If one should bring me this report
If one should bring me this report,That thou hadst touch’d the land to-day,And I went down unto the quay,And found thee lying in the port,
And standing, muffled round with woe,Should see thy passengers in rankCome stepping lightly down the plank,And beckoning unto those they know,
And if along with these should comeThe man I held as half-divine;Should strike a sudden hand in mine,And ask a thousand things of home;
And I should tell him all my pain,And how my life had droop’d of late,And he should sorrow o’er my stateAnd marvel what possess’d my brain;
And I perceived no touch of change,No hint of death in all his frame,But found him all in all the same,I should not feel it to be strange.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- quay n.
- A mole, bank, or wharf, formed toward the sea, or at the side of a harbor, river, or other navigable water, for convenience in loading and unloading vessels. [F. quai. See Key quay.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
If one should bring me this report 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, If one should bring me this report, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-14.html, id L18374.
Form and metre
If one should bring me this report is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 15% 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 reportA · dayB · quayB · portA
- 2 ABBA woeA · rankB · plankB · knowA
- 3 ABBA comeA · divineB · mineB · homeA
- 4 ABBA painA · lateB · stateB · brainA
- 5 ABBA changeA · frameB · sameB · strangeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If one should bring me this report, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That thou hadst touch’d the land to-day, | 8 | ········ |
| And I went down unto the quay, | 8 | ········ |
| And found thee lying in the port, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And standing, muffled round with woe, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Should see thy passengers in rank | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Come stepping lightly down the plank, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And beckoning unto those they know, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And if along with these should come | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The man I held as half-divine; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Should strike a sudden hand in mine, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And ask a thousand things of home; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And I should tell him all my pain, | 8 | ········ |
| And how my life had droop’d of late, | 8 | ········ |
| And he should sorrow o’er my state | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And marvel what possess’d my brain; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| And I perceived no touch of change, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| No hint of death in all his frame, | 8 | ········ |
| But found him all in all the same, | 8 | ········ |
| I should not feel it to be strange. | 8 | ········ |
On this poem
"I should not feel it to be strange."
Both this and the previous Poem express the difficulty we feel in realising the death of some one who is dear to us. So Cowper wrote, after losing his mother, and in expectation that she would yet return:
"What ardently I wish'd, I long believed, And disappointed still, was still deceived."
Notes from the edition 2
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 unreality of Death.] [Emily Tennyson]
- Stanza 3, line 2 The man I held as half-divine. [My father said, "He was as near perfection as mortal man could be." — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
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.