In Memoriam by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1
In Memoriamby Alfred, Lord Tennyson

• Long elegy to Arthur Henry Hallam published in
  1850
• Examined life and death, human relationship to
  God and nature
• Combined personal, subjective poetry with art of
  social and ideological responsibility
• Reflected Victorian fears of loss in changing
  times, expressed religious doubts of the age

2
Sections 1-3, pp. 1232-1233

• Introduce Tennysons initial attitudes toward
  sorrow/loss
• Do loss and sorrow actually bring a greater good?
• Do death and sorrow make life meaningless?

3
Sections 54-56

• Express Tennysons central crisis of faith
• Scientific discoveries (e.g., fossils) suggest
  God and Nature are at strife
• Nature causes all species to pass away
  (evolution)is life then meaningless?
• Answers lie hidden behind the veil

4
Sections 28, 78, 104-106

• Recount the evolution of Tennysons grief through
  the three Christmas holidays after Hallams death
• Despair, tinged with nostalgia and faint hope
• Calm, tearless sorrow
• HopeLet go of old sorrow and make way for new
  understanding

5
Sections 118, 127-Epilogue

• Recount renewal of Tennysons faith
• Sec. 118sorrow strengthens us, causes us to
  evolve spiritually
• Sec. 127-131speakers friend is not lost but has
  become part of a larger truth
• EpilogueHallam was a fore-runner of the
  spiritual perfection toward which all creation
  evolves