But thy strong Hours indignant work’d their wills, And beat me down and marr’d and wasted me, And tho’ they could not end me, left me maim’d To dwell in presence of immortal youth, Immortal age beside immortal youth, And all I was, in ashes. - Tithonus
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the struggle against time and the experience of aging in the presence of youth.
In this quote from Tithonus, Tennyson explores the conflict between the relentless passage of time and the eternal nature of youth. The speaker laments being worn down by the 'strong Hours' that shape and mar existence, leaving them to dwell in a state of perpetual longing as they grapple with the contrast between their mortal decline and the vibrant youth that surrounds them. It conveys a deep sense of loss and the introspective pain of recognizing one's own frailty in the face of immortality.
In practice
During a speech about life's fleeting nature at a graduation ceremony.
Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For though from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.
How many a father have I seen, A sober man, among his boys, Whose youth was full of foolish noise.
O Love! what hours were thine and mine, In lands of palm and southern pine; In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine!
Earth is dry to the centre,_x000D_ But spring, a new comer,_x000D_ A spring rich and strange,_x000D_ Shall make the winds blow_x000D_ Round and round,_x000D_ Thro' and thro',_x000D_ Here and there,_x000D_ Till the air_x000D_ And the ground_x000D_ Shall be fill'd with life anew.
O love, O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul through My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.
Gone - flitted away, Taken the stars from the night and the sun From the day! Gone, and a cloud in my heart.
We lived always in the stretch or sag of nerves, either on the crest or in the trough of waves of feeling.
It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction.
It was not the visible sun, but its invisible Creator who consecrated this day for us, when the Virgin Mother, fertile of womb and integral in her virginity, brought him forth, made visible for us, by whom, when he was invisible, she too was created. A Virgin conceiving, a Virgin bearing, a Virgin pregnant, a Virgin bringing forth, a Virgin perpetual. Why do you wonder at this, O man?
It is these black clothes," said Strange. "I am like a leftover piece of funeral, condemned to walk about the Town, frightening people into thinking of their own mortality.
Yesterday is gone and took away its tale. _x000D_ Today we must live a fresh story again.
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