Dear friend, far off, my lost desire
Dear friend, far off, my lost desire,So far, so near in woe and weal;O, loved the most when most I feelThere is a lower and a higher;
Known and unknown, human, divine!Sweet human hand and lips and eye,Dear heavenly friend that canst not die,Mine, mine, for ever, ever mine!
Strange friend, past, present, and to be,Loved deeplier, darklier understood;Behold I dream a dream of goodAnd mingle all the world with thee.
About this text
Dear friend, far off, my lost desire 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, Dear friend, far off, my lost desire, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-127.html, id L18487.
Form and metre
Dear friend, far off, my lost desire 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 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 desireA · wealB · feelB · higherA
- 2 ABBA divineA · eyeB · dieB · mineA
- 3 ABBA beA · understoodB · goodB · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dear friend, far off, my lost desire, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| So far, so near in woe and weal; | 8 | ········ |
| O, loved the most when most I feel | 8 | ········ |
| There is a lower and a higher; | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Known and unknown, human, divine! | 8 | ··˘//˘˘/ |
| Sweet human hand and lips and eye, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Dear heavenly friend that canst not die, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Mine, mine, for ever, ever mine! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Strange friend, past, present, and to be, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Loved deeplier, darklier understood; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Behold I dream a dream of good | 8 | ˘/······ |
| And mingle all the world with thee. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
On this poem
"Strange friend, past, present, and to be, Loved deeplier, darklier understood; Behold, I dream a dream of good, And mingle all the world with thee."
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 [These two faiths are in reality the same. The thought of thee as human and divine mingles with all great thoughts as to the destiny of the world (cf. cxxx.)] He " shall live though he die." [Emily Tennyson]
- Stanza 1, line 1 'far off.' This was once the one thing he could not forgive (cf. e.g. LXXXII.); * desire ': object of desire. Cf. Catullus, II. 5, ' Quum desiderio meo nitenti,' of Lesbia. [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 3 ' O loved the most,' etc.: and so loved most when felt to be nearest to the highest. Cf. 10 and cxxx. 10-12. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 1 ' Known ' corresponds to ' human,' ' unknown ' to * divine.' ' Divine ': because * mix'd with God,' or * living in God' 'Epilogue, 140), the * Immortal Love' (which on its part is human as well as divine, Prologue, 13). [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 3 ' that canst not die ': like * hand and lips and eye.' [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 1 ' Strange ': cf. XLI. 5, cxxx. 5. This was prepared for in evil. 23. [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.