Will
Will - meaning Summary
Strength of the Will
Tennyson contrasts two responses to hardship: a resolute will that endures pain without being broken, pictured as a promontory meeting the ocean, and a weakened will that degrades through repeated faults, pictured as a halting wanderer in scorching sand. The poem argues that inner firmness preserves moral integrity and resists external chaos, while erosion of will through small or repeated failings leads to exhaustion, isolation, and diminished hope.
Read Complete Analyses1 O well for him whose will is strong! He suffers, but he will not suffer long; He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong: For him nor moves the loud world's random mock, Nor all Calamity's hugest waves confound, Who seems a promontory of rock, That, compass'd round with turbulent sound, In middle ocean meets the surging shock, Tempest-buffeted, citadel-crown'd. 2 But ill for him who, bettering not with time, Corrupts the strength of heaven-descended Will, And ever weaker grows thro' acted crime, Or seeming-genial venial fault, Recurring and suggesting still! He seems as one whose footsteps halt, Toiling in immeasurable sand, And o'er a weary sultry land, Far beneath a blazing vault, Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill, The city sparkles like a grain of salt.
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