Literature Network » Lord Alfred Tennyson » The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson » Moral

Moral

(No alteration since 1842.)

    1
    So, Lady Flora, take my lay,
    And if you find no moral there,
    Go, look in any glass and say,
    What moral is in being fair.
    Oh, to what uses shall we put
    The wildweed-flower that simply blows?
    And is there any moral shut
    Within the bosom of the rose?

    2
    But any man that walks the mead,
    In bud or blade, or bloom, may find,
    According as his humours lead,
    A meaning suited to his mind.
    And liberal applications lie
    In Art like Nature, dearest friend; [1]
    So 'twere to cramp its use, if I
    Should hook it to some useful end.

[Foonote 1: So Wordsworth:--

  O Reader! had you in your mind
  Such stores as silent thought can bring,
  O gentle Reader! you would find
  A tale in everything.

--'Simon Lee'.]

Literature Network » Lord Alfred Tennyson » The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson » Moral