Thy voice is on the rolling air;
I hear thee where the waters run;
Thou standest in the rising sun,
And in the setting thou art fair.


What art thou then? I cannot guess;
But tho’ I seem in star and flower
To feel thee some diffusive power,
I do not therefore love thee less:


My love involves the love before;
My love is vaster passion now;
Tho’ mix’d with God and Nature thou,
I seem to love thee more and more.


Far off thou art, but ever nigh;
I have thee still, and I rejoice;
I prosper, circled with thy voice;
I shall not lose thee tho’ I die.

The first stanza here is very powerful. Hallam stands in the rising sun! He has become a diffusive power, mixed with God and nature, and loved even more but still loved as Hallam. Tennyson realises the paradoxes of this love and embraces them.

The unity of this vision is beyond me: I love my daughter, I love the natural world, and I love God. These are still distinctive loves for me; I may link them but not confuse them.