Poems, Chiefly Lyrical/A Character
For other versions of this work, see A Character (Tennyson).
A CHARACTER.
I.With a half-glance upon the skyAt night he said, "The wanderingsOf this most intricate universeTeach me the nothingness of things."Yet could not all creation pierceBeyond the bottom of his eye.
II.He spake of beauty: that the dullSaw no divinity in grass,Life in dead stones, or spirit in air;Then looking as 'twere in a glass,He smoothed his chin and sleeked his hair,And said the earth was beautiful.
III.He spake of virtue: not the godsMore purely, when they wish to charmPallas and Juno sitting by:And with a sweeping of the arm,And a lacklustre deadblue eye,Devolved his rounded periods.
IV.Most delicately hour by hourHe canvassed human mysteries,And trod on silk, as if the windsBlew his own praises in his eyes,And stood aloof from other mindsIn impotence of fancied power.
V.With lips depressed as he were meek,Himself unto himself he sold:Upon himself himself did feed:Quiet, dispassionate, and cold,And other than his form of creed,With chiselled features clear and sleek.