Lyric Poem · Love

O Beauty, Passing Beauty!

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

O beauty, passing beauty! Sweetest sweet!

How can thou let me waste my youth in sighs?

I only ask to sit beside thy feet.

Thou knowest I dare not look into thine eyes.

Might I but kiss thy hand! I dare not fold

My arms about thee — scarcely dare to speak.

And nothing seems to me so wild and bold,

As with one kiss to touch thy blessed cheek.

Methinks if I should kiss thee, no control

Within the thrilling brain could keep afloat

The subtle spirit. Even while I spoke,

The bare word "kiss" hath made my inner soul

To tremble like a lute string, ere the note

Hath melted in the silence that it broke.

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“O Beauty, Passing Beauty!” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson — quilloak.com/poems/o-beauty-passing-beauty

Quick facts

Poem: O Beauty, Passing Beauty!
Poet: Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Length: 14 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love, Sad, Childhood

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: 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
Line length: Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).

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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: PoetryDBO Beauty, Passing Beauty! 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 46c518be7297553e…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Love Sad Childhood

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