Thy spirit ere our fatal loss
Thy spirit ere our fatal lossDid ever rise from high to higher;As mounts the heavenward altar-fire,As flies the lighter thro’ the gross.
But thou art turn’d to something strange,And I have lost the links that boundThy changes; here upon the ground;No more partaker of thy change.
Deep folly! yet that this could be--That I could wing my will with mightTo leap the grades of life and light,And flash at once, my friend, to thee:
For though my nature rarely yieldsTo that vague fear implied in death;Nor shudders at the gulfs beneath,The howlings from forgotten fields;
Yet oft when sundown skirts the moorAn inner trouble I behold,A spectral doubt which makes me cold,That I shall be thy mate no more,
Tho’ following with an upward mindThe wonders that have come to thee,Thro’ all the secular to be,But evermore a life behind.
Words in this poem
- sundown n.
- The setting of the sun; sunset.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Thy spirit ere our fatal loss 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, Thy spirit ere our fatal loss, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-40.html, id L18400.
Form and metre
Thy spirit ere our fatal loss 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 91%). 97% 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 lossA · higherB · fireB · grossA
- 2 ABBA strangeA · boundB · groundB · changeA
- 3 ABBA beA · mightB · lightB · theeA
- 4 ABBA yieldsA · deathB · beneathB · fieldsA
- 5 ABBA moorA · beholdB · coldB · moreA
- 6 ABBA mindA · theeB · beB · behindA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thy spirit ere our fatal loss | 8 | ·/·/˘/˘· |
| Did ever rise from high to higher; | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| As mounts the heavenward altar-fire, | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘/ |
| As flies the lighter thro’ the gross. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But thou art turn’d to something strange, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And I have lost the links that bound | 8 | ········ |
| Thy changes; here upon the ground; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| No more partaker of thy change. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Deep folly! yet that this could be-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That I could wing my will with might | 8 | ········ |
| To leap the grades of life and light, | 8 | ········ |
| And flash at once, my friend, to thee: | 8 | ········ |
| For though my nature rarely yields | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To that vague fear implied in death; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Nor shudders at the gulfs beneath, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The howlings from forgotten fields; | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Yet oft when sundown skirts the moor | 8 | ···/···· |
| An inner trouble I behold, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| A spectral doubt which makes me cold, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That I shall be thy mate no more, | 8 | ········ |
| Tho’ following with an upward mind | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The wonders that have come to thee, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Thro’ all the secular to be, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| But evermore a life behind. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
On this poem
"leap the grades of life and light, And flash at once, my friend, to thee."
See P. xcv., 9.
For, though he has no vague dread of death and "the gulfs beneath," yet the chilling thought comes over him, that in death he may not be able to overtake his friend, but evermore remain "a life behind" him,
"Through all the secular to be"--
all future ages: and that so he shall be his mate no more, which is his great trouble.
"The howlings of forgotten fields"
is probably a classical allusion to those "fields" of mystic horror, over which the spirits of the departed were supposed to range, uttering wild shrieks and cries. Has Dante no such allusion?
This Poem intimates the idea of progress and advancement after death.
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 [This section alludes to the doctrine which from first to last, and in so many ways and images, my father proclaimed — " the upward and onward progress of life." — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
- Stanza 2, line 1 The friend, no doubt, is still rising from high to higher, but the poet can no longer see how one stage leads to another.
* something strange ': cf. Tempest, * something rich and strange,' and CXXIX., 9. [Bradley] - Stanza 3, line 1 ' Deep folly': i.e. the wish he is just going to utter. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 3 'the grades' which his friend has traversed since death. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 4 'flash5: cf. xcv. 36. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 4 The howlings from forgotten fields. The eternal miseries of the Inferno.
[More especially, I feel sure, a reminiscence of Dante's Inferno^ Canto iii. lines 25-51, which he often quoted as giving terribly the horror of it all. They describe those wretched beings, who for ever shriek and wail and beat their breasts because they are despised, and forgotten, and consigned to everlasting nothing- ness on account of their colourlessness and indifference during life:
Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa; Misericordia e giustizia gli sdegna; Non ragionam di lor, ma guarda e passa.
ED.] [Tennyson] - Stanza 4, line 1 14. 'Men fear Death as children fear to go in the dark ': Bacon, Essay II. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 3 'And as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other ' {id.). These two lines must refer to the horrors of the world below imagined in Classical and Christian Mythology, and described by Dante and (with reserve) by Virgil. The word 'fields' is probably due to recollections of Virgil {e.g. 'lugentes campi,' Aen. vi. 441), and 'gulfs' possibly to the lines about Tartarus {ib. 577 f.). ' Rowlings ' is probably a reminiscence of Claudio's speech {Measure for Measure^ III. i. 126),
or to be worse than worst Of those that lawless and incertain thoughts Imagine howling:
or of Hamlet, V. i. 264,
A ministering angel shall my sister be When thou liest howling.
* Forgotten ' no commentator attempts to explain. It sounds like a reminiscence, but I do not know of what. ' Forgotten by Heaven ' is the only meaning that seems probable. Cf. the lines from the Dedication of the Palace of Art (where note ' howling '),
And he that shuts Love out, in turn shall be Shut out from Love, and on her threshold lie Howling in outer darkness.
[It has been suggested that 'forgotten' implies that stories of infe rnal horror have almost faded from his mind.] With the whole stanza cf. Browne, Rel. Med. I. 51, 52 (G. A. C.). [Bradley] - Stanza 6 secular to-be, aeons of the future. [Cf. LXXVI. ii.:
The secular abyss to come.
ED.] [Tennyson] - Stanza 6, line 3 ' secular to-be ': age-long future. Cf. LXXVI. 6, and a secular bird, ages of lives,' Samson Agonistes, 1711. [Bradley]
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