Poems (Tennyson, 1843)/Volume 1/A Character

by Alfred Tennyson

For other versions of this work, see A Character (Tennyson).

A CHARACTER.

i.

With a half-glance upon the sky

At night he said, "The wanderings
Of this most intricate Universe
Teach me the nothingness of things."
Yet could not all creation pierce
Beyond the bottom of his eye.

ii.

He spake of beauty: that the dull

Saw no divinity in grass,
Life in dead stones, or spirit in air;
Then looking as 'twere in a glass,
He smooth'd his chin and sleek'd his hair,
And said the earth was beautiful.

iii.

He spake of virtue: not the gods

More purely, when the wish to charm
Pallas and Juno sitting by:
And with a sweeping of the arm,
And a lack-lustre dead-blue eye,
Devolved his rounded periods.

iv.

Most delicately hour by hour

He canvass'd human mysteries,
And trod on silk, as if the winds
Blew his own praises in his eyes,
And stood aloof from other minds
In impotence of fancied power.

v.

With lips depress'd as he were meek,

Himself unto himself he sold:
Upon himself himself did feed:
Quiet, dispassionate, and cold,
And other than his form of creed,
With chisell'd features clear and sleek.