How fares it with the happy dead?
How fares it with the happy dead?For here the man is more and more;But he forgets the days beforeGod shut the doorways of his head.
The days have vanish’d, tone and tint,And yet perhaps the hoarding senseGives out at times (he knows not whence)A little flash, a mystic hint;
And in the long harmonious years(If Death so taste Lethean springs)May some dim touch of earthly thingsSurprise thee ranging with thy peers.
If such a dreamy touch should fall,O turn thee round, resolve the doubt,My guardian angel will speak outIn that high place, and tell thee all.
Words in this poem
- hoarding n.
- A screen of boards inclosing a house and materials while builders are at work. [Eng.] [From OF. hourd, hourt, barrier, palisade, of German or Dutch origin; cf. D. horde hurdle, fence, G. horde, hürde; akin to E. hurdle. sq. root16. See Hurdle.]
- lethean a.
- Of or pertaining to Lethe; resembling in effect the water of Lethe. Milton. Barrow.
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
How fares it with the happy dead? 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, How fares it with the happy dead?, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-43.html, id L18403.
Form and metre
How fares it with the happy dead? 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 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 31% 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 deadA · moreB · beforeB · headA
- 2 ABBA tintA · senseB · whenceB · hintA
- 3 ABBA yearsA · springsB · thingsB · peersA
- 4 ABBA fallA · doubtB · outB · allA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How fares it with the happy dead? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For here the man is more and more; | 8 | ········ |
| But he forgets the days before | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| God shut the doorways of his head. | 8 | ···/···· |
| The days have vanish’d, tone and tint, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And yet perhaps the hoarding sense | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Gives out at times (he knows not whence) | 8 | ········ |
| A little flash, a mystic hint; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And in the long harmonious years | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| (If Death so taste Lethean springs) | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| May some dim touch of earthly things | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Surprise thee ranging with thy peers. | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| If such a dreamy touch should fall, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O turn thee round, resolve the doubt, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| My guardian angel will speak out | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| In that high place, and tell thee all. | 8 | ········ |
On this poem
"before God shut the doorways of his head;"
that is, before the skull of the infant closed. Yet sometimes
"A little flash, a mystic hint"
suggests the possibility of a previous existence. "If death so taste Lethean springs," as to leave a trace on the soul of what had happened upon earth--the Poet here makes Lethe produce remembrance, instead of forgetfulness, which is its normal effect. Dante describes the double power of the mythic stream in Purgatory (Can. xxviii., l. 134)--
"On this, devolved with power to take away Remembrance of offence; on that, to bring Remembrance back of every good deed done. From whence its name of Lethe on this part; On the other, Eunoe."--Cary's Translation.
And so, "in the long harmonious years" of death, some dim touch of earthly things may reach Hallam whilst ranging with his equals. If this should be allowed, "O turn thee round," "resolve the doubt," whether thou art conscious of a previous life, and listen to my guardian angel, who will tell thee all about us here.
Notes from the edition 7
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 God shut the doonvays of his head. Closing of the skull after babyhood.
The dead after this life may have no re- membrance of life, like the living babe who forgets the time before the sutures of the skull are closed, yet the living babe grows in
knowledge, and though the remembrance of his earliest days has vanished, yet with his increasing knowledge there comes a dreamy vision of what has been; it may be so with the dead; if so, resolve my doubts, etc. [Tennyson] - Stanza 1, line 1 'happy' does not suggest that the dead are 'perchance too happy to think upon the things of Time.' It excludes the idea of sleep (XLIII.), and consideration of the unhappy dead. [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 2 'more and more': cf. cxvm. 17, and Locksley Hall, 'the world is more and more' (Robinson). [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 4 ' doorways.' Whether this refers to the organs of sense, or to the sutures, it remains a very strange expression. The image of the body as a house is familiar, and Tennyson often uses it (e.g., in The Deserted House, The Lover's Tale, Aylmer's Field]; nor is there anything very odd in the idea of the head as a house in which the soul sits. Then the eyes may be thought of as windows (as often in poetry), and the eyelids as eaves (LXVII. n). And if Tennyson had been reading a book on the skull, in which he constantly met with words like ' arches,' ' walls,' ' roof,' he might easily go on to imagine the closing of the sutures as the shutting of folding- doors.1 But a doorway is a passage by which entrances, or
*I add this sentence because of a suggestion made to me by Prof. L. C. Miall that Tennyson was influenced by the word 'arches,' familiar to anatomists in the forties in consequence of Owen's use of it. Prof. Miail hence understood ' the days,' etc., to mean 'the days before the arches of his skull were closed.'
exits, or both, are made. Perhaps then, if the doorways are the sutures, we are to imagine that at first the general soul goes freely in and out by these doorways, while later, when they are shut, some part of it, left inside, is the * separate mind.' Section XLV., stanza 3, when compared with XLVII., stanza I (where notice ' ranerging '), would seem to point to some such image. Or again, the baby-soul may be pictured as at first going freely in and out. I cannot help suspecting that Tennyson was influenced by ideas about the world-soul, derived perhaps from Stoic or Neoplatonic writers (Hallam certainly read the latter). This discussion has run to such monstrous lengths that I will not pursue the suggestion, but I cherish the hope that the riddle of this phrase and of the whole section will some day be solved by the discovery of a Greek equivalent of * doorways of his head.' The phrase has all the air of a reminiscence, but I have searched for its origin in vain.
[Prof. J. A. Stewart has called my attention to a significant story told in Plutarch's De Genio Socratis^ 22, about a man who entered the cave of Trophonius. His soul left his body, saw many wonderful things, and returned to it again. It left and returned through the sutures, the opening and closing of which caused severe pain. It is just possible that the meta- phor of ' door ' was suggested by Aristotle's use of 66pa.Qev in a famous sentence, de gen. an., 736 b 28.] [Bradley] - Stanza 3, line 2 If at death a similar forgetfulness occurs. Cf. Two Voices:
As old mythologies relate,
Some draught of Lethe might await
The slipping through from state to state. [Bradley] - Stanza 3, line 4 'ranging': cf. xcill. 9. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 2 The image is that of a man startled by some slight sound behind him or by a touch on the shoulder. If the friend turns, he will see the poet's guardian angel. With 'resolve the doubt,' cf. LXVIII. 12. [Bradley]
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