How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
O Sorrow, cruel fellowship
O Priestess in the vaults of Death (77-78)
Tennyson personifies Sorrow and uses apostrophe to address her. We're not meant to think she's actually listening. Sorrow offers "cruel fellowship," which means the double-edged sword of remembrance but also plenty of pain.
Quote #2
Can calm despair and wild unrest
Be tenants of a single breast? (342-343)
How are "calm despair" and "wild unrest" both aspects of grief? What do you think "calm despair" looks like, and how is it different from "wild unrest"?
Quote #3
My lighter moods are like to these,
That out of words a comfort win;
But there are other griefs within,
And tears that at their fountain freeze; (425-428)
Tennyson has just dropped the analogy of how his "little griefs" are like servants whose master has just died. They can take comfort in speaking about their beloved departed master and can achieve some release through crying. Here, though, Tennyson says that while his lighter moods are like that, there's other types of grief deep inside him that cause his tears to freeze up and remain unshed.
Quote #4
'Tis better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all. (1595-1596)
Experiencing the kind of deep friendship (bromance?) that existed between Tennyson and Arthur makes the pain he's going through now worth it. Do you agree?
Quote #5
Yet less of sorrow lives in me
For days of happy commune dead;
Less yearning for the friendship fled,
Than some strong bond which is to be. (2597-2500)
The speaker is starting to get over his grief. He now is less sad about his lost friendship than he is yearning for a new bond that might come along. So, this experience hasn't totally put him off of friendship.
Quote #6
Like Paul with beasts, I fought with Death. (2556)
This is a reference to 1 Corinthians 15:32 in the Bible. Like Paul, Tennyson has fought against something savage. He's fought death through struggling to overcome, and make sense of, his grief.