ABSTRACT
Arthur Henry Hallam, Alfred Tennyson’s college friend and constant companion, died in September, 1833. The attention of a reader of In Memoriam is at the outset naturally directed to the form of the stanza, which is unvaried throughout. Many of Tennyson’s phrases were borrowed from the sonnets; in both series of poems the deepest feelings and convictions of the heart and mind are reflected, and in both the labour of the artist strangely mingles a pleasure with its pain. A careful study of In Memoriam reveals more of design than is at first apparent in the arrangement of the lyrics. It seems a far journey from the philosophy of In Memoriam to the philosophy of Maud, from the poetry of a sad resignment to that of revolt; yet there is little difficulty in recognizing the same hand in both, the same worker in different moods.
