Lord Tennyson's Elfland

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), or the First Baron Tennyson of Aldworth (Sussex, UK and Freshwater in the Isle of Wight - title created in 1884) was poet laureate of the United Kingdom. Lord Tennyson was, and still remains, one of the most popular and beloved poets in the English language.

If you're not sure you know about Lord Tennyson at all, this may be so, but you probably still use or have heard of phrased coined by the Baron:

• Knowledge comes/but Wisdom lingers
• 'Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all
• Authority forgets a dying king
• A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies
• He makes no friends who never made a foe

Lord Tennyson wrote a significant amount of poetry. Below is Tennyson's poem, "The Spendor Falls" - a powerful, sublime poem about powers of nature and myth enabling us to experience vibrantly wilder, stranger things beyond our normal experiences. In this poem, he mentions "Elfland." This land of Elves is, of course, in the distance but the poet can hear the horns of Elfland calling and nature answering back. This is a wonderful poem which sets mood and stirs the emotions and contains a high degree of audio prompts.


The Splendour Falls


The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying
Blow, bugle; answers, echoes, dying, dying, dying.


O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying;
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O love, they die in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill or field or river;
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow forever and forever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying,dying


by Alfred Lord Tennyson