When in the down I sink my head
When in the down I sink my head,Sleep, Death’s twin-brother, times my breath;Sleep, Death’s twin-brother, knows not Death,Nor can I dream of thee as dead:
I walk as ere I walk’d forlorn,When all our path was fresh with dew,And all the bugle breezes blewReveillée to the breaking morn.
But what is this? I turn about,I find a trouble in thine eyeWhich makes me sad I know not why,Nor can my dream resolve the doubt:
But ere the lark hath left the leaI wake, and I discern the truth;It is the trouble of my youthThat foolish sleep transfers to thee.
Words in this poem
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
When in the down I sink my head 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, When in the down I sink my head, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-66.html, id L18426.
Form and metre
When in the down I sink my head 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 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 headA · breathB · deathB · deadA
- 2 ABBA forlornA · dewB · blewB · mornA
- 3 ABBA aboutA · eyeB · whyB · doubtA
- 4 ABBA leaA · truthB · youthB · theeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When in the down I sink my head, | 8 | ········ |
| Sleep, Death’s twin-brother, times my breath; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Sleep, Death’s twin-brother, knows not Death, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Nor can I dream of thee as dead: | 8 | ········ |
| I walk as ere I walk’d forlorn, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| When all our path was fresh with dew, | 8 | ··/····· |
| And all the bugle breezes blew | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Reveillée to the breaking morn. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But what is this? I turn about, | 8 | ········ |
| I find a trouble in thine eye | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Which makes me sad I know not why, | 8 | ········ |
| Nor can my dream resolve the doubt: | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| But ere the lark hath left the lea | 8 | ········ |
| I wake, and I discern the truth; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| It is the trouble of my youth | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That foolish sleep transfers to thee. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
On this poem
But, looking at his friend, he discovers "a trouble in thine eye"--an expression of sadness, which his dream will not account for. The light of day reveals the truth. He awakes, and perceives that his own grief, the trouble of his youth, had transferred itself to the image he saw in his dream.
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 Death's twin-brother. " Consanguineus Leti Sopor" (Aen. vi. 278).
[Cf. //. xiv. 231; //. xvi. 672 and 682. — -ED.] [Tennyson] - Stanza 1, line 2 Homer calls sleep the brother of death, //. xiv. 231. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 1 Cf. 'In sleep she seem'd to walk forlorn,' Mariana. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 2 'path': cf. xxn. ff. [Bradley]
- Stanza 3, line 1 'turn about': cf. XLIV. 14, where also 'resolve the doubt (12 of this section) occurs. For the sense of con- fusion cf. IV, [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 1 For the early waking of grief cf. VH. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 3 'my youth': see Introduction, p. 16. For the idea of the dreamer's feeling 'ideally transferred' to the person dreamed of, cf. The Lover's Tale, u., end of para- graph beginning 'Alway.' [Bradley]
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