Page:Poems - Tennyson (1843) - Volume 2 of 2.djvu/142

 "I know that age to age succeeds, Blowing a noise of tongues and deeds, A dust of systems and of creeds.

"I cannot hide that some have striven, Achieving calm, to whom was given The joy that mixes man with Heaven:

"Who, rowing hard against the stream, Saw distant gates of Eden gleam, And did not dream it was a dream;

"But heard, by secret transport led, Ev'n in the charnels of the dead, The murmur of the fountain-head—

"Which did accomplish their desire, Bore and forbore, and did not tire, Like Stephen, an unquenched fire.