Beauty dwindles.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
'Locksley Hall Sixty Years After' (1886), collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 523.
Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
In poem, 'Locksley Hall', collected in Poems by Alfred Tennyson (1842), Vol. 1, 105.
Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point. ...
Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.…
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers…
Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.…
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers…
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
In poem, 'Locksley Hall', collected in Poems by Alfred Tennyson (1842), Vol. 1, 105-106.
There rolls the deep where grew the tree.
O earth, what changes hast thou seen!
There where the long street roars, hath been
The stillness of the central sea.
The hills are shadows, and they flow
From form to form, and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands,
Like clouds they shape themselves and go.
O earth, what changes hast thou seen!
There where the long street roars, hath been
The stillness of the central sea.
The hills are shadows, and they flow
From form to form, and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands,
Like clouds they shape themselves and go.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850), canto 123. Collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 194.
They say,
The solid earth whereon we tread
In tracts of fluent heat began,
And grew to seeming-random forms,
The seeming prey of cyclic storms,
Till at the last arose the Man. …
The solid earth whereon we tread
In tracts of fluent heat began,
And grew to seeming-random forms,
The seeming prey of cyclic storms,
Till at the last arose the Man. …
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
From poem, 'In Memoriam A.H.H.' written between 1833-50, and first published anonymously in 1850. Collected in Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson (1860), Vol.2, 147.
This world was once a fluid haze of light,
Till toward the centre set the starry tides,
And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast
The planets: then the monster, then the man.
Till toward the centre set the starry tides,
And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast
The planets: then the monster, then the man.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
&039;The Princess&039; (1847), part 2, collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 124.
When I dipt into the future far as human eye could see;
Saw the Vision of the World, and all the wonders that would be.
Saw the Vision of the World, and all the wonders that would be.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
'Locksley Hall' (1842), collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 93.
Who loves not knowledge? Who shall rail
Against her beauty? May she mix
With men and prosper! Who shall fix
Her pillars? Let her work prevail.
Against her beauty? May she mix
With men and prosper! Who shall fix
Her pillars? Let her work prevail.
— Lord Alfred Tennyson
From In Memoriam (1850), Canto CXI, collected in The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 192.
Quotes by others about Lord Alfred Tennyson (1)
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 modern chemistry and modern 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.
Attributed.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
