Examining Section 1 of Tennyson's In Memoriam
Looking at Tennyson’s Elegy for Arthur Hallam
Jul 31, 2009
Many themes run throughout Tennyson’s elegy to his beloved friend Arthur Hallam, and in this section, love and grief, the foremost themes, are present. They are so important that Tennyson even capitalizes them in the poem. The speaker’s concern, in this section, is that people may wish to rid themselves of the pain of loss rather than embracing it so that it makes them stronger in the end.
“I Held it Truth, with Him Who Sings”
Tennyson did not compose the sections of In Memoriam in the order in which they appear. Therefore, section 1 could be seen as an echo to the prologue, which was written in 1849. It resembles more of a reflection than a beginning. The speaker declares that “[M]en may rise on stepping stones / Of their dead selves to higher things” (3-4). Men can rise above their past selves and accomplish more than they have before.
“But Who Shall So Forecast the Years?”
In lines 5-8, the speaker questions how a person could gain something from devastating loss, and how that person could be aware of it while still in mourning. He asks how one can “reach a hand thro’ time to catch / The far-off interest of tears?” (7-8). People cannot see into the future and know that they will benefit from their pain, he says, and thus it will not make their current situation any easier.
The speaker argues that rather than trying to fight through a loss, the sufferer should embrace the loss. It is better to have such strong feelings than to be nothing more than an emotionless shell. Only by living through the fullness of pain can one ever be free from it. He declares, “Let Love clasp Grief lest both be drown’d” (9), a summation of his belief that intense painful emotions are better than none.
“Behold the Man that Loved and Lost”
Time can make or break one’s emotions. It can cause painful feelings to lessen simply because of the amount of time that passes. Or time can cause feelings to intensify. The speaker believes that dullness should not be more acceptable than being mired in grief. He does not want Time to triumph, and boast that man is “overworn” (16). Weariness and acceptance are not desirable qualities. The speaker wishes people to rise above such things.
Section 1 of In Memoriam focuses then on love and grief, and whether or not they are appropriate emotions to cling to. The speaker of the poem answers with a resounding yes: love and grief are far more important and significant than the wearying, blank canvas of time that wipes everything meaningful away. The poet declares victory for love and grief.
Source:
Tennyson, Alfred Lord, ed. Robert H. Ross, In Memoriam (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1973).
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