These moving verses introduce a lengthy requiem written by Alfred Lord Tennyson over a period of seventeen years, in memory of his Cambridge friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of cerebral hemorrhage at age 22. The original title of the poem was “The Way of the Soul,” and it so comforted Queen Victoria after the death of Prince Albert that she requested a meeting with Tennyson—who would later serve the longest tenure as Poet Laureate of his country. Canto 27 contains the most frequently quoted lines of the work: “I hold it true, whate’er befall;/ I feel it when I sorrow most;/ ‘Tis better to have loved and lost/ Than never to have loved at all.”
Goethe said that everyone should read a little poetry and see a fine picture every day, to prevent worldly cares from overcoming our sense of the beautiful. Get your daily dose of beauty at Wrestle with the Angel.