What words are these have fall’n from me?
What words are these have fall’n from me?Can calm despair and wild unrestBe tenants of a single breast,Or sorrow such a changeling be?
Or doth she only seem to takeThe touch of change in calm or storm;But knows no more of transient formIn her deep self, than some dead lake
That holds the shadow of a larkHung in the shadow of a heaven?Or has the shock, so harshly given,Confus’d me like the unhappy bark
That strikes by night a craggy shelf,And staggers blindly ere she sink?And stunn’d me from my power to thinkAnd all my knowledge of myself;
And made me that delirious manWhose fancy fuses old and new,And flashes into false and true,And mingles all without a plan?
Words in this poem
- unrest n.
- Want of rest or repose; unquietness; sleeplessness; uneasiness; disquietude.
- changeling n.
- One who, or that which, is left or taken in the place of another, as a child exchanged by fairies. [Change + -ling.]
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
What words are these have fall’n from me? 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, What words are these have fall’n from me?, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-16.html, id L18376.
Form and metre
What words are these have fall’n from me? 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 91%). 98% 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. 40% 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 meA · unrestB · breastB · beA
- 2 ABBA takeA · stormB · formB · lakeA
- 3 ABBA larkA · heavenB · givenB · barkA
- 4 ABBA shelfA · sinkB · thinkB · myselfA
- 5 ABBA manA · newB · trueB · planA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What words are these have fall’n from me? | 8 | ········ |
| Can calm despair and wild unrest | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| Be tenants of a single breast, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Or sorrow such a changeling be? | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Or doth she only seem to take | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The touch of change in calm or storm; | 8 | ········ |
| But knows no more of transient form | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In her deep self, than some dead lake | 8 | ········ |
| That holds the shadow of a lark | 8 | ···/···· |
| Hung in the shadow of a heaven? | 9 | ···/···/˘ |
| Or has the shock, so harshly given, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Confus’d me like the unhappy bark | 9 | ˘/···˘/˘· |
| That strikes by night a craggy shelf, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And staggers blindly ere she sink? | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And stunn’d me from my power to think | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And all my knowledge of myself; | 8 | ···/˘··/ |
| And made me that delirious man | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Whose fancy fuses old and new, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And flashes into false and true, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And mingles all without a plan? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
On this poem
Being distinct from bodily pain, Sorrow is more like the reflection than the thing reflected. But the shock he has received has made his mind confused, and he is like a ship that strikes on a rock and founders. He becomes a
"delirious man, Whose fancy fuses old and new, And flashes into false and true, And mingles all without a plan."
Notes from the edition 5
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 [He questions himself about these alternations of " calm despair " and " wild un- rest." Do these changes only pass over the surface of the mind while in the depth still abides his unchanging sorrow? or has his reason been stunned by his grief? — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
- Stanza 1, line 2 'calm despair,' repeated from XI. 16; 'wild unrest,' repeated from xv. 15. The wild unrest is also seen in xn, [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 1 'seem' is emphatic. The lake may reflect on its surface variations in the world above it, but its ' deep self is always the same. ' Form ' is often used by Tennyson for superficial appearance as contrasted with essential being. Another interpretation is given by C. E. Benham: * Or is it simply that in sorrow man does not know his own state, but merely imagines that his surroundings represent his mood, while the real self is no more seen by the man than the lark's reflection is seen by the lake in which it is mirrored ? '. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 4 It is the fear for the ship (xv. 14) that suggests this image, which again reminds the reader of the surrounding sections. Cf. Herbert's Misery, where man is compared with
A sick toss'd vessel, dashing on each thing;
Nay, his own shell. [Bradley] - Stanza 5, line 1 As in xiv. [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.