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

This truth came borne with bier and pall

iambic tetrameter · ABBA · 120 lines · from In Memoriam A.H.H.

This truth came borne with bier and pall,I felt it, when I sorrow’d most,’Tis better to have loved and lost,Than never to have loved at all----

O true in word, and tried in deed,Demanding, so to bring reliefTo this which is our common grief,What kind of life is that I lead;

And whether trust in things above,Be dimm’d of sorrow, or sustain’d;And whether love for him have drain’dMy capabilities of love;

Your words have virtue such as drawsA faithful answer from the breast,Thro’ light reproaches, half exprest,And loyal unto kindly laws.

My blood an even tenor kept,Till on mine ear this message falls,That in Vienna’s fatal wallsGod’s finger touch’d him, and he slept.

The great Intelligences fairThat range above our mortal state,In circle round the blessed gate,Received and gave him welcome there;

And led him through the blissful climes,And show’d him in the fountain freshAll knowledge that the sons of fleshShall gather in the cycled times.

But I remain’d, whose hopes were dim,Whose life, whose thoughts were little worth,To wander on a darken’d earth,Where all things round me breathed of him.

O friendship, equal-poised control,O heart, with kindliest motion warm,O sacred essence, other form,O solemn ghost! O crowned soul!

Yet none could better know than I,How much of act at human handsThe sense of human will demands,By which we dare to live or die.

Whatever way my days decline,I felt and feel, though left alone,His being working in mine own,The footsteps of his life in mine;

A life that all the Muses deck’dWith gifts of grace that might expressAll-comprehensive tenderness,All-subtilising intellect:

And so my passion hath not swervedTo works of weakness, but I findAn image comforting the mind,And in my grief a strength reserved.

Likewise the imaginative woe,That loved to handle spiritual strife,Diffused the shock through all my life,But in the present broke the blow.

My pulses therefore beat againFor other friends that once I met;Nor can it suit me to forgetThe mighty hopes that make us men.

I woo your love: I count it crimeTo mourn for any overmuch;I, the divided half of suchA friendship as had master’d Time;

Which masters Time indeed, and isEternal, separate from fears.The all-assuming months and yearsCan take no part away from this:

But Summer on the steaming floods,And Spring that swells the narrow brooks,And Autumn, with a noise of rooks,That gather in the waning woods,

And every pulse of wind and waveRecalls, in change of light or gloom,My old affection of the tomb,And my prime passion in the grave:

My old affection of the tomb,A part of stillness, yearns to speak;‘Arise, and get thee forth and seekA friendship for the years to come.

I watch thee from the quiet shore;Thy spirit up to mine can reach;But in dear words of human speechWe two communicate no more.’

And I ‘Can clouds of nature stainThe starry clearness of the free?How is it? Canst thou feel for meSome painless sympathy with pain?’

And lightly does the whisper fall;‘’Tis hard for thee to fathom this;I triumph in conclusive bliss,And that serene result of all.’

So hold I commerce with the dead;Or so methinks the dead would say;Or so shall grief with symbols play,And pining life be fancy-fed.

Now looking to some settled end,That these things pass, and I shall proveA meeting somewhere, love with love,I crave your pardon, O my friend;

If not so fresh, with love as true,I, clasping brother-hands, averI could not, if I would, transferThe whole I felt for him to you.

For which be they that hold apartThe promise of the golden hours?First love, first friendship, equal powersThat marry with the virgin heart.

Still mine that cannot but deplore,That beats within a lonely place,That yet remembers his embrace,But at his footstep leaps no more,

My heart, tho’ widow’d, may not restQuite in the love of what is gone,But seeks to beat in time with oneThat warms another living breast.

Ah, take the imperfect gift I bring,Knowing the primrose yet is dear,The primrose of the later year,As not unlike to that of Spring.

