When Lazarus left his charnel-cave
When Lazarus left his charnel-cave,And home to Mary’s house return’d,Was this demanded--if he yearn’dTo hear her weeping by his grave?
‘Where wert thou, brother, those four days?’There lives no record of reply,Which telling what it is to dieHad surely added praise to praise.
From every house the neighbours met,The streets were fill’d with joyful sound,A solemn gladness even crown’dThe purple brows of Olivet.
Behold a man raised up by Christ!The rest remaineth unreveal’d;He told it not; or something seal’dThe lips of that Evangelist.
Words in this poem
- evangelist n.
- A bringer of the glad tidings of Church and his doctrines.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
When Lazarus left his charnel-cave 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, When Lazarus left his charnel-cave, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-31.html, id L18391.
Form and metre
When Lazarus left his charnel-cave is 16 lines in 4 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 8.0 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 caveA · return'dB · yearn'dB · graveA
- 2 ABBA daysA · replyB · dieB · praiseA
- 3 ABBA metA · soundB · crown'dB · olivetA
- 4 ABBA christA · unreveal'dB · seal'dB · evangelistA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When Lazarus left his charnel-cave, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And home to Mary’s house return’d, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Was this demanded--if he yearn’d | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| To hear her weeping by his grave? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| ‘Where wert thou, brother, those four days?’ | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| There lives no record of reply, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Which telling what it is to die | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Had surely added praise to praise. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| From every house the neighbours met, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The streets were fill’d with joyful sound, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A solemn gladness even crown’d | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| The purple brows of Olivet. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Behold a man raised up by Christ! | 8 | ˘/······ |
| The rest remaineth unreveal’d; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| He told it not; or something seal’d | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The lips of that Evangelist. | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
On this poem
Did Lazarus in death yearn to hear his sister Mary weeping for him? If she asked him, when restored to life, where he was during his four days of entombment;
"There lives no record of reply,"
which, if given, might have "added praise to praise"--that is, might have sealed and confirmed the promise that "blessed are the dead which die in the Lord."
As it was, the neighbours met and offered congratulations, and their cry was,
"Behold a man raised up by Christ! The rest remaineth unreveal'd; He told it not; or something seal'd The lips of that Evangelist."
It is only St. John who records the miracle.
Notes from the edition 8
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 "She goeth unto the grave to weep there" (St. John xi. 31). [Tennyson]
- Stanza 1, line 3 Did he lose his 'mortal sympathy' (xxx. 23)? 'To hear ': at hearing. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2 Had surely added praise to praise. r, [Would have doubled our sense of thanks- giving.— ED.] [Tennyson]
- Stanza 2, line 2 The Palace of Art has a similar line:
There comes no murmur of reply. [Bradley] - Stanza 2, line 4 ' added praise to praise ': doubled our gratitude; we are told that death is not extinction, but not what death is. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4 \He is Lazarus. — ED.] [Tennyson]
- Stanza 4, line 2 Pope's lines, Eloisa to Abelard, 9, 10,
Dear fatal name ! rest ever unreveal'd, Nor pass these lips in holy silence seal'd, evidently remained in Tennyson's memory. [Bradley] - Stanza 4, line 3 'He': Lazarus: 'that Evangelist': St. John, in whose Gospel alone the story is told. [Bradley]
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