Send some poetry to a friend - the love thought that counts!
 
Poems for the People   -  Poems by the People

Ode Sung At The Opening Of The International Exhibition
by Lord Alfred Tennyson

English poet and dramatist, generally considered to be the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. Tennyson's major works include his Poems. Chiefly Lyrical (1830); his two volume work, again entitled Poems, of 1842 which includes, alongside rewritten earlier works, the dramatic monologue 'Ulysses', 'Morte d'Arthur' and 'Sir Galahad' - his first pieces dealing with Arthurian legend, 'Locksley Hall' and 'Break, Break, Break'; the novella Princess: a Medly (1847) and his In Memorium A.H.H. (1850), a tribute to his deceased friend Arthur Hallam.

Other major works, this time from Tennyson's second period of creative out put after being made poet laureate, include Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington (1852), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854) and Maud (1855), what Tennyson referred to as his "monodrama".

He also wrote, in later years, a number of works centred on Arthurian legends, including The Idylls of the King (1859), The Holy Grail and Other Poems (1870) and Gareth and Lynette (1872), as well as some poetic dramas: Queen Mary (1875), Harold (1877), Becket (1884) and, his only prose work, The Promise of May (produced at the Globe Theatre in November 1882). Other important works are Despair (1881), Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), Demeter and Other Poems (1889) and his famous Crossing the Bar (1889). At Alfred's request, his poem "Crossing the Bar," an epitaph of sorts, is always printed last in any collection of his works (our thanks to visitor Cynthia R. for reminding Passions of this oversight).


Enoch Arden &c.
Ode Sung At The Opening Of The International Exhibition
by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Uplift a thousand voices full and sweet,
  In this wide hall with earth's inventions stored,
  And praise th' invisible universal Lord,
Who lets once more in peace the nations meet,
  Where Science, Art, and Labor have outpour'd
Their myriad horns of plenty at our feet.

O silent father of our Kings to be
Mourn'd in this golden hour of jubilee,
For this, for all, we weep our thanks to thee!

    The world-compelling plan was thine,
    And, lo! the long laborious miles
    Of Palace; lo! the giant aisles,
    Rich in model and design;
    Harvest-tool and husbandry,
    Loom and wheel and engin'ry,
    Secrets of the sullen mine,
    Steel and gold, and corn and wine,
    Fabric rough, or Fairy fine,
    Sunny tokens of the Line,
    Polar marvels, and a feast
    Of wonder, out of West and East,
    And shapes and hues of Part divine!
    All of beauty, all of use,
    That one fair planet can produce.
      Brought from under every star,
    Blown from over every main,
    And mixt, as life is mixt with pain,
      The works of peace with works of war.

O ye, the wise who think, the wise who reign,
From growing commerce loose her latest chain,
And let the fair white-winged peacemaker fly
To happy havens under all the sky,
And mix the seasons and the golden hours,
Till each man finds his own in all men's good,
And all men work in noble brotherhood,
Breaking their mailed fleets and armed towers,
And ruling by obeying Nature's powers,
And gathering all the fruits of peace and crown'd with
      all her flowers.


pipHome | Top | All Poems | About | FAQ | Your Privacy | Contact Us

All poetry is copyright by the individual authors.
All other material on this web site, unless otherwise noted, is
Copyright 1998-2021 by Ron Carnell and Passions in Poetry.
- netpoets 2.11.1 -