The path by which we twain did go
The path by which we twain did go,Which led by tracts that pleased us well,Thro’ four sweet years arose and fell,From flower to flower, from snow to snow:
And we with singing cheer’d the way,And crown’d with all the season lent,From April on to April went,And glad at heart from May to May:
But where the path we walk’d beganTo slant the fifth autumnal slope,As we descended following Hope,There sat the Shadow fear’d of man;
Who broke our fair companionship,And spread his mantle dark and cold;And wrapped thee formless in the fold,And dull’d the murmur on thy lip;
And bore thee where I could not seeNor follow, tho’ I walk in haste;And think that, somewhere in the waste,The Shadow sits and waits for me.
Words in this poem
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- formless a.
- Shapeless; without a determinate form; wanting regularity of shape.
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The path by which we twain did go 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 path by which we twain did go, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-22.html, id L18382.
Form and metre
The path by which we twain did go 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 95%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 10% 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 goA · wellB · fellB · snowA
- 2 ABBA wayA · lentB · wentB · mayA
- 3 ABBA beganA · slopeB · hopeB · manA
- 4 ABBA companionshipA · coldB · foldB · lipA
- 5 ABBA seeA · hasteB · wasteB · meA
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 path by which we twain did go, | 8 | ········ |
| Which led by tracts that pleased us well, | 8 | ········ |
| Thro’ four sweet years arose and fell, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| From flower to flower, from snow to snow: | 8 | ·/·/···· |
| And we with singing cheer’d the way, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And crown’d with all the season lent, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From April on to April went, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And glad at heart from May to May: | 8 | ········ |
| But where the path we walk’d began | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To slant the fifth autumnal slope, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| As we descended following Hope, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| There sat the Shadow fear’d of man; | 8 | ···/···· |
| Who broke our fair companionship, | 8 | ··/·˘/˘· |
| And spread his mantle dark and cold; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And wrapped thee formless in the fold, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And dull’d the murmur on thy lip; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And bore thee where I could not see | 8 | ········ |
| Nor follow, tho’ I walk in haste; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And think that, somewhere in the waste, | 8 | ···/···· |
| The Shadow sits and waits for me. | 8 | ·/······ |
On this poem
"But where the path we walk'd began To slant the fifth autumnal slope,"
"the Shadow fear'd of man," grim Death, "broke our fair companionship."
Hallam died on the 15th September, 1833, and the survivor, eagerly pursuing, can find him no more, but
"thinks, that somewhere in the waste The Shadow sits and waits for me."
His own spirit becomes darkened by gloomy apprehensions of superimpending calamity.
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 four sweet years. [1828- 32.— ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
- Stanza 1, line 3 The path seems to be figured as ascending in spring and summer, and descending in autumn and winter. See 10 and ii. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 2 ' crown'd ': cf. LXXII. 5. It is a favourite word in Shakespeare's Sonnets. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 2 September 15 was the date of Hallam's death. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 4 The image of Death as a shadow occurs frequently in Tennyson, as in writers before him: for instance, in the early poem, Love and Death^ Death is described as the shadow cast by life in the light of eternity. [Bradley]
- Stanza 5, line 3 'waste': the path has entered a desert. Cf. A. H. Halla n, Remains^ p. 65 (G. A. C.):
Sick and lone,
Roaming the weary desert of my doom, Where thou art not.
The last three lines, with the next section, seem to be the only allusion in In Memoriam to the longing for death which the poet felt for a time, and partly expressed in the Two Voices. (See Memqir^ I. 109.)
i [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.