Words in this poem 15

bier n.: A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave. [OE. bæe, beere, AS. b, b; akin to D. baar, OHG. bara, G. bahre, Icel barar, Dbaare, L. feretrum, Gr. , from the same bear to produce. See 1st Bear, and cf. Barr]
blissful a.: Full of, characterized by, or causing, joy and felicity; happy in the highest degree.
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,]
ghost n.: The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
strife n.: The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
broke v. i.: To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
waning n.: The act or process of waning, or decreasing.
stillness n.: The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
starry a.: Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
painless a.: Free from pain; without pain.
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.]
somewhere adv.: In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
crave v. t.: To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
aver n.: A work horse, or working ox. [OF. aver domestic animal, whence LL. averia, pl. cattle. See Habit, and cf. Average.]
deplore v. t.: To feel or to express deep and poignant grief for; to bewail; to lament; to mourn; to sorrow over. [L. deplorare; de- + plorare to cry out, wail, lament; prob. akin to pluere to rain, and to E. flow: cf. F. déplorer. Cf. Flow.]

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

About this text

This truth came borne with bier and pall 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, This truth came borne with bier and pall, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-83.html, id L18443.

Form and metre

This truth came borne with bier and pall is 120 lines in 30 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 pall^A · most^B · lost^B · all^A
2 ABBA deed^A · relief^B · grief^B · lead^A
3 ABBA above^A · sustain'd^B · drain'd^B · love^A
4 ABBA draws^A · breast^B · exprest^B · laws^A
5 ABBA kept^A · falls^B · walls^B · slept^A
6 ABBA fair^A · state^B · gate^B · there^A
7 ABBA climes^A · fresh^B · flesh^B · times^A
8 ABBA dim^A · worth^B · earth^B · him^A
9 ABBA control^A · warm^B · form^B · soul^A
10 ABBA i^A · hands^B · demands^B · die^A
11 ABBA decline^A · alone^B · own^B · mine^A
12 ABBA deck'd^A · express^B · tenderness^B · intellect^A
13 ABBA swerved^A · find^B · mind^B · reserved^A
14 ABBA woe^A · strife^B · life^B · blow^A
15 ABBA again^A · met^B · forget^B · men^A
16 ABBA crime^A · overmuch^B · such^B · time^A
17 ABBA is^A · fears^B · years^B · this^A
18 ABBA floods^A · brooks^B · rooks^B · woods^A
19 ABBA wave^A · gloom^B · tomb^B · grave^A
20 ABBA tomb^A · speak^B · seek^B · come^A
21 ABBA shore^A · reach^B · speech^B · more^A
22 ABBA stain^A · free^B · me^B · pain^A
23 ABBA fall^A · this^B · bliss^B · all^A
24 ABBA dead^A · say^B · play^B · fed^A
25 ABBA end^A · prove^B · love^B · friend^A
26 ABBA true^A · aver^B · transfer^B · you^A
27 ABBA apart^A · hours^B · powers^B · heart^A
28 ABBA deplore^A · place^B · embrace^B · more^A
29 ABBA rest^A · gone^B · one^B · breast^A
30 ABBA bring^A · dear^B · year^B · spring^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
This truth came borne with bier and pall,	8	········
I felt it, when I sorrow’d most,	8	········
’Tis better to have loved and lost,	8	·/˘·····
Than never to have loved at all----	8	·/˘·····
O true in word, and tried in deed,	8	········
Demanding, so to bring relief	8	˘/˘···˘/
To this which is our common grief,	8	····//˘·
What kind of life is that I lead;	8	········
And whether trust in things above,	8	········
Be dimm’d of sorrow, or sustain’d;	8	···/˘·˘/
And whether love for him have drain’d	8	········
My capabilities of love;	8	··˘/˘˘··
Your words have virtue such as draws	8	···/˘···
A faithful answer from the breast,	8	·/˘/˘···
Thro’ light reproaches, half exprest,	8	··˘/˘···
And loyal unto kindly laws.	8	·/˘··/˘·
My blood an even tenor kept,	8	···/˘/˘·
Till on mine ear this message falls,	8	·····/˘·
That in Vienna’s fatal walls	8	··˘/˘/˘·
God’s finger touch’d him, and he slept.	8	·/˘·····
The great Intelligences fair	8	··˘/˘˘˘·
That range above our mortal state,	8	····//˘·
In circle round the blessed gate,	8	·/˘···˘·
Received and gave him welcome there;	8	˘/···/˘·
And led him through the blissful climes,	8	·····/˘·
