The hope still lives

And may it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now:

"I am a part of all that I have met
To [Tho] much is taken, much abides
That which we are, we are --
One equal temper of heroic hearts
Strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

Ted Kennedy, at the Democratic Convention 1980.

And here, his peroration as delivered last night at the 2008 Convention in Denver in advocacy of Barack Obama, and ever resonant for the better angels of America:

The work begins anew, the hope rises again, and the dream lives on.

Ahh, Teddy.