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.

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.