Far—Far—Away by Alfred Tennyson (Poem, Summary, Paraphrase & Analysis)

 

Far—Far—Away

by Alfred Tennyson

(Poem, Summary, Paraphrase & Analysis) 

Far—far—away

Far—far—away are all her lovely charms,

Far—far—away the sound of fairy horns,

Far—far—away the splendour of her arms,

Far—far—away the light that never mourns!

 

This poem is very short—just four lines, all constructed around the repeated phrase “Far—far—away,” expressing distance and unattainable beauty.

 

Summary

A young traveler stands at the edge of a quiet landscape, gazing toward a distant kingdom. It is a place he once knew only through whispered legends and the trembling hopes of the heart—a realm where beauty is said to live in its purest form. He remembers hearing stories of her, the one whose presence filled the air with grace, like sunlight on unbroken water. She is not here, nor anywhere he can reach. She is far—far—away.

He thinks of the sounds that might drift from that distant land: delicate music, the kind that rides the wind like a procession of silver horns carried by invisible spirits. These echoes are too faint to be real, yet vivid enough to haunt the imagination—like a song you feel inside your chest more than you hear with your ears. They are far—far—away.

The traveler imagines her armor, not built for battle but shining with ceremonial light. He sees it in his mind the way a child sees stars: not simply as bright specks, but as symbols of grandeur and mystery. Her splendor is beyond the reach of dust or time. It belongs to a realm of marvels he has never touched, and perhaps never will. It is far—far—away.

And then he thinks of the light that surrounds her—its glow unlike any earthly sunrise, untouched by sorrow or evening’s shadow. It is a light that never dims, never mourns, never bends beneath grief. In that light, all things are pure and untroubled. He cannot stand in it; he can only dream of it.

So he remains where he stands, gazing toward that unreachable world. All its beauty, all its music, all its wonder—still there, still eternal—but forever beyond his reach. Always, always… far—far—away.

 

Line-by-line paraphrase

1. Far—far—away are all her lovely charms,

→ Her beautiful qualities and attractive graces are far out of reach.

 

2. Far—far—away the sound of fairy horns,

→ Even the magical music that once seemed to call from distant lands is far beyond me.

 

3. Far—far—away the splendour of her arms,

→ The shining glory and elegance of her presence (or her embrace) are distant and unreachable.

 

4. Far—far—away the light that never mourns!

→ The perfect, eternal light that never knows sadness is also far beyond my grasp.

 

Analysis

Alfred Tennyson’s “Far—far—away” is a remarkably brief poem, yet its brevity is deceptive. The poem condenses a powerful emotional atmosphere into four tightly structured lines, each orbiting the idea of beauty, idealism, and longing existing at an unreachable distance. The repetition of the phrase “Far—far—away” is not merely an insistent refrain; it becomes the core architecture of the poem, a musical tolling that evokes distance, memory, and separation. Through this stylistic device, Tennyson creates a poem of pure yearning—an evocation of the unattainable.

The poem begins by anchoring distance to beauty: “Far—far—away are all her lovely charms.” This line establishes a female presence, but it is a symbolic one rather than a specific person. The “her” might be an ideal woman, a muse, a beloved, or even an allegory of some perfect, transcendent realm such as the mythical Tir Na Nog or Camelot-like paradise. Whatever “she” represents, her loveliness is not merely absent—it is far. The double repetition of “far” suggests emotional distance, dreamlike separation, and the ache of nostalgia. In this opening line, beauty is not lost or destroyed; it simply lies beyond the speaker’s grasp. The yearning is not for restoration but for access, as though the speaker stands behind an invisible threshold.

The second line, “Far—far—away the sound of fairy horns,” deepens the poem’s atmosphere of fantasy and myth. The poem moves from visual beauty to auditory allure, invoking “fairy horns”—a sound tied to folklore, enchantment, and childlike imagination. This is the language of Arthurian myth, Celtic legend, and Romantic idealism, all traditions deeply embedded in the cultural landscape of Tennyson’s youth. The horns do not call to battle or ceremony; they are instruments of wonder. Yet they too are distant, reinforcing the sense that the magical call of youth and innocence is no longer accessible. Tennyson often framed imagination as a realm that adulthood cannot fully re-enter; that distance is emotionally painful, because the poet remembers the sound but no longer hears it clearly.

The third line, “Far—far—away the splendour of her arms,” returns to the feminine presence, but this time with a subtle shift in tone. The word “splendour” brings richness and radiance, while “her arms” can be read ambiguously. They might be literal arms—signifying the woman’s physical beauty and embrace—or metaphorical arms, like the “arms” of a kingdom or the protective sphere of divine grace. Tennyson frequently treated feminine figures as embodiments of idealized inner worlds: harmony, purity, spiritual radiance. In this line, the woman becomes a beacon of perfection, surrounded by a glow that is no longer available to the speaker. The repetition of distance has not yet created hopelessness, but it has created longing without expectation, as though the speaker stands forever outside a gate.

The final line is the poem’s most radiant and its most mournful: “Far—far—away the light that never mourns!” Here the focus shifts entirely away from the human or mythic figure toward a metaphysical light—something like heavenly illumination. The phrase “light that never mourns” suggests a realm untouched by sorrow, grief, or decay. It is an eternal brightness that never dims, never darkens, and never reflects pain. Within Romantic and Victorian contexts, such light often represents the divine, transcendence, or a spiritual realm beyond mortality. The exclamation point at the end is notable: after three quiet declarations of distance, this last one bursts with emotional intensity. The speaker is overwhelmed by the thought of what he cannot reach.

Across its four lines, Tennyson compresses a grand spiritual and emotional journey into a minimalist structure: beauty → magic → splendor → eternal light. Each step ascends in abstraction. The poem does not present a narrative, nor does it argue; it floats like a pure impression, as though the poet’s psyche briefly opens to a lost dream. The repetition of “Far—far—away” functions as both refrain and wound. It encapsulates the impossibility of reclaiming youth, imagination, and paradisal light. One can still feel, remember, and yearn—but not return.

This poem fits well within Tennyson’s lifelong artistic preoccupations. He was fascinated by the distance between the ideal and the real, between memory and experience, between earthly sorrow and transcendent peace. Much of his poetry revolves around this tension. In “Far—far—away,” the ideal is not shattered; it simply exists beyond reach. The real world is left silent, unstated, and overshadowed by what lies far away. The speaker is defined not by what he possesses, but by what he cannot possess.

Thus, “Far—far—away” becomes a crystallized form of longing—an invocation of the beautiful, magical, and eternal realms that human beings can imagine but never fully inhabit. It is a sigh of the soul, a four-line meditation on distance, yearning, and the eternal separation between human frailty and perfect light.