Discussion Topic

Literary, Victorian, and elegiac elements in Tennyson's "In Memoriam"

Summary:

Alfred Lord Tennyson's "In Memoriam" incorporates literary elements such as rich imagery and symbolism, Victorian elements like a focus on social and religious concerns, and elegiac elements that express mourning and contemplation over the death of a close friend. The poem reflects on themes of grief, faith, and the search for meaning amid loss, characteristic of Victorian elegies.

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What are the elegiac elements in Tennyson's In Memoriam?

An elegiac poem tends to express feelings of great mourning. Therefore, an elegiac poem tends to be written about someone or something that has passed away and is gone forever. Tennyson's In Memoriam A. H. H. was written for his deceased friend Arthur Henry Hallam. Tennyson's poem proves elegiac given the focus of the poem's lines on death. After Hallam's death, Tennyson begins to consider life and death in ways that he may not have considered before.

The poem's diction (word choice) illustrates elegiac characteristics. The past is spoken of in past tense, and days and lives "cease to be." Tennyson's speaker even asks God to "remove his grief." This could be a way that Tennyson's speaker decides is the only way for him to move on from his grief. In this, Tennyson focuses upon language which illustrates death, loss, mourning, and grief.

On a side note, it is important to understand that Tennyson himself should necessarily not be identified as the speaker. Although he mourned the loss of Hallam, Tennyson's "I" should take on the voice of an "everyman" speaker. By doing so, Tennyson universalizes the sorrows and mournings associated with death. Humankind will all suffer the loss of those around them. Tennyson, therefore, seems to hope that this elegiac poem illustrates death and mourning as something which is natural. By doing this, one could argue that the use of the elegiac form helps others to find peace in the deaths they may face.

In regards to other elegiac aspects, the poem does not contain the typical extended metaphor, which some elegiac poems contain. Instead, the poem focuses simply on the death of a loved one and how the speaker attempts to come to terms with the death itself.

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What are the Victorian elements in Tennyson's In Memoriam A. H. H.?

In Memoriam A. H. H. by Tennyson is a vast work that reveals characteristics of Victorian poetic theory in myriad ways. A small sampling here that will give guidance as to Tennyson's implementation of Victorian poetics in In Memoriam is drawn from the early sections from I to LXIII. To start with, two of the major characteristics of Victorian poetry that are apparent within In Memoriam are the themes of love and nature, shared with the preceding Romantic period but given a different slant.

Love isn't necessarily idealized and "romanticized" in the Victorian period; it may be shown with fangs and claws as in Browning's "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess," while nature is revealed as having a dark side, not romanticized and inspirational. In keeping with this dark side, emblematic nature is used, especially by Tennyson, to symbolize emotions; melancholy and Medieval Gothic allusions take precedence over heroism and Classical allusions.

Since the Victorian period was face-to-face with new and unsettling science on all sides, Victorian poetry adds the new dimension of psychological studies of poets and poetic personas and narrators. Partly as a reaction to this science and partly as a reaction to the unwelcome rise in immoral and criminal behavior accompanying the rush of urban immigration, Queen Victoria emphasized a stringent return to Christian morality.

In keeping with Queen Victoria's appeal, In Memoriam opens with a Christian appeal instead of an appeal to the Classic Muse of poetry:

Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,

The Christian appeal continues and is seen again later, as in:

Forgive what seem'd my sin in me;
What seem'd my worth since I began;
For merit lives from man to man,
And not from man, O Lord, to thee.

Later, Sections III and LVI have Medieval Gothic allusions and tones that are in contrast to Classical Greek allusions.

O Sorrow, cruel fellowship,
O Priestess in the vaults of Death,
O sweet and bitter in a breath,
What whispers from thy lying lip?

Section V highlights the use of emblematic nature as a symbol for emotions:

In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er,
Like coarsest clothes against the cold:

Section LX illustrates the prominence of melancholy, while Section LXIII shows nature, love, and melancholy combined, with the addition of psychological study:

Yet pity for a horse o'er-driven,
And love in which my hound has part,
Can hang no weight upon my heart
In its assumptions up to heaven;
And I am so much more than these,
As thou, perchance, art more than I,
And yet I spare them sympathy,
And I would set their pains at ease.
So mayst thou watch me where I weep,.. .
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What are some notable literary elements in Tennyson's "In Memoriam"?

Notable literary elements in Tennyson’s poem “In Memoriam” can be interpreted effectively relative to aspects of form and structure. The majority of poetry in the past was written to conform to sets of rules. Rather than constricting language, the rules lead readers to appreciate the poem. The form and structure of “In Memoriam”in terms of the rhyme scheme and the structure of the poem underscore the literary elements of tone and mood.

One formidable aspect of the form of the poem is the rhyme scheme, or the organization of words that rhyme. The first and fourth and second and third lines of the poem have words at the end that rhyme. This rhyme scheme is “ABBA.” The word choices of the end lines lend themselves to interpretation of the tone of the stanzas. For example, in the beginning of the poem, the end of the first line of the first stanza ends with the word “love” (A) and the last line of the last stanza ends with the word “prove.”  This sets up the reader for a tone throughout the poem that is inquisitive, curious and self reflective about one’s internal life, particularly relative to essential emotions, such as love, that can be unseen in manifestation.

The literary element of mood is observable within the structure of quatrains, or each stanza organized into four lines. Although of course it is useful and necessary to get an idea of the whole poem, a close reading of each quatrain is helpful. In so doing, one notices that the mood conveyed is one of existential suffering and grief relative to death. For example, as the poem continues, the narrator seems to vacillate between an acceptance of mortality and a questioning of it. For example the 6th quatrain reads,

We have but faith: we cannot know;
For knowledge is of things we see
And yet we trust it comes from thee,
A beam in darkness: let it grow.

This stanza evokes in the reader a sense that death as a part of life is beyond human control and, in a sense, is left up to divine intervention.

Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” is widely considered a masterful example of the mastery of language through form and structure. When reading, analyzing and ultimately enjoying this work and other poetry, it is important to not only take note of the technical aspects of form and structure but also to strive for a deeper and broader perspective of what constitutes “literary.”  Good luck!

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Some of the notable literary elements in the poem "In Memoriam" by Lord Alfred Tennyson include:

- The use of Rhyme, and especially end-rhyme:


              we, that have not seen thy face,
              By faith, and faith alone, embrace,

- Employing Stanzas as part of the structure of the poem

- Employing a Rhyme Scheme: In this poem, Lord Alfred Tennyson employs the "abba" rhyme scheme. The first and fourth line of a stanza rhyme; the second and third line of a stanza rhyme.

- The use of Internal Rhyme: Tennyson uses rhyme within a single line...for example..."Forgive these wild and wandering cries". The "wi" in wild and the 'cri" in cries are internal rhyme.

- The use of a Caesura: This causes a pause within a line for a pronounced effect...the Caesura is between the words sailor and while...

     Thy sailor,—while thy head is bow'd,

- The use of Imagery: Tennyson employs auditory and visual imagery in this poem:

Auditory: "I hear the bell struck in the night:"

Visual: "I see the cabin-window bright;"

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