And show’d him in the fountain fresh	8	·····/˘·
All knowledge that the sons of flesh	8	·/˘·····
Shall gather in the cycled times.	8	·/˘··/˘·
But I remain’d, whose hopes were dim,	8	··˘/····
Whose life, whose thoughts were little worth,	8	·····/˘·
To wander on a darken’d earth,	8	·/˘··/˘·
Where all things round me breathed of him.	8	········
O friendship, equal-poised control,	8	·/˘/˘·˘/
O heart, with kindliest motion warm,	8	·····/˘·
O sacred essence, other form,	8	·/˘/˘/˘·
O solemn ghost! O crowned soul!	8	·/˘···˘·
Yet none could better know than I,	8	···/˘···
How much of act at human hands	8	·····/˘·
The sense of human will demands,	8	···/˘·˘/
By which we dare to live or die.	8	········
Whatever way my days decline,	8	·/˘···˘/
I felt and feel, though left alone,	8	······˘/
His being working in mine own,	8	·/˘/˘···
The footsteps of his life in mine;	8	·/······
A life that all the Muses deck’d	8	·····/˘·
With gifts of grace that might express	8	······˘/
All-comprehensive tenderness,	8	··˘/˘/˘˘
All-subtilising intellect:	8	·····/˘·
And so my passion hath not swerved	8	···/˘···
To works of weakness, but I find	8	···/˘···
An image comforting the mind,	8	·/˘/˘˘··
And in my grief a strength reserved.	8	······˘/
Likewise the imaginative woe,	8	/··˘/˘˘·
That loved to handle spiritual strife,	8	···/˘/˘·
Diffused the shock through all my life,	8	˘/······
But in the present broke the blow.	8	···/˘···
My pulses therefore beat again	8	·/˘···˘/
For other friends that once I met;	8	·/˘·····
Nor can it suit me to forget	8	······˘/
The mighty hopes that make us men.	8	·/˘·····
I woo your love: I count it crime	8	········
To mourn for any overmuch;	8	···/˘/˘˘
I, the divided half of such	8	··˘/˘···
A friendship as had master’d Time;	8	·/˘··/˘·
Which masters Time indeed, and is	8	·/˘·˘/··
Eternal, separate from fears.	8	˘/˘/˘···
The all-assuming months and years	8	··˘/˘···
Can take no part away from this:	8	····˘/··
But Summer on the steaming floods,	8	·/˘··/˘·
And Spring that swells the narrow brooks,	8	·····/˘·
And Autumn, with a noise of rooks,	8	·/˘·····
That gather in the waning woods,	8	·/˘··/˘·
And every pulse of wind and wave	8	·/˘·····
Recalls, in change of light or gloom,	8	/·······
My old affection of the tomb,	8	··˘/˘···
And my prime passion in the grave:	8	···/˘···
My old affection of the tomb,	8	··˘/˘···
A part of stillness, yearns to speak;	8	···/˘···
‘Arise, and get thee forth and seek	8	˘/······
A friendship for the years to come.	8	·/˘·····
I watch thee from the quiet shore;	8	·····/˘·
Thy spirit up to mine can reach;	8	·/˘·····
But in dear words of human speech	8	·····/˘·
We two communicate no more.’	8	··˘/˘···
And I ‘Can clouds of nature stain	8	·····/˘·
The starry clearness of the free?	8	·/˘/˘···
How is it? Canst thou feel for me	8	········
Some painless sympathy with pain?’	8	·/˘/˘˘··
And lightly does the whisper fall;	8	·/˘··/˘·
‘’Tis hard for thee to fathom this;	8	·····/˘·
I triumph in conclusive bliss,	8	·/˘·˘/˘·
And that serene result of all.’	8	··˘/˘/··
So hold I commerce with the dead;	8	···/˘···
Or so methinks the dead would say;	8	··˘/····
Or so shall grief with symbols play,	8	·····/˘·
And pining life be fancy-fed.	8	·/˘··/˘·
Now looking to some settled end,	8	·/˘··/˘·
That these things pass, and I shall prove	8	········
A meeting somewhere, love with love,	8	·/˘/····
I crave your pardon, O my friend;	8	···/˘···
If not so fresh, with love as true,	8	········
I, clasping brother-hands, aver	8	·/˘/˘·/˘
I could not, if I would, transfer	8	······˘/
The whole I felt for him to you.	8	········
For which be they that hold apart	8	······˘/
The promise of the golden hours?	9	·/˘··/˘/˘
First love, first friendship, equal powers	9	···/˘/˘/˘
That marry with the virgin heart.	8	·/˘··/˘·
Still mine that cannot but deplore,	8	···/˘·˘/
That beats within a lonely place,	8	·····/˘·
That yet remembers his embrace,	8	··˘/˘·˘/
But at his footstep leaps no more,	8	···/····
My heart, tho’ widow’d, may not rest	8	···/˘···
Quite in the love of what is gone,	8	········
But seeks to beat in time with one	8	········
That warms another living breast.	8	··˘/˘/˘·
Ah, take the imperfect gift I bring,	9	···˘/˘···
Knowing the primrose yet is dear,	8	/˘·/····
The primrose of the later year,	8	·/···/˘·
As not unlike to that of Spring.	8	··˘/····

