Strong Son of God, immortal Love
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 footIs 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 thereI 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.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Strong Son of God, immortal Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from In memoriam, Project Gutenberg ebook #70950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Tennyson, Strong Son of God, immortal Love, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/prologue.html, id L18503.
Form and metre
Strong Son of God, immortal Love is 44 lines in 11 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBA loveA · faceB · embraceB · proveA
- 2 ABBA shadeA · bruteB · footB · madeA
- 3 ABBA dustA · whyB · dieB · justA
- 4 ABBA divineA · thouB · howB · thineA
- 5 ABBA dayA · beB · theeB · theyA
- 6 ABBA knowA · seeB · theeB · growA
- 7 ABBA moreA · dwellB · wellB · beforeA
- 8 ABBA slightA · fearB · bearB · lightA
- 9 ABBA meA · beganB · manB · theeA
- 10 ABBA removedA · fairB · thereB · lovedA
- 11 ABBA criesA · youthB · truthB · wiseA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Son of God, immortal Love, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Whom we, that have not seen thy face, | 8 | ········ |
| By faith, and faith alone, embrace, | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| Believing where we cannot prove; | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Thine are these orbs of light and shade; | 8 | ········ |
| Thou madest Life in man and brute; | 8 | ········ |
| Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot | 8 | ········ |
| Is on the skull which thou hast made. | 8 | ········ |
| Thou wilt not leave us in the dust: | 8 | ········ |
| Thou madest man, he knows not why; | 8 | ········ |
| He thinks he was not made to die; | 8 | ········ |
| And thou hast made him: thou art just. | 8 | ········ |
| Thou seemest human and divine, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The highest, holiest manhood, thou: | 8 | ·/˘/˘/·· |
| Our wills are ours, we know not how; | 8 | /··/···· |
| Our wills are ours, to make them thine. | 8 | /··/···· |
| Our little systems have their day; | 8 | //˘/˘··· |
| They have their day and cease to be: | 8 | ········ |
| They are but broken lights of thee, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And thou, O Lord, art more than they. | 8 | ········ |
| We have but faith: we cannot know; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For knowledge is of things we see; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And yet we trust it comes from thee, | 8 | ········ |
| A beam in darkness: let it grow. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Let knowledge grow from more to more, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But more of reverence in us dwell; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That mind and soul, according well, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| May make one music as before, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But vaster. We are fools and slight; | 8 | ········ |
| We mock thee when we do not fear: | 8 | ········ |
| But help thy foolish ones to bear; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Help thy vain worlds to bear thy light. | 8 | ········ |
| Forgive what seem’d my sin in me; | 8 | ˘/······ |
| What seem’d my worth since I began; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| For merit lives from man to man, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And not from man, O Lord, to thee. | 8 | ········ |
| Forgive my grief for one removed, | 8 | ˘/····˘/ |
| Thy creature, whom I found so fair. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I trust he lives in thee, and there | 8 | ········ |
| I find him worthier to be loved. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Forgive these wild and wandering cries, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Confusions of a wasted youth; | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Forgive them where they fail in truth, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| And in thy wisdom make me wise. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
On this poem
"Strong Son of God, immortal Love,"
is addressed to Christ, God Himself upon earth. George Herbert had before called our Saviour
"Immortal Love, author of this great frame;"
and our Poet says, though we have not seen His face, we embrace Him by faith,
"Believing where we cannot prove."
He acknowledges Him as the great Creator, and through all surrounding mysteries and disappointments, is satisfied with this conclusion as to the future,
"Thou art just."
This conviction is enough.
"Thou seemest human and divine, The highest, holiest manhood, thou"--
God incarnate, to whom we must become spiritually united,
"Our wills are ours, to make them thine,"
as expressed in Poem cxxxi., stanza 1.
"Our little systems" "are but broken lights of thee," even as the colours of the rainbow are the broken lights of the sun.
"We have but faith: we cannot know; For knowledge is of things we see."
Faith apprehends things which are spiritual, and do not come within the range of our senses; whilst knowledge accepts only what can be seen and understood.
Hence, the Poet would have knowledge advance and increase to the utmost, "a beam in darkness" ever growing. But reverence must grow with it; so that mind which accumulates knowledge, and soul which is the dwelling-place of faith, according well with each other, may make one music--be in harmony "as before," that is, I presume, as at first; but now "vaster" in their compass owing to the greater reach of modern thought and research.
This warning against scientific assumptions, in opposition to spiritual truths, is repeated from Poem cxiv.
The concluding humble prayer, contained in the three last stanzas, has the true ring of devout piety.
"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."
"What seem'd my sin," would be the Poet's excessive grief for Hallam's death: for he elsewhere says,
"I count it crime To mourn for any overmuch."
"What seem'd my worth," would be his devoted love for his friend, which he felt had ennobled his own life; and so he says,
"To breathe my loss is more than fame, To utter love more sweet than praise."
But this worth was only comparative,
"from man to man, And not from man, O Lord, to thee;"
since no human goodness can be counted as merit in the sight of God.
Notes from the edition 6
Section introductions from Alfred Gatty, <i>A Key to Lord Tennyson's “In Memoriam”</i>, 4th ed. (George Bell & Sons, 1900; Project Gutenberg #36637). Line notes credited “[Tennyson]” are Tennyson's own notes; “[Hallam Tennyson]” marks a note that is wholly his son and editor's own explanatory bracket, not the poet's own words; “[Emily Tennyson]” marks the few notes signed by his wife. All three are from <i>The Works of Tennyson, Annotated by the Author</i>, ed. Hallam, Lord Tennyson, vol. 3 (Macmillan, 1908; Internet Archive worksoftennysona03tennuoft). Line notes credited “[Bradley]” are A. C. Bradley's, from <i>A Commentary on Tennyson's In Memoriam</i> (Macmillan, 1910; Internet Archive commentaryontenn00braduoft). All these number sections by the final, 131-section text, not the site's own 1850 numbering: from final XL to LVIII subtract one section number, from LX on subtract two, to reach the site's; the site prints the 129-section first edition of 1850 (see the work's own blurb), so two of the final text's numbered sections have no home here and are skipped.
- Stanza 1 [My father wrote in 1839: " We must bear or we must die. It is easier perhaps to die, but infinitely less noble. The immortality of man disdains and rejects the thought — the immortality of man to which the cycles and seons are as hours and days." -ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
- Stanza 1 immortal Love. [In answer to a friend my father said: " This might be taken in a St. John sense." Cf. i John iv. and v. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
- Stanza 2, line 1 Thine are these orbs of light and shade. Sun and moon. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 4 [An old version of this verse was left by my father in MS. in a book of prayers written by my mother: Thou seemest human and divine,
Thou madest man, without, within, But who shall say thou madest sin ? For who shall say, ' It is not mine ' ?
ED.] [Hallam Tennyson] - Stanza 6, line 2 For knowledge is of things we see. TO, cf)aiv6fA€va. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 7, line 4 May make one music as before. As in the ages of faith. [Tennyson]
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