Laurel · Alfred Tennyson · In Memoriam A.H.H.

To Sleep I give my powers away

iambic tetrameter · ABBA · 16 lines · from In Memoriam A.H.H.

To Sleep I give my powers away;My will is bondsman to the dark;I sit within a helmless bark,And with my heart I muse and say:

‘O heart, how fares it with thee now,That thou should’st fail from thy desire,Who scarcely darest to inquireWhat is it makes me beat so low?’

Something it is which thou hast lost,Some pleasure from thine early years.Break, thou deep vase of chilling tears,That grief hath shaken into frost!

Such clouds of nameless trouble crossAll night below the darken’d eyes;With morning wakes the will, and cries,‘Thou shalt not be the fool of loss.’

Words in this poem

bondsman n.: A slave; a villain; a serf; a bondman. [Bond,a.orn.+ man.]
helmless a.: Destitute of a helmet.
hast: , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
nameless a.: Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
shalt: 2d per. sing. of Shall.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

To Sleep I give my powers away 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, To Sleep I give my powers away, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-4.html, id L18364.

Form and metre

To Sleep I give my powers away 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%). 100% 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. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end. Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: love / prove, come / home, on / one.

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 away^A · dark^B · bark^B · say^A
2 ABBA now^A · desire^B · inquire^B · low^A
3 ABBA lost^A · years^B · tears^B · frost^A
4 ABBA cross^A · eyes^B · cries^B · loss^A

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
To Sleep I give my powers away;	8	·····/˘/
My will is bondsman to the dark;	8	···/˘···
I sit within a helmless bark,	8	·····/˘·
And with my heart I muse and say:	8	········
‘O heart, how fares it with thee now,	8	········
That thou should’st fail from thy desire,	9	······˘/˘
Who scarcely darest to inquire	8	·/˘···˘/
What is it makes me beat so low?’	8	········
Something it is which thou hast lost,	8	/˘······
Some pleasure from thine early years.	8	·/˘··/˘·
Break, thou deep vase of chilling tears,	8	·····/˘·
That grief hath shaken into frost!	8	···/˘···
Such clouds of nameless trouble cross	8	···/˘/˘·
All night below the darken’d eyes;	8	·····/˘·
With morning wakes the will, and cries,	8	·/˘·····
‘Thou shalt not be the fool of loss.’	8	········

On this poem

In sleep there is no struggle of the will; and he communes with his own heart, which is beating so low; a condition that must be caused by a sense of "something lost."

"Break," he says, still addressing his heart, but in metaphor;

"Break, thou deep vase of chilling tears, That grief hath shaken into frost."

This must refer to the scientific fact, that water can be lowered in temperature below the freezing point, without solidifying; but it expands at once into ice if disturbed; and the suddenness of the expansion breaks the containing vessel.

Clouds of undefined trouble, such as "dreams are made of," pass "below the darken'd eyes," that is, figure themselves on the brain under the eyelids; but on awaking, the will reasserts its power, and protests against the folly of such mourning. He would therefore dismiss the phantom, Sorrow.

Notes from the edition 3

Section introductions from Alfred Gatty, A Key to Lord Tennyson's “In Memoriam”, 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 The Works of Tennyson, Annotated by the Author, ed. Hallam, Lord Tennyson, vol. 3 (Macmillan, 1908; Internet Archive worksoftennysona03tennuoft). Line notes credited “[Bradley]” are A. C. Bradley's, from A Commentary on Tennyson's In Memoriam (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 2, line 2 ' fail from thy desire ': rather ' lose the power of desir ng' than 'lose the object desired.' With 'fail from' ( = 'die away from') cf. II. 15, LXXXIV. 36. [Bradley]
Stanza 3, line 4 Break, thou deep vase of chilling fears, That grief hath shaken into frost. Water can be brought below freezing-point and not turn into ice — if it be kept still; but if it be moved suddenly it turns into ice and may break the vase. [Tennyson]
Stanza 3, line 2 As the friendship did not begin in childhood, ' early years ' may be intended to emphasise the confusion of the dreaming mind. But it is barely possible that the phrase is an oversight, marking a late date of composition.

n, 12. 'Water can be lowered in temperature below the freezing point, without solidifying; but it expands at once into ice if disturbed; and the suddenness of the expansion breaks [may break?] the containing vessel3 (Gatty). With the metaphor of tears freezing cf. XX. n, 12, and Byron (' There's not a joy '), ' That heavy chill has frozen o'er the fountain jifjQur tears.5

15/Mhe will': cf. 2, and LXXXV. 37-40. [Bradley]

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More by Alfred Tennyson

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