Peace, come away: the song of woe
Peace, come away: the song of woeIs after all an earthly song:Peace, come away; we do him wrongTo sing so wildly; let us go.
Come, let us go, your cheeks are pale,But half my life I leave behind;Methinks my friend is richly shrined,But I shall pass; my work will fail.
Yet in these ears till hearing dies,One set slow bell will seem to tollThe passing of the sweetest soulThat ever looked with human eyes.
I hear it now, and o’er and o’er,Eternal greetings to the dead;And ‘Ave, Ave, Ave,’ said,‘Adieu, adieu’ for evermore!
Words in this poem
- methinks v.
- It seems to me; I think. See Me. [AS. þyncan to seem, me þynceedh, me þuhte, OE. me thinketh, me thoughte; akin to G. dünken to seem, denken to think, and E. think. See Me, and Think.]
- 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
Peace, come away: the song of woe 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, Peace, come away: the song of woe, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-56.html, id L18416.
Form and metre
Peace, come away: the song of woe 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. 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 woeA · songB · wrongB · goA
- 2 ABBA paleA · behindB · shrinedB · failA
- 3 ABBA diesA · tollB · soulB · eyesA
- 4 ABBA o'erA · deadB · saidB · evermoreA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Peace, come away: the song of woe | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Is after all an earthly song: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Peace, come away; we do him wrong | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| To sing so wildly; let us go. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Come, let us go, your cheeks are pale, | 8 | ········ |
| But half my life I leave behind; | 8 | ········ |
| Methinks my friend is richly shrined, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| But I shall pass; my work will fail. | 8 | ········ |
| Yet in these ears till hearing dies, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| One set slow bell will seem to toll | 8 | ········ |
| The passing of the sweetest soul | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That ever looked with human eyes. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I hear it now, and o’er and o’er, | 8 | ········ |
| Eternal greetings to the dead; | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| And ‘Ave, Ave, Ave,’ said, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| ‘Adieu, adieu’ for evermore! | 8 | ˘/˘/·/˘· |
On this poem
He says his companion's cheeks are pale, so it is time that they should turn to other things, though in doing so, he must leave half his own life behind. His "friend is richly shrined;" but what will become of himself? "I shall pass; my work will fail."
The author speaks of these poems--"me-thinks, I have built a rich shrine for my friend, but it will not last." At any rate, so long as he lives will the tolling of Hallam's passing bell be in his ears; and the strokes on the bell, "Ave" and "Adieu," hail and farewell, are like the notes of perpetual separation. They seem to be parted "for evermore." He is in the lowest depth of woe.
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 [Cf. The Grave. See Introduc- tion, supra, p. 205. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
- Stanza 1, line 2 Cf. XXXVII. 13 (Robinson). [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 4 'wildly': cf. Prologue, 41. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2 I shall pass; my work will fail. The poet speaks of these poems. Methinks I have built a rich shrine to my friend, but it will not last. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 2, line 3 ' richly shrined ': in these poems. * Methinks I have built a rich shrine for my friend, but it will not last' (authoritative correction in Gatty, p. 62). Cf. LXXV., LXXVI., LXXVII. 'fail': die away, as in n. 15, xxvin. 7, XLVI. 4, LXXXIV. 36. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 1 G. A. C. compares 2 Henry IV., I. i. 102: Sounds ever after as a sullen bell Remember'd tolling a departing friend.
T4. 'greetings*: 'Ave7 in the next line means 'greeting' or 'hail.'
r5, 16. Catullus, at his brother's grave, 'Atque in per- pemum, frater, ave atque vale' (c. 10); of which line Tennyson writes; ' nor can any modern elegy, so long as men retain the least hope in the after-life of those whom they loved, equal in pathos the desolation of that everlast- ing farewell' (Memoir, n. 239). With the thrice-repeated Ave cf. Aen. VI. 506, 'et magna manes ter voce vocavi.' 'For evermore' in 16 does not go with 'Adieu,' as Gatty supposes, but with 'said.' The inverted commas, and the context from 9 onward, make this certain. Contrast with these lines CXXIII. 11, 12. [Bradley] - Stanza 4 Ave, Ave. Cf. Catullus, Carm. ci. 10, these terribly pathetic lines:
Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu
Atque in perpetuum frater Ave atque Vale.
[My father wrote: " Nor can any modern elegy, so long as men retain the least hope in the after-life of those whom they loved, equal in pathos the desolation of that ever- lasting farewell." — ED.] [Tennyson]
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