Laurel · Alfred Tennyson · In Memoriam A.H.H.

Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again

iambic tetrameter · ABBA · 28 lines · from In Memoriam A.H.H.

Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again,And howlest, issuing out of night,With blasts that blow the poplar white,And lash with storm the streaming pane?

Day, when my crown’d estate begunTo pine in that reverse of doom,Which sickened every living bloom,And blurr’d the splendour of the sun;

Who usherest in the dolorous hourWith thy quick tears that make the rosePull sideways, and the daisy closeHer crimson fringes to the shower;

Who might’st have heaved a windless flameUp the deep East, or, whispering, play’dA chequer-work of beam and shadeFrom hill to hill, yet look’d the same,

As wan, as chill, as wild as now;Day, mark’d as with some hideous crime,When the dark hand struck down thro’ time.And cancell’d nature’s best: but thou,

Lift as thou may’st thy burthen’d browsThro’ clouds that drench the morning star,And whirl the ungarner’d sheaf afar,And sow the sky with flying boughs,

And up thy vault with roaring soundClimb thy thick noon, disastrous day;Touch thy dull goal of joyless gray,And hide thy shame beneath the ground.

Words in this poem

streaming a.: Sending forth streams.
pane n.: The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
splendour n.: Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
dolorous a.: Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; doleful; dismal; as, a dolorous object; dolorous discourses. [L. dolorosus, from dolor: cf. F. douloureux. See Dolor.]
windless a.: Having no wind; calm.
afar adv.: At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
disastrous a.: Full of unpropitious stellar influences; unpropitious; ill-boding. [Cf. F. désastreux. See Disaster.]
joyless a.: Not having joy; not causing joy; unenjoyable.

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again 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, Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-70.html, id L18430.

Form and metre

Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again 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 88%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 32% 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 again^A · night^B · white^B · pane^A
2 ABBA begun^A · doom^B · bloom^B · sun^A
3 ABBA hour^A · rose^B · close^B · shower^A
4 ABBA flame^A · play'd^B · shade^B · same^A
5 ABBA now^A · crime^B · time^B · thou^A
6 ABBA brows^A · star^B · afar^B · boughs^A
7 ABBA sound^A · day^B · gray^B · ground^A

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
Risest thou thus, dim dawn, again,	8	······˘/
And howlest, issuing out of night,	8	·/˘/˘···
With blasts that blow the poplar white,	8	·····/˘·
And lash with storm the streaming pane?	8	·····/˘·
Day, when my crown’d estate begun	8	····˘/˘/
To pine in that reverse of doom,	8	····˘/··
Which sickened every living bloom,	8	·/˘/˘/˘·
And blurr’d the splendour of the sun;	8	···/˘···
Who usherest in the dolorous hour	9	·/˘··/˘˘/
With thy quick tears that make the rose	8	········
Pull sideways, and the daisy close	8	·/···/˘·
Her crimson fringes to the shower;	9	·/˘/˘··/˘
Who might’st have heaved a windless flame	8	·····/˘·
Up the deep East, or, whispering, play’d	8	·····/˘·
A chequer-work of beam and shade	8	·/˘·····
From hill to hill, yet look’d the same,	8	········
As wan, as chill, as wild as now;	8	········
Day, mark’d as with some hideous crime,	8	·····/˘·
When the dark hand struck down thro’ time.	8	········
And cancell’d nature’s best: but thou,	8	·/˘/˘···
Lift as thou may’st thy burthen’d brows	8	········
Thro’ clouds that drench the morning star,	8	·····/˘·
And whirl the ungarner’d sheaf afar,	9	·······˘/
And sow the sky with flying boughs,	8	·····/˘·
And up thy vault with roaring sound	8	·····/˘·
Climb thy thick noon, disastrous day;	8	····˘/˘·
Touch thy dull goal of joyless gray,	8	·····/˘·
And hide thy shame beneath the ground.	8	········

On this poem

The dreams are over, and he addresses the sad anniversary of Hallam's death, which took place on the 15th of September, 1833--the day having just dawned with stormy accompaniments. The poplar tree is blown white, through having its leaves reversed by the wind; and the window-pane streams with rain. It is a day on which his "crown'd estate," his life's happiness, began to fail; and that the rose is weighed down by rain, and the daisy closes her "crimson fringes," are effects quite in harmony with his feelings.

But, if the day had opened with no wind, and the sun had chequered the hill sides with light and shadow; it would still have looked

"As wan, as chill, as wild as now."

It is a disastrous "day, mark'd as with some hideous crime," he can therefore only say, "hide thy shame beneath the ground," in sunset, when the recalling anniversary will be past.

We are reminded of Job's imprecation on his own birthday--"Let the day perish on which I was born."

Notes from the edition 9

Section introductions from Alfred Gatty, A Key to Lord Tennyson's “In Memoriam”, 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 The Works of Tennyson, Annotated by the Author, ed. Hallam, Lord Tennyson, vol. 3 (Macmillan, 1908; Internet Archive worksoftennysona03tennuoft). Line notes credited “[Bradley]” are A. C. Bradley's, from A Commentary on Tennyson's In Memoriam (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 Hallam's death-day, September the 1 5th. [Cf. xcix. — ED.] [Tennyson]
Stanza 1, line 3 ' white ': by turning up the under-side of the leaves. So of the willow and the olive in The Lady of Shalott (st. 2) and The Palace of Art (st. 20). Cf. Hamlet, IV. vii. 168. [Bradley]
Stanza 2, line 1 'Day': the word is repeated throughout the poem almost as if it were a term of reproach, 'crown'd': cf. xxn. 6. [Bradley]
Stanza 4 yet look 'd. [Yetwouldst have looked. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
Stanza 4, line 4 'Along the hills': first ed.: « From hill to hill.' ' yet look'd ': and yet would'st have looked. [Bradley]
Stanza 5, line 3 For the moment he figures the world as ruled by a blind or malicious Fate. Cf. perhaps 6. Contrast LXXXV. 20, cxxiv. 23, 24. [Bradley]
Stanza 7 thy dull goal of joyless gray [the dull sunset. — ED.]. [Hallam Tennyson]
Stanza 7, line 3 * Alludes to the hour of noon when the sun reaches its highest point' (C. E. Benham). With Gatty, I should take the line with 28 as referring to sunset. [Bradley]
Stanza 7, line 4 Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 33, ' Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace.' [Bradley]

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