The love that rose on stronger wings
The love that rose on stronger wings,Unpalsied when he met with Death,Is comrade of the lesser faithThat sees the course of human things.
No doubt vast eddies in the flood,Of onward time shall yet be made,And throned races may degrade;Yet O ye ministers of good,
Wild Hours that fly with Hope and Fear,If all your office had to doWith old results that look like new,If this were all your mission here,
To draw, to sheathe a useless sword,To fool the crowd with glorious lies,To cleave a creed in sects and cries,To change the bearing of a word,
To shift an arbitrary power,To cramp the student at his desk,To make old baseness picturesqueAnd tuft with grass a feudal tower;
Why then my scorn might well descendOn you and yours. I see in partThat all, as in some piece of art,Is toil cöoperant to an end.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The love that rose on stronger wings 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, The love that rose on stronger wings, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-126.html, id L18486.
Form and metre
The love that rose on stronger wings 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 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 wingsA · deathB · faithB · thingsA
- 2 ABBA floodA · madeB · degradeB · goodA
- 3 ABBA fearA · doB · newB · hereA
- 4 ABBA swordA · liesB · criesB · wordA
- 5 ABBA powerA · deskB · picturesqueB · towerA
- 6 ABBA descendA · partB · artB · endA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The love that rose on stronger wings, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Unpalsied when he met with Death, | 7 | ······· |
| Is comrade of the lesser faith | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| That sees the course of human things. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| No doubt vast eddies in the flood, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of onward time shall yet be made, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And throned races may degrade; | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Yet O ye ministers of good, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Wild Hours that fly with Hope and Fear, | 8 | ·/······ |
| If all your office had to do | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With old results that look like new, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| If this were all your mission here, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To draw, to sheathe a useless sword, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To fool the crowd with glorious lies, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To cleave a creed in sects and cries, | 8 | ········ |
| To change the bearing of a word, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To shift an arbitrary power, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| To cramp the student at his desk, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To make old baseness picturesque | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| And tuft with grass a feudal tower; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Why then my scorn might well descend | 8 | ······˘/ |
| On you and yours. I see in part | 8 | ········ |
| That all, as in some piece of art, | 8 | ········ |
| Is toil cöoperant to an end. | 8 | ········ |
On this poem
"Is comrade to the lesser faith That sees the course of human things."
This "lesser faith" attends to the events of time, and is not overborne by present confusions, but reaches, sustained by Love, to a last happy consummation.
If all that the "wild Hours" of Time had to do was to repeat the past, bring about useless wars, "fool the crowd with glorious lies," cleave religion into sects, disguise language, change governments, cramp learning, patch afresh what is antique and worn--if these results were all that could be effected, then would my scorn be well deserved. But
"I see in part That all, as in some piece of art, Is toil co-operant to an end;"
that all things are working together for final good.
Notes from the edition 13
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 [In comradeship with Love that is all the stronger for facing Death, the Faith which believes in the progress of the world sees that all in the individual as in the race is working to one great result, however retrograde the eddies of the world-currents may at times appear to be.] (This section must be read in close connection with cxxvi. and cxxvn.) [Emily Tennyson]
- Stanza 1, line 2 ' lie ': as in xcvii. 2 f. [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 3 'lesser,' because man's life on earth ofters to faith no obstacle so formidable as death. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 1 Cf. Locksley Hall Sixty Years After: Forward then, but still remember how the course of Time
will swerve, Crook and turn upon itself in many a backward streaming
curve.
G. A. C. compares Coleridge's Friend (Introduction, after Second Landing-place): ' The progress of the species neither is nor can be like that of a Roman road in a right line. It may be more justly compared to that of a river, which, both in its.smaller reaches and larger turnings, is frequently forced back towards its fountains by objects which cannot otherwise be eluded or overcome.' There are other indications that this Introduction influenced Tennyson. [Bradley] - Stanza 2, line 3 * throned races ': races now highest. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 4 Yet there is progress, not a mere repetition of old results that only look like new; such repetition as is described in 13 ff. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 2 'glorious lies': Collins quotes the phrase from Cra- shaw, To Mistress M. /?. Perhaps Horace's * splendide mendax' was in the poet's mind. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 4 While pretending to produce a new idea. [Bradley]
- Stanza 5, line 1 While pretending to abolish it. [Bradley]
- Stanza 5, line 2 He narrows himself, but discovers nothing new. [Bradley]
- Stanza 5, line 3 20. Additions which bring no life into what is dead. * Bareness ' was misprinted ' baseness ' in first ed. [Bradley]
- Stanza 6, line 3 * all ': even the eddies of 5 and the degenerations of 7. [Bradley]
- Stanza 6, line 4 Cf. Two Voices:
He seems to hear a Heavenly Friend, And thro' thick veils to apprehend A labour working to an end. [Bradley]
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.