Alfred Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson was the human poet who penned All Things Will Die which was mulled over by Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones. (AUDIO: Lost Souls) Another poem by Tennyson was Ulysses, which the sentient warp ship Tartarus anachronistically quoted during her encounter with the Fifth Doctor in the 1st century BC. The Doctor recognised the anachronistic poem, and surmised she must have absorbed it when cross-referencing Earth culture. (AUDIO: Tartarus)

"Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are…

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

- Tartarus quoting Ulysses