INTRODUCTION
Before the Victorian period, the existence of God was not questioned, but
because of the scientific developments, religion is questioned and doubted in
difficult moments such as the death of a friend, which is the topic of the poem
we are going to comment.
Tennyson as the most important poet in Victorian age shows us through
his poem his feelings and doubts about religion which are a reflection of the
conflict with religion in the Victorian age. We are going to analyse his poem
“In Memoriam” in order to see how this age of changes affected the religious
faith.1
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Sir Alfred Tennyson 1st Baron Tennyson 1809-1892 was Poet Laureate of
the
Queen
The fragment we are going to analyse is included in his poem “In
Memoriam” that was written by Tennyson after the death of his friend Arthur
Henry Hallam, who had died suddenly at the age of 22. He was not only a good
friend, but also the fiancé of his sister.
After his death Tennyson had doubts about the meaning of life and the
significance of man’s existence and suffered a faith crisis.
He wrote “In Memoriam” in 17 years (1833-1849) and finally he published
it in 1850. The poem contains no single theme and its ideas are not in a
particular order.
“In Memoriam” was intended as an elegy, because it contains all the
elements of a traditional pastoral elegy, including ceremonial mourning for the
death, praise of his virtues and consolation for his lost.3
“IN MEMORIAM”
“In Memoriam”
Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove;
Thine are these orbs of light and shade;
Thou madest Life in man and brute;
Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot
Is on the skull which thou hast made.
Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:
Thou madest man, he knows not why,
He thinks he was not made to die;
And thou hast made him: thou art just.
Thou seemest human and divine,
The highest, holiest manhood, thou.
Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours, to make them thine.
Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.
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.
Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music as before,
But vaster. We are fools and slight;
We mock thee when we do not fear:
But help thy foolish ones to bear;
Help thy vain worlds to bear thy light.
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.
Forgive my grief for one removed,
Thy creature, whom I found so fair.
I trust he lives in thee, and there
I find him worthier to be loved.
Forgive these wild and wandering cries,
Confusions of a wasted youth;
Forgive them where they fail in truth,
And in thy wisdom make me wise.4
ANALYSIS
The poem begins with an invocation, “Strong Son of God” and
continues with an explanation of Tennyson's doubts. He has no proof of God’s existence, he only has his faith. Religion is
not supported by evidences or proofs like science but faith is supposed to be a
strong reason to believe in difficult moments like this.
. “Whom we, that have not seen thy face.
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove;”
In the second stanza, he attributes sun and moon “orbs of light and
shade” to God, He is the creator of everything, life and death.
In the third stanza Tennyson talks about the meaning of life, he does
not know what life mean, but he imagines that man is not created only to die.
After the death of his friend,he feels very sad and he can’t understand why
young people have to die.
“Thou madest man, he knows not why.
He thinks he was not made to die;”
In the fifth stanza, the author explains that religion as a system, is
not eternal and we cannot know God through them, the only eternal is God and if
we want to know Him we must forget these systems.
“ Our little systems have their day
[…] And thou, O Lord, art more than they.”
In the sixth stanza he says again that there is no proof but faith. At
the Victorian age, because science became important in society the people
required proofs to believe, although they never lost their faith and wanted to
know God.
“We have but faith: we cannot know
For knowledge is of things we see”
In the eighth and ninth stanzas Tennyson´s ask God’s forgiveness,
because he feels like a fool because of his doubts and grief. He wants to know
more about God, becoming wise. We remember God only in difficult moments and
this is not the correct behaviour.
“But vaster. We are fools and slight;
[…] But help thy foolish ones to
bear
[…] Forgive what seem’d my sin in me.”
At the end the author says that he has faith that his friend lives with
God and he is loved. He comforts himself thinking that perhaps his friend lives
now next to God and ask God’s forgiveness again because of his doubts.
“I trust he lives in thee, and there
I find him worthier to be loved.”
“Forgive these wild and wandering cries
Confusions of a wasted youth;
Forgive them where they fail in truth
And in thy wisdom make me wise”
Tennyson’s attitudes are grief and
resignation. The poem shows the feelings and sadness of Tennyson after the death
of his friend and his religious disorientation because of
his loss.
RHYME
"In Memoriam" consists of 131 smaller poems of varying length.
Each short poem is comprised of isometric stanzas. The stanzas are iambic
tetrameter quatrains with the rhyme scheme ABBA.
“Strong Son of God, immortal Love, A
Whom we, that have not seen thy face B
By faith, and faith alone, embrace, B
Believing where we cannot prove” A
Each quatrain seems to be completed or closed so it’s difficult to move
from one to another. That could represent poet’s difficulty in continuing with
his life after the loss of his friend.3
CONCLUSION
Before the Victorians, perhaps it was madness the doubt of God, but with
the arrival of science in society, all became different. Science had proofs
that evidenced the truthfulness of experiments, but religion had no proof to
demonstrate the existence of God and people only could trust in faith as the
better proof.
Tennyson is an example of the society in Victorian age, a society with
lots of religious doubts, who tried to achieve a synthesis between their
profound faith and the new scientific ideas of that time.
Human desperation feelings after difficult moments create confusion and
doubts because we can’t find an explanation to understand, why God permitted
bad things to happen such as the death of a friend. The Victorian people, who
have seen how science was able to explain some facts, were confused because
religion couldn’t give them answers to their questions and faith was the only
thing they could have in order to believe in God.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. “Victorian
<http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/VictorianEngland.htm>
2. “Alfred Tennyson, 1st
Baron Tennyson”
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Tennyson,_1st_Baron_Tennyson
3. “Tennyson’s poetry”
4. “In Memoriam” A.H.H” Site Copyright © Jalic Inc. 2000 – 2007.
<
http://www.online-literature.com/tennyson/718>