In Memoriam A.H.H.

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This article is about the poem named 'In Memoriam A.H.H.'. For the PC/MAC video game, see In Memoriam (Video Game).

In Memoriam A.H.H. is a long poem by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It is a requiem for the poet's Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of a stroke in Vienna in 1833, but it is also much more. Written over a period of 17 years, it can be seen as reflective of Victorian society at the time, and the poem discusses many of the issues that were beginning to be questioned. It is the work in which Tennyson reaches his highest musical peaks and his poetic experience comes full circle. It is generally regarded as one of the great poetic works of the British 19th century.

The poem was a great favorite of Queen Victoria, who found it a source of solace after the death of Prince Albert in 1861: "Next to the Bible, In Memoriam is my comfort." In 1862, Victoria requested a meeting with Tennyson because she was so impressed by the poem.

The original title of the poem was "The Way of the Soul", and this might give an idea of how the poem is an account of all Tennyson's thoughts and feelings as he copes with his grief over such a long period - including wrestling with the big scientific-philosophical questions of his day. It is perhaps because of this that the poem is still popular with and of interest to modern readers. Due to its length and its arguable breadth of focus, the poem might not be thought an elegy or a dirge in the strictest formal sense.

1 Science and Evolution
2 Form
3 Quotation
4 Sources

[edit] Science and Evolution

Many modern critics view the poem as being prescient about evolution, given that the poem was published in 1850, while Charles Darwin first published The Origin of Species in 1859. However, most critics believe that Tennyson was inspired by reading the proto-evolutionary text Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation by Robert Chambers. The science writer Stephen Jay Gould argues that Tennyson was instead describing catastrophist biological theory - a directed history of species, but without evolution. Additionally, Tennyson supports the gradual geologic change proposed by Charles Lyell.

Though the idea of evolution is very familiar to us in the 21st century, to Tennyson and the Victorians it was a troubling idea. This was even before the suggestion of man's sharing a common ancestor with apes had arisen. For if Lyell and Chambers were correct - if the Earth, viewed through geology (Lyell) or biology (Chambers), could be seen to exhibit continual change rather than a timeless status quo - then it was entirely possible that some day Man would disappear from the face of the Earth. And if Man disappeared, then love, art, religion, and everything else Man alone shares in, would disappear likewise. Ideals were therefore not permanent but closely connected with the simple biological survival of our species.

It is this manner of thinking that is the background to "In Memoriam". It should also be noted that, as members of the Cambridge Apostles, Hallam and Tennyson had debated whether the existence of God could be proved from first principles. The society decided that it could not. Though, in the poem, Tennyson does not lose his faith, critics have suggested that, in certain passages, he yearns for the simple sense of belief that his sister shares, instead of being wracked with doubts as he is.

In Memoriam is the source of the famous saying appropriated by darwinists: Nature, red in tooth and claw.

[edit] Form

The poem is not arranged exactly in the order in which it was written. The prologue, for example, is thought to have been one of the last things written. The earliest material is thought to be that which begins "Fair ship, that from the Italian shore | Saileth the placid ocean-plains" and imagines the return of Hallam's body from Italy. Critics believe, however, that the poem as a whole is meant to be chronological in terms of the progression of Tennyson's grief. The passage of time is marked by the three descriptions of Christmas at different points in the poem, and the poem ends with a description of the marriage of Tennyson's sister.

"In Memoriam" is written in four-line ABBA stanzas of iambic verse; though not metrically unusual, given the length of the work it creates a definite tonal effect which often divides readers - is it the natural sound of mourning and grief, or is it just monotonous? The poem divided into 133 cantos (including the prologue and epilogue), and in contrast to its constant and regulated metrical form, encompasses many different subjects: profound spiritual experiences, nostalgic reminscence, philosophical speculation, Romantic fantasizing and even occasional verse. The death of Hallam, and Tennyson's attempts to cope with this, remain the strand that ties all these together, though.

[edit] Quotation

The most oft-quoted lines in the poem are perhaps

I hold it true, whate'er befall;

I feel it when I sorrow most;

'Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.

This stanza is to be found in Canto 27.

The last two lines are usually taken, out of context, as offering advice on the dissolution of a romantic relationship. However the lines actually refer to the death of a beloved friend.