In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 27

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I envy not in any moods

         The captive void of noble rage,

         The linnet born within the cage,

That never knew the summer woods:

 

I envy not the beast that takes

         His license in the field of time,

         Unfetter’d by the sense of crime,

To whom a conscience never wakes;

 

Nor, what may count itself as blest,

         The heart that never plighted troth

         But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;

Nor any want-begotten rest.

 

I hold it true, whate’er befall;

         I feel it, when I sorrow most;

         ‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.