Lord Alfred Tennyson

In Memoriam A. H. H. Obiit: 124. That Which We Dare Invoke

That which we dare invoke to bless;
       Our dearest faith; our ghastliest doubt;
       He, They, One, All; within, without;
   The Power in darkness whom we guess;
   I found Him not in world or sun,
       Or eagle’s wing, or insect’s eye;
       Nor thro’ the questions men may try,
   The petty cobwebs we have spun:
   If e’er when faith had fall’n asleep,
      I heard a voice, “Believe no more,”
      And heard an ever-breaking shore
  That tumbled in the Godless deep,
 
  A warmth within the breast would melt
      The freezing reason’s colder part,
      And like a man in wrath the heart
  Stood up and answer’d, “I have felt.”
 
  No, like a child in doubt and fear:
      But that blind clamour made me wise;
      Then was I as a child that cries,
  But crying, knows his father near;
 
  And what I am beheld again
      What is, and no man understands;
      And out of darkness came the hands
  That reach thro’ nature, moulding men.
Other works by Lord Alfred Tennyson...



Top