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Week 3 reading: Cantos 28-52 (XXVIII-LII)

We start with the first Christmas after Hallam's death. The comfort of the Christmas bells is palpable:

This year I slept and woke with pain,
I almost wish'd no more to wake,
And that my hold on life would break
Before I heard those bells again:


But they my troubled spirit rule,
For they controll'd me when a boy;
They bring me sorrow touch'd with joy,
The merry merry bells of Yule.

There's a touch of the possibility of suicide there, isn't there? But the bells bring back memories of his childhood and the joy that Christmases were then.

But it's not as easy as that: how can he celebrate Christmas when the "welcome guest" is absent? But shouldn't the welcome guest at Christmas be Christ? Is it reading too much into this stanza to suggest that at this point in Tennyson's life Hallam's memory is more central to his being than his faith?

And then we get these stanzas about Lazarus. Surely Tennyson knows that Hallam will not be a second Lazarus, will not be raised from the dead. But he seems to take great comfort from Mary seeing Lazarus risen, and thanking Christ for his rebirth. Is he, in this Christmas season, finding renewed strength in his faith, in love for Christ?

Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers,
Whose loves in higher love endure;
What souls possess themselves so pure,
Or is there blessedness like theirs?

This seems to be an early hint of the possibility of turning from pure grief to finding blessing in his pure memory of Hallam. But then, it does end with a question mark.

There's lots more in this section, but enough for now.

I'm not surprised that Tennyson feels his friend's death so keenly at Christmas. It's such a wonderful time for memories. And recalling blessings. But also for missing loved ones.

I have found a very interesting resource: Alfred Lord Tennyson's 'in Memoriam': A Reading Guide. I am just beginning to grasp some of the ideas here, but a structure in the poem that I have observed and that Anna Barton talks about is the cycling--the circles. She points out that the ABBA rhyme scheme works like a mirror, looking back at the first two lines. And this looking back, incorporating the past in the present (perhaps as a way of keeping the loved one in the present) is vivid for me in Section XXX.

Then echo-like our voices rang;
We sung, tho' every eye was dim,
A merry song we sang with him
Last year; impetuously we sang.

For those who have a Christmas celebration in their tradition, that first Christmas after the loss of a loved one is dreaded, and yet comforting. This reference talks about 3 Christmases in the poem, and the cycle of ritual that is part of the grieving process. This section ends with a prayer that light and hope will come to the mourners, like the birth of Christ brought light and Hope to the world.

Everyman wrote: "Is he, in this Christmas season, finding renewed strength in his faith, in love for Christ?

Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers,
Whose loves in higher love endure;
What souls possess themselves so pure,
Or is there blessedness like theirs?

This seems to be an early hint of the possibility of turning from pure grief to finding blessing in his pure memory of Hallam. But then, it does end with a question mark...."

I think the mourner is envious of Lazarus' sister--her pure faith. But that question mark is very telling. And the mourner wonders why Lazarus didn't answer the question of what it was like to die. Faith would be comforting--or would it?

Ginny wrote: "I think the mourner is envious of Lazarus' sister--her pure faith. But that question mark is very telling. And the mourner wonders why Lazarus didn't answer the question of what it was like to die. Faith would be comforting--or would it? "

I think in this section Tennyson is exploring the idea of Christ saying 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.'

We have images of Christmas which is the birth of hope in a dingy stable in the middle of winter, the idea central to Christianity that at the lowest darkest times still have faith because God is love and is caring for you.
Lazarus is such a popular figure in poetry, the physical embodiment of life after death, the representative of eternal life and being born again. Symbolically could the Lazarus reference also reflect on Tennyson being able to mentally survive the death of his friend, as it is feels like part of himself is dying with the loss of their friendship?
There is also in the Cantos numbered in their 40s an exploration of what life after death is, will Hallam be continuing to grow spiritually and now be forever beyond Tennyson, or is death like a sleep from which everyone will awaken at the same moment.

I liked the questioning that begins 51, 'do we indeed the dead/Should still be at our side?' as it seems to be the opposite of what Tennyson has been saying with certainty until this moment, that he desperately wants to see his friend again. The doubt and fear that his friend will see his whole soul now and know all his 'inner vileness' seems so human and frail.

I also was drawn in 52 to the simple phrase 'my words are only words', throughout this great poem, Tennyson often shows awareness that he cannot express what he really feels, that his language is limited, and I think within his grief is examining the boundaries of what art is capable of doing.

Clari wrote: "I also was drawn in 52 to the simple phrase 'my words are only words', throughout this great poem, Tennyson often shows awareness that he cannot express what he really feels, that his language is limited, and I think within his grief is examining the boundaries of what art is capable of doing. .."

I see this theme almost everywhere--lack of faith in words to ever really tell the truth. The reading guide I am using states: "For Tennyson, the chasm that exists between word and world symbolizes the chasm that exists between God and sinful humanity." Lack of faith in language as a parallel to lack of faith in God and life after death.

Ginny wrote: "I see this theme almost everywhere--lack of faith in words to ever really tell the truth. The reading guide I am using states: "For Tennyson, the chasm that exists between word and world symbolizes the chasm that exists between God and sinful humanity." Lack of faith in language as a parallel to lack of faith in God and life after death..."

That is interesting, does it tie in with the idea in John 1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

If you can't trust or believe in God, you can't believe in the sanctity of language and its ability to reflect your true thoughts?
Similarly I think I see Tennyson exploring the notion of love in this poem, if there is no faith in 'God is love', what does it mean to love someone? Is love always to be tragic because it must always die if there is no eternity beyond this sad mortal existence?