Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

VI. Lovers

“Not at all, or all in all”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

IN Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,

Faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers;

Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.

It is the little rift within the lute,

That by and by will make the music mute,

And ever widening slowly silence all.

The little rift within the lover’s lute

Or little pitted speck in garnered fruit,

That rotting inward, slowly molders all.

It is not worth the keeping: let it go:

But shall it? answer, darling, answer, no.

And trust me not at all or all in all.