"In Memoriam A.H.H." (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is a poem written to honor his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died at the age of twenty-two from a brain hemorrhage in Vienna in 1833. The poem uses a type of poetic meter with four beats per line and reflects on Hallam’s death. It also examines the unpredictable harshness of nature, as seen through the different viewpoints of scientific ideas and the decreasing belief in Christianity during the Victorian era (1837–1901). The work serves as an elegy, a requiem, and a dirge for Hallam, as well as for the time and place in which he lived.

History

In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850) is a sad and storytelling poem with 2,916 lines written in a specific rhythm called iambic tetrameter. It is divided into 133 sections called cantos, each labeled with a Roman numeral. The poem is organized into three parts: (i) the prologue, (ii) the main poem, and (iii) the epilogue. Tennyson worked on the poem for 17 years, from 1833 to 1850, and published it anonymously under the Latin title In Memoriam A.H.H. Obiit MDCCCXXXI (meaning In Memoriam A.H.H. 1833). After the poem became popular, Tennyson added new sections to later editions: Canto LIX, titled O Sorrow, wilt thou live with me, in the 1851 version, and Canto XXXIX, titled Old warder of these buried bones, in the 1871 version. The epilogue ends the poem with an epithalamium, a wedding poem celebrating Tennyson’s sister, Cecilia Tennyson, on her marriage to Edmund Law Lushington, an academic, in 1842.

The poem

The poem In Memoriam A.H.H. is written in a type of poetic rhythm called iambic tetrameter, which uses four-line stanzas with a repeating pattern of beats. This rhythm helps create the feeling of sadness and mourning throughout the poem. The work has 133 sections, called cantos, including the beginning and ending parts. In these sections, the poet, Alfred Tennyson, uses this rhythm to explore themes such as spiritual loss, memories of the past, philosophical questions, and ideas from the Romantic era. In Canto IX, Tennyson describes the return of his friend’s body to England, writing: "Fair ship, that from the Italian shore / Saileth the placid ocean-plains / With my lost Arthur's remains, / Spread thy full wings and waft him o'er."

As a poet from the Victorian era (1837–1901), Tennyson wrote about important ideas of his time, such as the theory that species change over time, which was discussed in a book called Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844). This book suggested that nature might operate without direct guidance from a divine being, which challenged religious beliefs of the time. During the 19th century, many Christians believed the Bible should be read literally, opposing the idea of human evolution. In Canto CXXIX, Tennyson refers to "the truths that never can be proved," reflecting the Victorian belief that science and religion could be brought together through reason.

In Canto LV, the poet asks a question about the meaning of life. In Canto LVI, he turns to nature to explore the place of humans on Earth. Although Tennyson published In Memoriam A.H.H. in 1850, nine years before Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859), the phrase "Nature, red in tooth and claw" from Canto LVI was later used by supporters of evolution to explain the struggle for survival in the natural world.

In Canto CXXII, Tennyson examines the conflict between personal morality and religious beliefs. The poem ends with Tennyson finding comfort in his faith, showing his journey from sadness and doubt to hope and belief in God. This change in his thinking was influenced by the death of his close friend, Arthur Henry Hallam (1811–1833).

A literary scholar named Christopher Ricks connects lines from Canto XCIX to Tennyson’s early life at the Somersby Rectory in Lincolnshire. In this canto, the poet writes about leaving his childhood home after the death of his father.

Quotations

The poem includes several quotes from literature. In Canto CXXIII, Tennyson writes, "The hills are shadows, and they flow / From form to form, and nothing stands." This line refers to a scientific discovery from the 19th century, which showed that Earth is geologically active and much older than people had believed 100 years earlier.

Legacy

"In Memoriam" was a favorite poem of Queen Victoria. After the death of her husband, Prince Albert, she found comfort and happiness in the emotions expressed in Alfred Tennyson's poem. In 1862 and 1883, Queen Victoria met Tennyson to tell him she greatly enjoyed his poetry.

In the novel The Tragedy of the Korosko (1898), written by Arthur Conan Doyle, characters quote lines from In Memoriam. They reference Canto LIV: "Oh yet we trust that somehow good / will be the final goal of ill," and Canto LV: "I falter where I firmly trod." Another character describes In Memoriam as "the grandest and the deepest and the most inspired [poem] in our language."

The short story "A Neighbour's Landmark" (1924), by M. R. James, includes the line "With no language but a cry" from In Memoriam A.H.H.

In Alan Hollinghurst's novel The Stranger's Child (2011), the main character, Cecil Valance, quotes lines from Canto CI of In Memoriam, which include: "And year by year the landscape grow / Familiar to the stranger's child."

In Alice Winn's novel In Memoriam (2023), the poem is mentioned throughout the story. The main characters discuss writing their own "In Memoriam" poems for each other if they die in World War I.

Works inspired by In Memoriam include:
– Four Songs from In Memoriam (1885), by Maude Valérie White
– The song "There Rolls the Deep" (1897), by Hubert Parry
– A song cycle in 12 sections, by Liza Lehmann (1899)
– Under Alter'd Skies (2017), a cycle of seven songs by Jonathan Dove