On this poem

The first stanza merely repeats the sentiment expressed in Poem xxvii., that the deepest grief has only more fully convinced him, that to have loved and lost is better than never to have loved.

It is the friend to whom the epithalamium is addressed--E. L. Lushington--"true in word and tried in deed," who asks how he is affected--if his faith be still firm, and he has still room in his heart for love? He answers, that all was well with him, until that fatal "message" came, that

"God's finger touch'd him, and he slept."

He then recounts what he thinks may have occurred to Hallam, when translated through various stages of spiritual being; and he repeats his sorrowful regrets for his loss. But "I woo your love," he seems to say to his future brother-in-law, for he holds it wrong

"to mourn for any over much:"

still, so deep is his attachment to Hallam, that he calls himself

"the divided half of such A friendship as had master'd Time;"

their intimacy would be eternal; and he imagines some sort of intercourse still carried on betwixt them, which he describes in language that has much of the spirit and character of Dante.

He then seems to turn again to his living friend, and says,

"If not so fresh, with love as true, I, clasping brother-hands, aver I could not, if I would, transfer The whole I felt for him to you."

But he is not wholly disconsolate--

"My heart, tho' widow'd, may not rest Quite in the love of what is gone, But seeks to beat in time with one That warms another living breast."

The concluding stanza offers the primrose of autumn to the surviving friend, whilst that of spring must be reserved for the friend whom he has lost.

Notes from the edition 33

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 [Addressed to Edmund Lush- ington. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
Stanza 6, line 1 The great Intelligences fair. Cf. Lycidas

" There entertain him all the Saints above In solemn troops, and sweet societies, That sing, and singing in their glory move, And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes."

[Cf. Milton, Par. Lost, v. 407, and Dante, // Convito, ii. 5:

Intelligenze, le quali la volgare gente chiama Angeli.

ED.] [Tennyson]
Stanza 6, line 1 The pure Spirits, 'whom the vulgar call Angels' (Dante, Con. ii. 5), who preside over or guide the nine Heavens. Cf. Parad. n. 131, xxvin. 77, and Longfellow's notes. Cf. Par. Lost) v. 407, ' those pure intelligential substances,' and VIH. 180. Throughout this section the idea that at death the soul passes into a state which, though higher than the earthly, is still imperfect and gives way to further states, is in abeyance. [Bradley]
Stanza 6, line 2 Cf. The Princess, Conclusion: ' That range above the region of the wind.' [Bradley]
Stanza 7 cycled times [earthly periods. — ED.]. [Hallam Tennyson]
Stanza 7, line 4 ' in the cycled times ': in period after period of earthly progress. [Bradley]
Stanza 9, line 1 * equal-poised ': metaphor from a yoke (Beeching). Cf. The Princess, VIL, ' yoked in all exercise of noble end.' [Bradley]
Stanza 9, line 3 'other': 'second,' which would probably have been written if the lines had not already been full of sibilants, to which Tennyson had an aversion. Cf. Aen. VI. 713: 'animae quibu; altera fato Corpora debentur.' [Bradley]
Stanza 10 Yet none could better know than /,

How much of act at human hands The sense of human will demands. Yet I know that the knowledge that we have free will demands from us action. [Tennyson]
Stanza 10, line 1 The sense goes on from line 32: ' Yet I knew that the will within us (cf. CXXXI.) demands from us action, not absorption in feeling nor works of weakness.' Cf. IV. 15, 16. ' By which,' etc.: through obedience to which we dare to face either life or death. There is no reference to the thought of suicide:. Cf. Essay on Man, iv. 4: ' For which we bear to live or dare to die.' [Bradley]
Stanza 11, line 3 Cf. LXV. 10. [Bradley]
Stanza 13, line 1 The sense goes on from line 44. [Bradley]
Stanza 14 imaginative woe. [The imaginative and speculative sorrow of the poet. Cf. infra, verse xxiv.:

And pining life be fancy-fed.

ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
Stanza 14, line 2 ' spiritual strife ': e.g. as to immortality or the meaning of evil in the world. Metrically this word is used in three different ways in In Memoriam: (i) as here, (2) as in XCII. 14, (3) as in cxxxi. 3. [Bradley]
Stanza 15, line 4 Tennyson seems (Memoir, I. 321) to have quoted the words in a way that would identify these * mighty hopes ' with the ' larger hope ' of LV. 20. But he may not have had the whole passage in mind; and, considering the context, it seems more natural to include, at any rate, in the ' mighty hopes ' hopes for the future of the race on earth (cf. LXXI. 9-11). [Bradley]
Stanza 16, line 3 Cf. Aug. Con. IV. 6: 'I felt that my soul and his soul were one soul in two bodies, and therefore was my life a horror to me, because I would not live halved' (G.A.C.). [Bradley]
Stanza 16, line 4 ' had ': would have. [Bradley]
Stanza 17, line 3 * all-assuming ': that take to themselves, devour, every- thing: Shakespeare's * Cormorant devouring Time.' [Bradley]
Stanza 18, line 1 ' steaming': cf. Par. Lost, v. 185:

' Ye mists and exhalations that now rise From hill or steaming lake.' * Floods,' rivers: cf. Lxxxvi. 7, cm. 20. [Bradley]
Stanza 21, line 1 Cf. the doubts of XXXVIIL, XLIII. foil., LXI. foil. But his resignation in ignorance appears again in 93-6. [Bradley]
Stanza 22, line 1 'nature': earthly nature; 'free': cf. xxxvm. 9, 10. I take the stanza to mean, ' Do the dead, then, feel pain (for sympathy must be pain) ? Or is their sympathy pain- less ? ' But it has been pointed out to me that the idea of the last two lines need not be an alternative to that of the first, the meaning of the stanza being: ' Can the life of the dead be clouded by sympathy, doubtless painless, with the living ?' In either case the stanza touches on a difficulty as to memory in the dead which has not previously been alluded to. [Bradley]
Stanza 23 [Think of me as having reached the final goal of bliss, and as triumphing in the

one far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves.

ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
Stanza 23, line 2 Cf. LXIX. 20. [Bradley]
Stanza 23, line 3 'conclusive': the bliss of the ' final goal' (LIV. 2) or

'divine event.' The dead friend is supposed to see, where the poet can only trust. Cf. cxxvu. 20. [Bradley]
Stanza 24, line 3 ' symbols ': thoughts which signify figuratively a truth which they do not accurately express.

lor. 'If, with love as true, if not so fresh, I,' etc. 'If is forced ungrammatically to do double duty. [But this would be a strange mistake, and Mr. Ferrall is probably right in taking the sentence to be independent of the preceding stanza: ' with love as true, if not so fresh (as my first love for my dead friend), I aver,' etc.] [Bradley]
Stanza 26, line 1 [With love as true, if not so fresh.

ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
Stanza 27 hold apart. [Set by itself, above rivalry. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson]
Stanza 27, line 1 ' apart ': in a place which no other 'powers' can occupy. [Bradley]
Stanza 27, line 2 ' golden hours ': cf. xxxix. 6. [Bradley]
Stanza 27, line 3 Cf. VI. 43, 44, and ' deep as first love ' in Tears, idle Tears. [Bradley]
Stanza 28, line 4 Cf. vii. 3, 4. [Bradley]
Stanza 29, line 1 'widow'd': cf. IX. 18. [Bradley]
Stanza 30, line 3 The Evening Primrose, according to many readers; but surely Tennyson meant the feeble or imperfect flowers sometimes put forth by the common primrose in autumn and early winter. [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.

More by Alfred Tennyson

In Memoriam A.H.H.Idylls of the King The Princess: A Medley Maud, and Other Poems The Early Poems