Lyric Poem · Nature

A Farewell

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Reading room

1Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,

2 Thy tribute wave deliver:

3No more by thee my steps shall be,

4 For ever and for ever.

5Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,

6 A rivulet then a river:

7Nowhere by thee my steps shall be

8 For ever and for ever.

9But here will sigh thine alder tree

10 And here thine aspen shiver;

11And here by thee will hum the bee,

12 For ever and for ever.

13A thousand suns will stream on thee,

14 A thousand moons will quiver;

15But not by thee my steps shall be,

16 For ever and for ever.

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“A Farewell” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson — quilloak.com/poems/a-farewell

Quick facts

Poem: A Farewell
Poet: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Nature, Sad

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 16 lines · 4 quatrains
Line length: Lines run 7-8 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Refrain: “For ever and for ever.”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892
Source record: PoetryDBA Farewell by alfred-lord-tennyson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 15fe949840235d1c…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Nature Sad

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