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Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

The Princess: A Medley: Home they Brought her Warrior Dead

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Home they brought her warrior dead:

She nor swoon'd nor utter'd cry:

All her maidens, watching, said,

"She must weep or she will die."

Then they praised him, soft and low,

Call'd him worthy to be loved,

Truest friend and noblest foe;

Yet she neither spoke nor moved.

Stole a maiden from her place,

Lightly to the warrior stepped,

Took the face-cloth from the face;

Yet she neither moved nor wept.

Rose a nurse of ninety years,

Set his child upon her knee —

Like summer tempest came her tears —

"Sweet my child, I live for thee."

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Quick facts

Poem
The Princess: A Medley: Home they Brought her Warrior Dead
Poet
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Length
16 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Death & Loss, Sad, Nature

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 · 2 stanzas of 4–12 lines
Line length
Mostly 7-syllable lines.

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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
PoetryDBThe Princess: A Medley: Home they Brought her Warrior Dead 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 bb45b303b5243919
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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