I will not shut me from my kind
I will not shut me from my kind,And, lest I stiffen into stone,I will not eat my heart alone,Nor feed with sighs a passing wind:
What profit lies in barren faith,And vacant yearning, tho’ with mightTo scale the heaven’s highest height,Or dive below the wells of Death?
What find I in the highest place,But mine own phantom chanting hymns?And on the depths of death there swimsThe reflex of a human face.
I’ll rather take what fruit may beOf sorrow under human skies:’Tis held that sorrow makes us wise,Whatever wisdom sleep with thee.
About this text
I will not shut me from my kind 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, I will not shut me from my kind, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-106.html, id L18466.
Form and metre
I will not shut me from my kind is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 19% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 kindA · stoneB · aloneB · windA
- 2 ABBA faithA · mightB · heightB · deathA
- 3 ABBA placeA · hymnsB · swimsB · faceA
- 4 ABBA beA · skiesB · wiseB · theeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I will not shut me from my kind, | 8 | ········ |
| And, lest I stiffen into stone, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I will not eat my heart alone, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Nor feed with sighs a passing wind: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| What profit lies in barren faith, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And vacant yearning, tho’ with might | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To scale the heaven’s highest height, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Or dive below the wells of Death? | 8 | ········ |
| What find I in the highest place, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But mine own phantom chanting hymns? | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And on the depths of death there swims | 8 | ········ |
| The reflex of a human face. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I’ll rather take what fruit may be | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of sorrow under human skies: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| ’Tis held that sorrow makes us wise, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Whatever wisdom sleep with thee. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
On this poem
He admits that "barren faith and vacant yearning" are profitless; although they may carry him in thought to the highest height of heaven, or to the deepest depth of Death. And this being so, his upward glance only reveals
"Mine own phantom chanting hymns;"
or, gazing below, he sees
"The reflex of a human face."
His lost friend being, therefore, everywhere represented, he will try to extract wisdom from the sorrow which he cannot exclude; though this be not such wisdom as sleeps with Hallam.
"'Tis held that sorrow makes us wise"
is repeated in P. cxiii., 1.
Notes from the edition 8
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 / will not shut me from my kind. Grief shall not make me a hermit, and I will not indulge in vacant yearnings and barren aspirations; it is useless trying to find him in the other worlds — I find nothing but the reflections of myself: I had better learn the lesson that sorrow teaches. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 2, line 4 'wells': see on x. 17. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 1 The usual interpretation, that the meditations just referred to must be untrue, because he simply reads his own thoughts or fancies into the universe, seems to me to disturb the drift of the section. The main point is that these medi- tations are ' barren] ' vacant,' supply no food (4), yield no fruit (13), because they shut him from his kind within the circle of his private grief, and give no wisdom applicable under human skies. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 4 'face': his own, of course. Cf. A las for:
His eyes beheld
Their own wan light through the reflected lines Of his thin hair, distinct in the dark depth Of that still fountain; as the human heart, Gazing in dreams over the gloomy grave, Sees its own treacherous likeness there. [Bradley] - Stanza 4 [The original reading of last line (MS.):
Yet how much wisdom sleeps with thee. Cf. cxm. i.
A pencil note by James Spedding on the MS. of In Memoriam says: "You might give the thought a turn of this kind: ' The wisdom that died with you is lost for ever, but out of the loss itself some other wisdom may be gained.' "—ED.] [Hallam Tennyson] - Stanza 4, line 2 ' human skies ': in contrast with 7, 8, and in reference also to i. The poet probably did not notice that 'human ' occurs in 12. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 3 'wise': wisdom is one of the 'fruits' of 13. He is now icturning to the idea of section i. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 4 Sorrow may bring me wisdom, though not the wisdom you would have brought me if you had lived (that this is the meaning is clear from cxni.). The line recalls evil. 23. There, and throughout this section, there is a touch of roughness in the references to the subjects from which he is turning away. The mood is exaggerated, and soon softens. Contrast, for instance, not only CIX. 24, but CXXin. 9 foil. [Bradley]
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