Doors, where my heart was used to beat
Doors, where my heart was used to beatSo quickly, not as one that weepsI come once more; the city sleeps;I smell the meadow in the street;
I hear a chirp of birds; I seeBetwixt the black fronts long-withdrawnA light-blue lane of early dawn,And think of early days and thee,
And bless thee, for thy lips are blandAnd bright the friendship of thine eye;And in my thoughts with scarce a sighI take the pressure of thine hand.
Words in this poem
- betwixt prep.
- In the space which separates; between. [OE. betwix, bitwix, rarely bitwixt, AS. betweox, betweohs, betweoh, betwih; pref. be- by + a form fr. AS. twa two. See Between.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Doors, where my heart was used to beat 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, Doors, where my heart was used to beat, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-117.html, id L18477.
Form and metre
Doors, where my heart was used to beat is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 50% 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 beatA · weepsB · sleepsB · streetA
- 2 ABBA seeA · withdrawnB · dawnB · theeA
- 3 ABBA blandA · eyeB · sighB · handA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Doors, where my heart was used to beat | 8 | ········ |
| So quickly, not as one that weeps | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I come once more; the city sleeps; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I smell the meadow in the street; | 8 | ···/···· |
| I hear a chirp of birds; I see | 8 | ········ |
| Betwixt the black fronts long-withdrawn | 8 | ˘/····˘/ |
| A light-blue lane of early dawn, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And think of early days and thee, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And bless thee, for thy lips are bland | 8 | ········ |
| And bright the friendship of thine eye; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And in my thoughts with scarce a sigh | 8 | ········ |
| I take the pressure of thine hand. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
On this poem
But now he revisits the spot, at the same early hour, and his feelings have changed and have become reconciled and hopeful. He smells "the meadow in the street," the waggon loads of hay and clover coming in from the country.
Wimpole Street is here again described, with morning breaking over the housetops:
"I see Betwixt the black fronts long-withdrawn A light blue lane of early dawn."
It was at No. 67 in this street that Mr. Hallam lived, and wrote his great historical works; and his son Arthur used to say, "We are always to be found at sixes and sevens."
All is now welcome:
"I think of early days and thee, And bless thee, for thy lips are bland, And bright the friendship of thine eye; And in my thoughts with scarce a sigh I take the pressure of thine hand."
Notes from the edition 3
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 [Cf. vn. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
- Stanza 1, line 4 Gatty understands a reference to country carts bringing hay, clover, etc., into London. Perhaps the meaning is rather that the silence, the chirping, and the light-blue lane so remind him of the country that he seems to ' smell the meadow in the street.' And, again, it is possible, as I am told by a correspondent, that the poet may actually have caught at day-break in London the smell of newly-mown grass wafted from miles away. But I fancy that, if Tennyson had ever had this experience, he would have alluded to it more fully or more than once. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 3 'early': the repetition of the word is, no doubt, intentional. [Bradley]
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