O living will that shalt endure
O living will that shalt endureWhen all that seems shall suffer shock,Rise in the spiritual rock,Flow thro’ our deeds and make them pure,
That we may lift from out the dustA voice as unto him that hears,A cry above the conquer’d yearsTo one that with us works, and trust
With faith that comes of self-controlThe truths that never can be provedUntil we close with all we loved,And all we flow from, soul in soul.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
O living will that shalt endure 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, O living will that shalt endure, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-129.html, id L18489.
Form and metre
O living will that shalt endure 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 93%). 98% 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 endureA · shockB · rockB · pureA
- 2 ABBA dustA · hearsB · yearsB · trustA
- 3 ABBA controlA · provedB · lovedB · soulA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O living will that shalt endure | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| When all that seems shall suffer shock, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Rise in the spiritual rock, | 8 | ···/˘˘˘· |
| Flow thro’ our deeds and make them pure, | 8 | ··/····· |
| That we may lift from out the dust | 8 | ········ |
| A voice as unto him that hears, | 8 | ········ |
| A cry above the conquer’d years | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To one that with us works, and trust | 8 | ········ |
| With faith that comes of self-control | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The truths that never can be proved | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Until we close with all we loved, | 8 | ········ |
| And all we flow from, soul in soul. | 8 | ········ |
On this poem
"When all that seems shall suffer shock, Rise in the spiritual rock,"
which is Christ, the source of all life and strength; and flowing through our deeds, "make them pure;" so that out of the dust of death, we may cry to One that hears, and has conquered time, and with us works; and we may put our whole trust in those "truths that never can be proved until we close with all we loved," and with God Himself, who will be "all in all"--not by the souls of mankind becoming absorbed into the "general Soul"--a notion which Poem xlvii. repudiates--but by the Divine nature being infused into and prevailing in all.
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 [The following words were uttered by my father in January 1869, and bear upon this section: — " Yes, it is true that there are moments when the flesh is nothing
to me, when I feel and know the flesh to be the vision, God and the Spiritual the only real and true. Depend upon it, the Spiritual is the real: it belongs to one more than the hand and the foot. You may tell me that my hand and my foot are only imaginary symbols of my existence, I could believe you; but you never, never can convince me that the / is not an eternal Reality, and that the Spiritual is not the true and real part of me." These words he spoke with such passionate earnest- ness that a solemn silence fell on us as he left the room. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson] - Stanza 1 O living will. That which we know as Free-will in man. [See Introduction, supra^ pp. 215, 216. — ED.]
spiritual rock. [Cf. i Cor. x. 4. — ED.] [Tennyson] - Stanza 2 conquered years. [Cf. "victor Hours," i. iv. — ED.] [Tennyson]
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