I cannot love thee as I ought
I cannot love thee as I ought,For love reflects the thing beloved;My words are only words, and movedUpon the topmost froth of thought.
‘Yet blame not thou thy plaintive song,’The Spirit of true love replied;‘Thou canst not move me from thy side,Nor human frailty do me wrong.
‘What keeps a spirit wholly trueTo that ideal which he bears?What record? not the sinless yearsThat breathed beneath the Syrian blue;
‘So fret not, like an idle girl,That life is dash’d with flecks of sin.Abide: thy wealth is gathered in,When Time hath sunder’d shell from pearl.’
Words in this poem
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
- frailty n.
- The condition quality of being frail, physically, mentally, or morally, frailness; infirmity; weakness of resolution; liableness to be deceived or seduced. [OE. frelete, freilte, OF. fraileté, fr. L. fragilitas. See Frail, a., and cf. Fragility.]
- sinless a.
- Free from sin. Piers Plowman.
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I cannot love thee as I ought 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, I cannot love thee as I ought, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-51.html, id L18411.
Form and metre
I cannot love thee as I ought 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 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 19% 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 oughtA · belovedB · movedB · thoughtA
- 2 ABBA songA · repliedB · sideB · wrongA
- 3 ABBA trueA · bearsB · yearsB · blueA
- 4 ABBA girlA · sinB · inB · pearlA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I cannot love thee as I ought, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For love reflects the thing beloved; | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| My words are only words, and moved | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Upon the topmost froth of thought. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| ‘Yet blame not thou thy plaintive song,’ | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The Spirit of true love replied; | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| ‘Thou canst not move me from thy side, | 8 | ········ |
| Nor human frailty do me wrong. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| ‘What keeps a spirit wholly true | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To that ideal which he bears? | 7 | ··˘/··· |
| What record? not the sinless years | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That breathed beneath the Syrian blue; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| ‘So fret not, like an idle girl, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That life is dash’d with flecks of sin. | 8 | ········ |
| Abide: thy wealth is gathered in, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| When Time hath sunder’d shell from pearl.’ | 8 | ········ |
On this poem
"For love reflects the thing beloved;"
whereas his words are words only, the "froth of thought."
The Spirit of love reproves this self-accusation:
"Thou canst not move me from thy side, Nor human frailty do me wrong."
There is no ideal of excellence, which we may conceive, that will ensure our attaining to it:
"not the sinless years That breathed beneath the Syrian blue"--
not the life of Christ, in the clear atmosphere of Palestine, keeps any spirit "wholly true" to that pattern of perfection.
So be not "like an idle girl," fretting over little faults--"flecks of sin." But wait, thy wealth will be gathered in--thy worth shown
"When Time hath sunder'd shell from pearl"--
when the flesh has left the Soul free from its contaminating influence.
Notes from the edition 2
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 [I cannot love thee as I ought, for human nature is frail, and cannot be perfect like Christ's. Yet it is the ideal, and truth to the ideal, which make the wealth of life.2 The more direct line of thought is that not even the Gospel tale keeps man wholly true
1 See Introduction, supra, p. 216. — ED.
to the ideal of Christ. But nothing — no shortcoming of frail humanity — can move that Spirit of the highest love from our side which bids us endure and abide the issue. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson] - Stanza 4 Abide, wait without wearying. [Tennyson]
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