Now, sometimes in my sorrow shut
Now, sometimes in my sorrow shut,Or breaking into song by fits;Alone, alone, to where he sits,The Shadow cloak’d from head to foot
Who keeps the keys of all the creeds,I wander, often falling lame,And looking back to whence I came,Or on to where the pathway leads;
And crying, how changed from where it ranThro’ lands where not a leaf was dumb;But all the lavish hills would humThe murmur of a happy Pan:
When each by turns was guide to each,And Fancy light from Fancy caught,And Thought leapt out to wed with Thought,Ere thought could wed itself with Speech:
And all we met was fair and good,And all was good that Time could bring,And all the secret of the SpringMoved in the chambers of the blood:
And many an old philosophyOn Argive heights divinely sang,And round us all the thicket rangTo many a flute of Arcady.
Words in this poem
- pathway n.
- A footpath; a beaten track; any path or course. Also used figuratively.
- argive a.
- Of or performance to Argos, the capital of Argolis in Greece. [L. Argivus, fr. Argos, Argi.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Now, sometimes in my sorrow shut 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, Now, sometimes in my sorrow shut, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-23.html, id L18383.
Form and metre
Now, sometimes in my sorrow shut is 24 lines in 6 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 8.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 shutA · fitsB · sitsB · footA
- 2 ABBA creedsA · lameB · cameB · leadsA
- 3 ABBA ranA · dumbB · humB · panA
- 4 ABBA eachA · caughtB · thoughtB · speechA
- 5 ABBA goodA · bringB · springB · bloodA
- 6 ABBA philosophyA · sangB · rangB · arcadyA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now, sometimes in my sorrow shut, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Or breaking into song by fits; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Alone, alone, to where he sits, | 8 | ˘/˘/···· |
| The Shadow cloak’d from head to foot | 8 | ·/······ |
| Who keeps the keys of all the creeds, | 8 | ········ |
| I wander, often falling lame, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| And looking back to whence I came, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Or on to where the pathway leads; | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And crying, how changed from where it ran | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Thro’ lands where not a leaf was dumb; | 8 | ········ |
| But all the lavish hills would hum | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The murmur of a happy Pan: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When each by turns was guide to each, | 8 | ········ |
| And Fancy light from Fancy caught, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And Thought leapt out to wed with Thought, | 8 | ········ |
| Ere thought could wed itself with Speech: | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And all we met was fair and good, | 8 | ········ |
| And all was good that Time could bring, | 8 | ········ |
| And all the secret of the Spring | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Moved in the chambers of the blood: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And many an old philosophy | 9 | ·/˘··˘/˘˘ |
| On Argive heights divinely sang, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| And round us all the thicket rang | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To many a flute of Arcady. | 8 | ·/······ |
On this poem
"Who keeps the keys of all the creeds"--
inasmuch as only when we die shall we know the whole truth; and "falling lame" on his way, that is, stumbling in his vain enquiries as to whence he came and whither he is going, he can only grasp one feeling, which is, that all is miserably changed since they were in company--friends enjoying life together, travelling in foreign lands, and indulging in scholarly communion on classic subjects.
Notes from the edition 10
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, line 1 Of course 'sometimes' does not qualify 'wander,' as in Gatty's paraphrase, but answers to ' Or.' l Sometimes in dumb sorrow, sometimes breaking into a song of mourning.' [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 3 For the pathetic effect of the repetition, cf. xvm. 13, and Rape of Lucrece^ 795, 'where I alone alone must sit and pine.' David's cry for Absalom, Othello's ' But yet the pity of it, I ago ! O I ago, the pity of it, I ago ! ' Lear's ' Thou'lt come no more, Never, never, never, never, neyer,' Hamlet's thrice- repeated ' Except my life,' are among famous examples of this effect. [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 4 Death, himself a mystery, can alone-, disclose the mysteries concealed in the creeds. In the metaphor there may be a reminiscence of Cymbeline, V. iv. 7, 'death, who is the key To unbar these locks,' or of the golden key of Comus, 13, LycidaS) no. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 1 Who keeps the keys of all the creeds. After death we shall learn the truth of all beliefs. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 2, line 2 ' wander ': he no longer ' walks in haste ' to find the Shadow, but wanders without a purpose; 'lame': cf. LV. 17. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 4 'Pan': the god of universal nature. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 3 Cf. 'Ev'n thought meets thought ere from the lips it part,' Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, 95. [Bradley]
- Stanza 5, line 3 And all the secret of the Spring. Re-awakening of life. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 5, line 1 'met,' in the present; 'bring,' in the future. [Bradley]
- Stanza 6, line 1 The use of ' Pan' for ' Nature ' in 12 might lead one to think that Tennyson is using the conventions of classical elegy, in which case the present stanza would refer to philo- sophy and poetry in general; but ' old ' implies that he means Greek philosophy and poetry in particular. With ' divinely ' cf. LIII. 14. [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.