Alfred Lord Tennyson

Once again I am surprised that the peom related to a quote says way more than the quote has come to mean. I had always thought that this quote meant exactly what it says. That it is better to have known love and lost it than to never have experienced love at all.

When I read the whole peom in full, I take from it that it is more about the sadness of those things that have been denied their true existance. That living truly and experiencing that loss is better than never have had the true experience in the first place.

What say you? As art, what is your take on this famous poem?

In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 27

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I envy not in any moods
The captive void of noble rage,
The linnet born within the cage,
That never knew the summer woods:

I envy not the beast that takes
His license in the field of time,
Unfetter’d by the sense of crime,
To whom a conscience never wakes;

Nor, what may count itself as blest,
The heart that never plighted troth
But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;
Nor any want-begotten rest.

I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.