Spotlight Poetry – Choric Song – A Poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson

© Rachel Lin van der Hulst, Flowers and Pink Roses, 2021

Choric Song 1 & 2 by Alfred Lord Tennyson

From The Lotus-eaters

I
There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tir’d eyelids upon tir’d eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.
Here are cool mosses deep,
And thro’ the moss the ivies creep,
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.”

II
Why are we weigh’d upon with heaviness,
And utterly consumed with sharp distress,
While all things else have rest from weariness?
All things have rest: why should we toil alone,
We only toil, who are the first of things,
And make perpetual moan,
Still from one sorrow to another thrown:
Nor ever fold our wings,
And cease from wanderings,
Nor steep our brows in slumber’s holy balm;
Nor harken what the inner spirit sings,
“There is no joy but calm!”
Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things?

Poem Attribution © Alfred Lord Tennyson, Choric Song, (From The Lotus-eaters

Source Attribution https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45364/the-lotos-eaters

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Painting Attribution © Rachel Lin van der Hulst, Flowers and Pink Roses, 2021

Source Attribution https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-RL-Art-NZ-Colourful-Flowers-and-Pink-Roses/1870507/8816781/view

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