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Sunday, February 23, 2025

Nothing Will Die / Alfred Tennyson


Fernweh, "Late Winter - Small's Copse", 2014. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Nothing Will Die

When will the stream be aweary of flowing
        Under my eye?
When will the wind be aweary of blowing
        Over the sky?

When will the clouds be aweary of fleeting?
When will the heart be aweary of beating?
        And nature die?
Never, O, never, nothing will die;

        The stream flows,
        The wind blows,
        The cloud fleets,
        The heart beats,
            Nothing will die.

    Nothing will die;
    All things will change
    Thro’ eternity.
'    Tis the world's winter;
    Autumn and summer
    Are gone long ago.
    Earth is dry to the centre,
    But spring, a new comer,
    A spring rich and strange,
        Shall make the winds blow
        Round and round.
        Through and through,
            Here and there,
            Till the air
        And the ground
        Shall be filled with life anew.

    The world was never made;
    It will change, but it will not fade.
    So let the wind range;
            For even and morn
            Ever will be
    Thro’ eternity.
    Nothing was born;
    Nothing will die;
    All things will change.

~~
Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), 1830
from Complete Works, 1898

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

Alfred Tennyson biography

"Nothing Will Die" read by Ben W. Smith. Courtesy Ben Reads Poetry.

1 comment:

  1. This positive poem, in anticipation of springs promise of a new life, spring never fails, inspired a prayer poem of sorts George.

    DELIVER US FROM EVIL

    Long awaiting frigid still we must lament
    Sadly in the winter of our discontent

    The question being will there be or not be
    An end to this ne'er before seen winter ...

    Continues/...

    ReplyDelete