Quotes from work
The Day-Dream

"The Day-Dream" is a poem written by Alfred Tennyson that was published in 1842. It was an expanded version of his 1830 poem "The Sleeping Beauty". It was further altered in 1848 for a dramatic performance for a private gathering with Tennyson starring as the Prince. The Day-Dream discusses the nature of sleeping and of dreaming, especially in relation to individuals that would want to escape from reality. The poem also compares the act of poetry with dreaming and asserts that the two are the same.


Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“The many fail: the one succeeds.”

The Arrival, st. 2
The Day-Dream (1842)
Context: The bodies and the bones of those
That strove in other days to pass,
Are wither'd in the thorny close,
Or scatter'd blanching on the grass.
He gazes on the silent dead:
"They perish'd in their daring deeds."
This proverb flashes thro' his head,
"The many fail: the one succeeds."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“Across the hills, and far away
Beyond their utmost purple rim,
And deep into the dying day
The happy princess follow'd him.”

The Departure, st. 1
The Day-Dream (1842)
Context: And on her lover's arm she leant,
And round her waist she felt it fold,
And far across the hills they went
In that new world which is the old:
Across the hills, and far away
Beyond their utmost purple rim,
And deep into the dying day
The happy princess follow'd him.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“Oh, to what uses shall we put
The wildweed-flower that simply blows?
And is there any moral shut
Within the bosom of the rose?”

Moral, st. 1
The Day-Dream (1842)
Context: So, Lady Flora, take my lay,
And if you find no moral there,
Go, look in any glass and say,
What moral is in being fair.
Oh, to what uses shall we put
The wildweed-flower that simply blows?
And is there any moral shut
Within the bosom of the rose?

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo
Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

Similar authors

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo
Alfred, Lord Tennyson 213
British poet laureate 1809–1892
Robert Southey photo
Robert Southey 51
British poet
Elizabeth Barrett Browning photo
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 88
English poet, author
George Gordon Byron photo
George Gordon Byron 227
English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
Charles Baudelaire photo
Charles Baudelaire 133
French poet
Mikhail Lermontov photo
Mikhail Lermontov 34
Russian writer, poet and painter
Aleksandr Pushkin photo
Aleksandr Pushkin 33
Russian poet
Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo
Henri-Frédéric Amiel 50
Swiss philosopher and poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 202
American poet
Robert Browning photo
Robert Browning 179
English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era