That which we dare invoke to bless
That which we dare invoke to bless;Our dearest faith, our ghastliest doubt;He, They, One, All; within, without;The Power in darkness whom we guess;
I found Him not in world or sun,Or eagle’s wing, or insect’s eye;Nor thro’ the questions men may try,The petty cobwebs we have spun:
If e’er when faith had fall’n asleep,I heard a voice ‘believe no more’And heard an ever-breaking shoreThat tumbled in the Godless deep;
A warmth within the breast would meltThe freezing reason’s colder part,And like a man in wrath the heartStood up and answer’d ‘I have felt.’
No, like a child in doubt and fear:But that blind clamour made me wise;Then was I as a child that cries,But, crying, knows his father near;
And what I seem beheld againWhat is, and no man understands;And out of darkness came the handsThat reach thro’ nature, moulding men.
Words in this poem
- godless a.
- Having, or acknowledging, no God; without reverence for God; impious; wicked.
- clamour n.
- A great outcry or vociferation; loud and continued shouting or exclamation. [OF. clamour, clamur, F. clameur, fr. L. clamor, fr. clamare to cry out. See Claim.]
- moulding n.
- The act or process of shaping in or on a mold, or of making molds; the art or occupation of a molder.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
That which we dare invoke to bless 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, That which we dare invoke to bless, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-122.html, id L18482.
Form and metre
That which we dare invoke to bless is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 21% 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 blessA · doubtB · withoutB · guessA
- 2 ABBA sunA · eyeB · tryB · spunA
- 3 ABBA asleepA · moreB · shoreB · deepA
- 4 ABBA meltA · partB · heartB · feltA
- 5 ABBA fearA · wiseB · criesB · nearA
- 6 ABBA againA · understandsB · handsB · menA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That which we dare invoke to bless; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Our dearest faith, our ghastliest doubt; | 8 | //˘·/··· |
| He, They, One, All; within, without; | 8 | ········ |
| The Power in darkness whom we guess; | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| I found Him not in world or sun, | 8 | ········ |
| Or eagle’s wing, or insect’s eye; | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| Nor thro’ the questions men may try, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The petty cobwebs we have spun: | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| If e’er when faith had fall’n asleep, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| I heard a voice ‘believe no more’ | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And heard an ever-breaking shore | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| That tumbled in the Godless deep; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A warmth within the breast would melt | 8 | ········ |
| The freezing reason’s colder part, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| And like a man in wrath the heart | 8 | ········ |
| Stood up and answer’d ‘I have felt.’ | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No, like a child in doubt and fear: | 8 | ········ |
| But that blind clamour made me wise; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Then was I as a child that cries, | 8 | ········ |
| But, crying, knows his father near; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And what I seem beheld again | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| What is, and no man understands; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And out of darkness came the hands | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That reach thro’ nature, moulding men. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
On this poem
"Our dearest faith; our ghastliest doubt; He, They, One, All; within, without; The Power in darkness whom we guess."
This Power lives in our hearts. Eye hath not seen Him, nor is He to be found "in world or sun," or by dissection of what has lived, or by process of reasoning.
If ever his own faith faltered, and a voice said, "believe no more," the reproving witness was within himself.
"A warmth within the breast would melt The freezing reason's colder part, And like a man in wrath the heart Stood up and answer'd, I have felt."
Still he was
"as a child that cries, But, crying, knows his father near."
His own heart, which is the home of faith, testified to Divine truth, which "no man understands," but he accepts it as the one solution of what exists.
Notes from the edition 9
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, line 2 The context seems to show that the meaning is, 1 Present alike in our dearest faith and our ghastliest doubt,' rather than merely, * Obiect alike of both.' Cf. xcvi. [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 3 That Nameless of which we think as one person and as more than one, as the unity in all things and as all things together. Cf. Akbar^s Dream:
that Infinite
Within us, as without, that All-in-all, And over all, the never-changing One And ever-changing Many.
With * They ' cf. De Profundis: * They said " Let us make man " '; but there * they } is presumably a reference to the plural in Gen. I. 26. [Bradley] - Stanza 2, line 1 As the stanza is often misunderstood, it should be observed that the poet does not say that He is not to be found in Nature or in thought, but that it was not there that the poet found Him. After He is found elsewhere He is seen also in Nature (see last stanza); and so too * our little systems ' are seen to be * broken lights of Him (Prologue) just as Nature *half conceals and half reveals the Soul within ' (v. 3, 4). [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 2 * reasons ': the reason has been arguing that the world is merely a process of meaningless change (10-12). [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 4 See p. 62. [Bradley]
- Stanza 5 [blind clamour refers to I heard a voice ' believe no more ' And heard an ever-breaking shore That tumbled in the Godless deep.
ED.] [Hallam Tennyson] - Stanza 5, line 1 See Liv., LV. I understand the meaning to be: ' No, my heart was like a child crying blindly in doubt and fear. But my blind crying made me wise (i.e. I saw that the cry was really, though my heart did not know this, a cry to a father); so that I became like a " child that cries," etc.' As Gatty points out, there is perhaps in the phraseology a reminiscence of Herbert's Collar:
But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild
At every word, Methought I heard one calling, ' Child ':
And I replied, ' My Lord.' [Bradley] - Stanza 5, line 2 * wise': gave me ' wisdom,' though not ' knowledge.' [Bradley]
- Stanza 6, line 1 * am ': first ed.: * seem,' which was in antithesis to * is ' in 22, and implied that ' I' is phenomenal. Cf. cxxxi. I, 2, and, for * beheld what is,' xcv. 39. [Bradley]
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