By Flapper Press Poetry Café:
The Flapper Press Poetry Café continues a series of articles about favorite lines of poetry and the poets who wrote them. We’re reaching out to poets, writers, and lovers of poetry to submit their favorite lines of poetry and tell us why you love them.
Check out our submission guidelines and send us your favorites!
We'll feature your submission sometime this year on our site!
This week, our submission comes from Matt Massey.
From Matt Massey:
Without the the extreme emotions of Love and Loss, we would be reduced to animal or robot. For me these lines encompass what it means to be human.
The poem "In Memoriam A. H. H." (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is an elegy for his Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of twenty-two in Vienna in 1833. One hundred and fifty years after William Congreve wrote “But say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved” in his 1700 comedy of manners The Way of the World, Tennyson refashioned the sentiment with the words:
’Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all”
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam A. H. H."
To read more about Tennyson and his poems:
Matt Massey is a physical therapist in Kansas City. Passionate about sports and physical fitness, he loves working out at the gym and anything that involves being with his family.
Presenting a wide range of poetry with a mission to promote a love and understanding of poetry for all. We welcome submissions for compelling poetry and look forward to publishing and supporting your creative endeavors. Submissions may also be considered for the Pushcart Prize. Please review our Guidelines before submitting!