Thank you for the quote. Here is the verse in full…
In Memoriam AHH, Tennyson
I envy not in any moods
The captive void of noble rage,
The linnet born within the cage,
That never knew the summer woods:
I envy not the beast that takes
His license in the field of time,
Unfetter'd by the sense of crime,
To whom a conscience never wakes;
Nor, what may count itself as blest,
The heart that never plighted troth
But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;
Nor any want-begotten rest.
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
tennyson had another immortal line that I reach for in times like this: "But oh for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still"
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45318/break-break-bre...
I keep coming back to In Memoriam AHH way more often than I would expect; it’s really a great piece of poetry.