Sleep, kinsman thou to death and trance
Sleep, kinsman thou to death and tranceAnd madness, thou hast forged at lastA night-long Present of the PastIn which we went through summer France.
Hadst thou such credit with the soul?So bring an opiate treble-strong,Drug down the blindfold sense of wrongThat thus my pleasure might be whole;
While now we talk as once we talk’dOf men and minds, the dust of change,The days that grow to something strange,In walking as of old we walk’d
Beside the river’s wooded reach,The fortress, and the mountain ridge,The cataract flashing from the bridge,The breaker breaking on the beach.
Words in this poem
- kinsman n.
- A man of the same race or family; one related by blood.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- opiate n.
- Originally, a medicine of a thicker consistence than sirup, prepared with opium. Parr. [From Opium: cf.F. opiat.]
- blindfold v. t.
- To cover the eyes of, as with a bandage; to hinder from seeing. [OE. blindfolden, blindfelden, blindfellen; AS. blind blind + prob. fellan, fyllan, to fell, strike down.]
- breaker n.
- One who, or that which, breaks.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sleep, kinsman thou to death and trance 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, Sleep, kinsman thou to death and trance, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-69.html, id L18429.
Form and metre
Sleep, kinsman thou to death and trance 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 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 38% 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 tranceA · lastB · pastB · franceA
- 2 ABBA soulA · strongB · wrongB · wholeA
- 3 ABBA talk'dA · changeB · strangeB · walk'dA
- 4 ABBA reachA · ridgeB · bridgeB · beachA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep, kinsman thou to death and trance | 8 | ·/······ |
| And madness, thou hast forged at last | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A night-long Present of the Past | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In which we went through summer France. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Hadst thou such credit with the soul? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So bring an opiate treble-strong, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Drug down the blindfold sense of wrong | 8 | ···/···· |
| That thus my pleasure might be whole; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| While now we talk as once we talk’d | 8 | ········ |
| Of men and minds, the dust of change, | 8 | ········ |
| The days that grow to something strange, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In walking as of old we walk’d | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Beside the river’s wooded reach, | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| The fortress, and the mountain ridge, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The cataract flashing from the bridge, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The breaker breaking on the beach. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
On this poem
"A night-long Present of the Past,"
by reviving in a dream of the night a tour they had made together "thro' summer France."
The Poet asks that, if sleep has "such credit with the soul," as to produce this temporary illusion; it may be farther extended by giving him a stronger opiate, so as to make his pleasure complete, in prolonging this renewal of their pedestrian tour, and reviving other cherished associations.
This reference to their foreign excursion recalls the charming verses, "In the Valley of Cauteretz," which evidently relate to their being together during this happy holiday:
"All along the valley, stream that flashest white, Deepening thy voice with the deepening of the night, All along the valley, where thy waters flow, I walk'd with one I loved two-and-thirty years ago. All along the valley, while I walk'd to-day, The two-and-thirty years were a mist that rolls away; For all along the valley, down thy rocky bed, Thy living voice to me was as the voice of the dead, And all along the valley, by rock and cave and tree, The voice of the dead was a living voice to me."
Notes from the edition 9
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 [The original reading of first verse (MS.):
Old things are clear in waking trance,
And thou, O Sleep, hast made at last A night-long Present of the Past In which we went thro' sunny France.
ED.]
we went [in 1832 (see Memoir, i. 51 foil., and the poem In the Valley of Cauteretz). —ED.]. [Hallam Tennyson] - Stanza 1 [The original reading of last verse (MS.):
Beside the river's wooded reach,
The meadow set with summer flags, The cataract clashing from the crags, The breaker breaking on the beach.
ED.] [Hallam Tennyson] - Stanza 1, line 2 ' madness: suggested by the ' masks ' of LXX. [Bradley]
- Stanza 1, line 4 See the lines In the Valley of Cauteretz. The year was 1830. ' In the summer my father joined Arthur Hallam, and both started off for the Pyrenees, with money for the insurgent allies of Torrijos.... He it was who had raised the standard of revolt against the Inquisition and the tyranny of Ferdinand, King of Spain' (Memoir, I. 51). Cf. 1. ii. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 1 * such credit ': such acceptance as to produce an illusion so strong. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 2 First ed.: { So bring an opiate treble-strong.' [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 3 Fven this dream had been troubled like that of LXVin. For Sense of wrong' cf. the last three stanzas^of the next section, and LXXXII. 14. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2, line 4 First ed,: ' That thus my pleasure might be whole.'
15, I suppose, as they look up the torrent towards the bridge, the fall under the bridge appears to flash from the darker arch itself. Some construe: ' the cataract flashing as we watch it from the bridge.' But cf. Aylmer's Field (of the noyades): * naked marriages Flash from the bridge.' [Bradley] - Stanza 4, line 3 The cataract flashing from the bridge. [That is, from under the bridge. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
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