Skip to content
Linespedia

By An Evolutionist

Topics: classic

The Lord let the house of a brute to the soul of a man, And the man said, Am I your debtor? And the LordNot yet; but make it as clean as you can, And then I will let you a better. I. If my body come from brutes, my soul uncertain or a fable, Why not bask amid the senses while the sun of morning shines, I, the finer brute rejoicing in my hounds, and in my stable, Youth and health, and birth and wealth, and choice of women and of wines? II. What hast thou done for me, grim Old Age, save breaking my bones on the rack? Would I had past in the morning that looks so bright from afar! OLD AGE Done for thee? starved the wild beast that was linkt with thee eighty years back. Less weight now for the ladder-of-heaven that hangs on a star. I. If my body come from brutes, tho somewhat finer than their own, I am heir, and this my kingdom. Shall the royal voice be mute? No, but if the rebel subject seek to drag me from the throne, Hold the sceptre, Human Soul, and rule thy province of the brute. II. I have climbd to the snows of Age, and I gaze at a field in the Past. Where I sank with the body at times in the sloughs of a low desire, But I hear no yelp of the beast, and the Man is quiet at last, As he stands on the heights of his life with a glimpse of a height that is higher.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"The Lord let the house of a brute to the soul of a man,..."

"By An Evolutionist" is a quintessential example of Alfred Lord Tennyson's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"I. Spring-flowers! While you still delay to take Your leave of town, Our elm-trees ruddy-hearted blossom-flake Is fluttering down. II. B"

"1851 Farewell, Macready, since to-night we part; Full-handed thunders often have confessed Thy power, well-used to move the public breast. We tha"

"NAY, no mander (2) o use to be callin im Ro, Ro, Ro, Fur the dogs ston-deaf, an es blind, e can naither Stan nor go. But I means fur"

"Well, you shall have that song which Leonard wrote: It was last summer on a tour in Wales: Old James was with me: we that day had been Up Snowdon;"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"I. Spring-flowers! While you still delay to take ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.