Introduction

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

            Tennyson’s In Memoriam was written as an elegy in the memory of Tennyson’s friend and prospective brother-in-law, Arthur Hallam, who died suddenly in 1833 while traveling in Vienna. The poem is written in 133 parts that contain a very broad range of emotions, topics and imagery, although the poem as a whole centers on grief over Hallam’s death. It was written over a period of seventeen years and went through a lengthy revision process before its publication in 1850, when it became immensely popular with both the general public and critics (“In Memoriam”). A British newspaper printed in 1851 praised Tennyson as “a bard presenting us but with his choicest thoughts, and those carefully, and at times elaborately, worked.  He has not . . . sent to the world’s tribunal his most careless versifyings, but . . . has suppressed all that a polished and fastidious taste and the most correct judgement could object to.” (“Literary Notices”) Decades later, T.S. Eliot also gave high praise, saying that in In Memoriam “Tennyson finds full expression” and his “technical competence is everywhere masterly and satisfying” (Eliot 242). This long-lasting popularity was due both to Tennyson’s skill as a poet and his ability to touch on enduring themes such as grief, faith, doubt, and comprehending the passage of time.

Although In Memoriam is structured as an elegy, it went beyond the kinds of elegies that Tennyson would have read from Romantic writers such as Percy Shelley (Sacks 392). Sacks claims that Tennyson’s elegy diverges from the older elegies not because of a lack of familiarity with them but because of the new Victorian views of religion. Throughout In Memoriam, Tennyson discusses his personal crisis of faith, reflecting the crisis of faith happening on a much larger scale during the Victorian period that began with the publication of Charles Lyell’s  Principles of Geology in 1833 (Black 197). Lyell’s book challenged the traditional Biblical account of the creation of the world and in turn caused doubts about the Bible as a whole (197). Although Tennyson maintains an attitude of faith throughout the entire poem, there are moments when he shows doubts. Tennyson never meant for his poem to be limited to his own experience, but instead he “claimed that the poem is actually the voice of all humanity, and not his own.” (“In Memoriam”) Although he drew heavily on his own experience with losing a close friend, during the revision process Tennyson worked to make the poem more generally applicable. In later drafts he removed some of the more specific references to Arthur Hallam and changed many of the pronouns to refer to him less directly (Shatto 4). By doing so, he opened up In Memoriam to be more applicable to everyone by being representative of human experience as a whole.

Tennyson also made In Memoriam applicable to a wide range of people because of the wide range of subject matter and imagery that he employs in the poem. He uses nature imagery throughout to illustrate the passage of time, connecting it both to the inevitability of death and the ability of time to soften grief. He also structures his poem around common events, such as Christmas celebrations and weddings. These common events make the poem as a whole more relatable, even to those that have never experienced such a traumatic loss.  The meter itself, iambic tetrameter, is also very accessible as it is often used in hymns. The overall structure and rhythm of the poem are relatable to readers without being cliché, allowing the audience to connect with it easily despite the depth of the subject matter.

Ring Out, Wild Bells

This video shows section 106 of In Memoriam, set to music as the hymn "Ring Out, Wild Bells." It expresses the overall emotional journey of the poem from grief and melancholy to hope.

Close Reading: Section 5

5

I sometimes hold it half a sin

To put in words the grief I feel;

For words, like Nature, half reveal

And half conceal the Soul within.

But, for the unquiet heart and brain,

A use in measured language lies;

The sad mechanic exercise,

Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.

In words, like weeds, I’ll wrap me o’er,

Like coarsest clothes against the cold:

But that large grief which these enfold

Is given in outline and no more. (Black 199-200)

            This quote, given close to the beginning of the poem, addresses the process of writing itself and sets up the main themes of the poem. In the first line he touches on the crisis of faith that he develops throughout the rest of the poem by calling his grief “half a sin.” By calling it “half a sin” rather than just a sin, he sets up this struggle between his human emotions and what he has been taught to feel by religion. He knows that he should accept that his friend is happier in heaven, but he naturally feels grief, and feels guilty for feeling grief. Tennyson goes on to deal with two other prevalent themes: the inability to fully express feelings through language and Nature as an expression of feeling. He joins the two together by comparing words to Nature and explaining that both “half reveal / And half conceal the Soul within.” This comparison joins with the first two lines of the stanza in expressing Tennyson’s frustration over his inability to fully express his feelings, whether it be because of the limitations of language and imagery or religious expectations.

            The next two stanzas go on to explore the way Tennyson deals with these limitations in his poem. He describes “A use in measured language” as able to calm his grief by giving him a way to direct his pain. The emphasis on language as “measured” also suggests that at this stage of Tennyson’s grief, he has turned to logic rather than religion to deal with his friend’s death and found it more numbing than comforting. Finally, he contents himself with the limitations of his writing by portraying his grief “in outline and no more.” These last couple lines act as a challenge to the reader to recognize that the words of the poem are only a hint of the poet’s true feeling, and to look beyond the words to fully understand the emotions that he describes.

Criticism Over Time

The critical reception of In Memoriam was incredibly positive for the first half-century after its publication. Tennyson was regarded as a master poet, and the criticism of his work reflected this admiration. An article published in 1894, almost 50 years after the publication of In Memoriam, analyzes the poem by focusing on how it represents “the development of the poet’s own character.” (Beatty 129)  It divides the stages of development into six categories: Feeling, Thought, Memories, Communion, Apologies, and Dreams. In doing so, the article focuses primarily on the religious aspects of the poem. It does also acknowledge, however, some growing criticism of Tennyson’s work by mentioning “many philosopher-critics” who look at the poem as “a reasoned system of philosophy.” (129)  This article reacts against a more scientific view of the poem and instead relies on analyzing the emotional effect that it has on readers.

