Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 120 by ALFRED TENNYSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: I TRUST I HAVE NOT WASTED BREATH
Last Line: BUT I WAS BORN TO OTHER THINGS.
Subject(s): HALLAM, ARTHUR HENRY (1811-1833); DEATH; MOURNING; FRIENDSHIP;
I trust I have not wasted breath:
I think we are not wholly brain,
Magnetic mockeries; not in vain,
Like Paul with beasts, I fought with Death;

Not only cunning casts in clay:
Let Science prove we are, and then
What matters Science unto men,
At least to me? I would not stay.

Let him, the wiser man who springs
Hereafter, up from childhood shape
His action like the greater ape,
But I was born to other things.



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