In Memoriam A. H. H. Obiit Mdcccxxxiii: Part 027

Alfred Lord Tennyson

I envy not in any moods
  The captive void of noble rage,
  The linnet born within the cage,
That never knew the summer woods:

I envy not the beast that takes
  His license in the field of time,
  Unfetter’d by the sense of crime,
To whom a conscience never wakes;

Nor, what may count itself as blest,
  The heart that never plighted troth
  But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;
Nor any want-begotten rest.

I hold it true, whate’er befall;
  I feel it, when I sorrow most;
  ’Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

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