In Memoriam A. H. H. · Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Chapter 60: LX

Tho’ if an eye that’s downward cast Could make thee somewhat blench or fail, So be my love an idle tale, And fading legend of the past;

And thou, as one that once declined, When he was little more than boy, On some unworthy heart with joy, But lives to wed an equal mind;

And breathes a novel world, the while His other passion wholly dies, Or in the light of deeper eyes Is matter for a flying smile.