Poems (Tennyson, 1833)/To —, with the following Poem
For other versions of this work, see To — (Tennyson, 2).
TO
WITH THE FOLLOWING POEM.
I send you, Friend, a sort of allegory,(You are an artist and will understandIts many lesser meanings) of a soul,A sinful soul possessed of many gifts,A spacious garden full of flowering weeds,A glorious Devil, large in heart and brain,That did love Beauty only, (Beauty seen In all varieties of mould and mind)And Knowledge for its beauty; or if Good,Good only for its beauty, seeing notThat Beauty, Good, and Knowledge, are three sistersThat doat upon each other, friends to man, Living together under the same roof,And never can be sundered without tears.And he that shuts Love out, in turn shall beShut out from Love, and on her threshold lieHowling in outer darkness. Not for thisWas common clay ta'en from the common earth,Moulded by God, and tempered with the tearsOf angels to the perfect shape of man.