As culture changed and this emotional, more religious viewpoint fell out of favor among critics, Tennyson’s poetry began to be analyzed more harshly. John D. Rosenberg’s article, published in 1959, reflects both this harsher criticism and a move away from it. It summarizes the modernist perspective from earlier in the century, which viewed Tennyson’s poetry as “beautiful but mindless craftsmanship.” (228) Rosenberg does not completely refute this claim, but he does go on to explain the complexity of In Memoriam that modernists did not appreciate.

He begins by outlining the religious elements found in the prologue of the poem and how they reflect a legitimate struggle between faith and doubt rather than simply “an orthodox statement of Victorian faith.” (229) This analysis reflects a change in the value placed on religion. In the 1894 article Tennyson’s religious values were simply assumed, while in Rosenberg’s article faith was depicted as much more complex. This shows a shift in culture from being completely accepting of religion to viewing it with cautious cynicism. Rosenberg does not say religion is pointless or stupid, but his analysis of Tennyson’s crisis of faith implies that he views religion as something that should be accepted only after a crisis of faith.

            Allison’s article, published in 2015, approaches In Memoriam from a completely different viewpoint. Rather than focusing on the effect of the poem on the audience or on religious struggles, she views the poem from both a formalist and a psychoanalyst perspective. By focusing on the minute details of the poem rather than overarching themes, she looks at how In Memoriam reflects Tennyson’s childhood experiences. Instead of engaging in the debate about Tennyson’s faith, she takes a completely different view of the poem. This reflects a separation between religion and literature when both faith and doubt are no longer relevant. Meaning is found in the text through focus on the form itself, enabling the critic to appreciate the poem in a different way. 

Close Reading: Section 96

96 (lines 9-24)

Perplexed in faith, but pure in deeds,

At last he beat his music out.

There lives more faith in honest doubt,

Believe me, than in half the creeds.

He fought his doubts and gathered strength,

He would not make his judgement blind,

He faced the spectres of the mind

And laid them: thus he came at length

To find a stronger faith his own;

And Power was with him in the night,

Which makes the darkness and the light,

And dwells not in the light alone,

But in the darkness and the cloud,

As over Sinai’s peaks of old,

While Israel made their gods of gold,

Although the trumpet blew so loud. (Black 228)

            This passage is an example of how Tennyson uses breaks in meter and in punctuation to illustrate the crisis of faith that he is describing here. For the most part, he uses iambic tetrameter, however in a few lines he strays from it slightly. In line 18, for example, he breaks from the meter with “Power.” Not only is the word capitalized but it breaks the meter because both syllables are emphasized. By breaking the meter, Tennyson gives both a dramatic emphasis on the word and increases the connection of the word with God because it stands out so obviously from the words and the lines around it. The line itself is very pivotal because it claims the existence of God even in a symbolic night of doubt or trouble. The slight change in meter supports this imagery by emphasizing “Power” next to several other words that carry less emphasis, suggesting the darkness that the words describe.

            In the first two stanzas of this quote, the last lines are broken by punctuation in the middle of the line. In the first stanza, the punctuation is a comma right after “Believe me.” The break serves to create a feeling of instability that goes along with the accusation that “half the creeds” express less faith than “honest doubt.” In the next stanza, however, the mid-line punctuation serves the opposite purpose. The punctuation in this case is a colon after “And laid them,” providing a distinct pause in the line. The strength of the punctuation along with the meaning of the words suggests an end to doubt. It marks a shift in this section from dwelling on and fighting with doubt to a discussion of faith existing in spite of darkness. The breaks in punctuation and meter together serve to create a feeling of struggle and resolution within the form of the language as well as the language itself.

Works Cited

Allison, Kiera. "The Repression of the Return: Tennyson's in Memoriam and the Art of the Unheard Echo." Victorian Poetry 53.1 (2015): 41,56,101. ProQuest.Web. 18 Mar. 2016.

Beatty, Arthur and Jonathan A. MacVannel. “Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’.” Modern Language Notes 9.5 (May 1894): 129-130. JSTOR. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

Black, Joseph, et.al., eds. The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Literature, Volume 5:Victorian Era. 2^nd ed. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2013.   

Eliot, T. S. "In Memoriam." Essays Ancient & Modern. T. S. Eliot. Faber & Faber Limited, 1936. 175-190. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie DiMauro. Vol. 30. Detroit: Gale, 1991.Literature Criticism Online. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

"In Memoriam, An Introduction to." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Lynn M. Zott. Vol. 115. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Criticism Online. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

katilette, “Crofts Family-Ring Out Wild Bells (Official Music Video).” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 23 Dec. 2014. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.

“Literary Notices.” The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent 1 Feb. 1851: 6. 19^th Century British Library Newspapers: Part II. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

Rosenberg, John D. “The Two Kingdoms of "In Memoriam"”. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 58.2 (1959): 228–240. Web.

Sacks, Peter M. "Tennyson: In Memoriam." The English Elegy: Studies in the Genre from Spenser to Yeats. Peter M. Sacks. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985. 166-203. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Drew Kalasky. Vol. 6. Detroit: Gale, 1993. Literature Criticism Online. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

Shatto, Susan. "Tennyson’s Revisions of ‘In Memoriam’.” Victorian Poetry 16.4 (1978): 341. ProQuest. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.