Dost thou look back on what hath been
Dost thou look back on what hath been,As some divinely gifted man,Whose life in low estate beganAnd on a simple village green;
Who breaks his birth’s invidious bar,And grasps the skirts of happy chance,And breasts the blows of circumstance,And grapples with his evil star;
Who makes by force his merit knownAnd lives to clutch the golden keys,To mould a mighty state’s decrees,And shape the whisper of the throne;
And moving up from high to higher,Becomes on Fortune’s crowning slopeThe pillar of a people’s hope,The centre of a world’s desire;
Yet feels, as in a pensive dream,When all his active powers are still,A distant dearness in the hill,A secret sweetness in the stream,
The limit of his narrower fate,While yet beside its vocal springsHe played at counsellors and kings,With one that was his earliest mate;
Who ploughs with pain his native leaAnd reaps the labour of his hands,Or in the furrow musing stands;‘Does my old friend remember me?’
Words in this poem
- invidious a.
- Envious; malignant. Evelyn. [L. invidiosus, fr. invidia envy. See Envy, and cf. Envious.]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- centre v. i.
- To be placed in a center; to be central.
- dearness n.
- The quality or state of being dear; costliness; excess of price.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dost thou look back on what hath been 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, Dost thou look back on what hath been, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-62.html, id L18422.
Form and metre
Dost thou look back on what hath been is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% 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 beenA · manB · beganB · greenA
- 2 ABBA barA · chanceB · circumstanceB · starA
- 3 ABBA knownA · keysB · decreesB · throneA
- 4 ABBA higherA · slopeB · hopeB · desireA
- 5 ABBA dreamA · stillB · hillB · streamA
- 6 ABBA fateA · springsB · kingsB · mateA
- 7 ABBA leaA · handsB · standsB · meA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dost thou look back on what hath been, | 8 | ········ |
| As some divinely gifted man, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Whose life in low estate began | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| And on a simple village green; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Who breaks his birth’s invidious bar, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And grasps the skirts of happy chance, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And breasts the blows of circumstance, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And grapples with his evil star; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Who makes by force his merit known | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And lives to clutch the golden keys, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To mould a mighty state’s decrees, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And shape the whisper of the throne; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And moving up from high to higher, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Becomes on Fortune’s crowning slope | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| The pillar of a people’s hope, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The centre of a world’s desire; | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Yet feels, as in a pensive dream, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When all his active powers are still, | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| A distant dearness in the hill, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A secret sweetness in the stream, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The limit of his narrower fate, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| While yet beside its vocal springs | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| He played at counsellors and kings, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| With one that was his earliest mate; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Who ploughs with pain his native lea | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And reaps the labour of his hands, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Or in the furrow musing stands; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| ‘Does my old friend remember me?’ | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
On this poem
"As some divinely gifted man,"
who has burst through all the adverse circumstances of his humble birth, by genius and labour; making
"by force his merit known, And lives to clutch the golden keys, To mould a mighty state's decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne;"
as Lord Beaconsfield did.
Does not such a hero in his elevation,
"When all his active powers are still,"
sometimes feel tender memories of the scenes of his early life--
"The limit of his narrower fate"--
when he "play'd at counsellors and kings" with some lad long ago left behind in his native obscurity; and who now resting on his plough, musingly asks,
"Does my old friend remember me?"
Notes from the edition 4
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 was composed by my father when he was walking up and down the Strand and Fleet Street. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
- Stanza 3 golden keys [keys of office of State. — ED.]. [Hallam Tennyson]
- Stanza 3, line 2 * golden keys' of State office. Cf. Shelley, Hellas, ' Or bears the sword, or grasps the key of gold/ Pethaps Tennyson had just read Macaulay's vivid description oif the Duke of Devonshire (Lord Chamberlain) tearing off his gold key on receiving an insulting message from the King-. (The Earl of Chatham, Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1844) [Bradley]
- Stanza 7, line 1 The pathetic effect is increased by the fact that in the two preceding stanzas we are not told that his old friend does remember him. [Bradley]
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.