HOPE BEYOND
At the age of 80, the well-known poet Alfred Lord Tennyson was being taken from his summer home at Aldworth, England, to his winter residence on the Isle of Wight. As the boat left the mainland and crossed the strait, Tennyson heard a moaning sound caused by the fierce beating of the waves against a large sandbar. He recognized this as a prelude to a coming storm. A few days later his health began to fail, and a nurse was hired to stay with him. In conversing with him she said quietly, “Sir, you’ve composed a great many poems, but few hymns. I wish you’d write one now on your sickbed. I’m sure it would help and comfort other poor sufferers.” The next morning Tennyson handed her a scrap of paper, saying, “I followed your suggestion and wrote these verses during the night.” The poem proved to be a masterpiece filled with imagery about the sea, the emotions related to dying which…
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