He tasted love with half his mind
He tasted love with half his mind,Nor ever drank the inviolate springWhere nighest heaven, who first could flingThis bitter seed among mankind;
That could the dead, whose dying eyesWere closed with wail, resume their life.They would but find in child and wifeAn iron welcome when they rise:
’Twas well, indeed, when warm with wine,To pledge them with a kindly tear:To talk them o’er, to wish them here,To count their memories half divine;
But if they came who past away,Behold their brides in other hands:The hard heir strides about their lands,And will not yield them for a day.
Yea, tho’ their sons were none of these,Not less the yet-lov’d sire would makeConfusion worse than death, and shakeThe pillars of domestic peace.
Ah dear, but come thou back to me:Whatever change the years have wrought,I find not yet one lonely thoughtThat cries against my wish for thee.
Words in this poem
- drank n.
- Wild oats, or darnel grass. See Drake a plant. [Cf. 3d Drake.]
- inviolate a.
- Not violated; uninjured; unhurt; unbroken. [L. inviolatus. See In- not, and Violate.]
- resume n.
- A summing up; a condensed statement; an abridgment or brief recapitulation. [F. See Resume.]
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
He tasted love with half his mind 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, He tasted love with half his mind, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-88.html, id L18448.
Form and metre
He tasted love with half his mind is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 29% 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 mindA · springB · flingB · mankindA
- 2 ABBA eyesA · lifeB · wifeB · riseA
- 3 ABBA wineA · tearB · hereB · divineA
- 4 ABBA awayA · handsB · landsB · dayA
- 5 ABBA theseA · makeB · shakeB · peaceA
- 6 ABBA meA · wroughtB · thoughtB · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| He tasted love with half his mind, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Nor ever drank the inviolate spring | 8 | ·/··˘/˘· |
| Where nighest heaven, who first could fling | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| This bitter seed among mankind; | 8 | ·/˘···// |
| That could the dead, whose dying eyes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Were closed with wail, resume their life. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| They would but find in child and wife | 8 | ········ |
| An iron welcome when they rise: | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| ’Twas well, indeed, when warm with wine, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| To pledge them with a kindly tear: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To talk them o’er, to wish them here, | 8 | ········ |
| To count their memories half divine; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| But if they came who past away, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Behold their brides in other hands: | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| The hard heir strides about their lands, | 8 | ········ |
| And will not yield them for a day. | 8 | ········ |
| Yea, tho’ their sons were none of these, | 8 | ········ |
| Not less the yet-lov’d sire would make | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Confusion worse than death, and shake | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| The pillars of domestic peace. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Ah dear, but come thou back to me: | 8 | ········ |
| Whatever change the years have wrought, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I find not yet one lonely thought | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That cries against my wish for thee. | 8 | ········ |
On this poem
Nevertheless, if the father did return to life, he would probably find his wife remarried, and his son unwilling to give up the estate. Even if matters were not so bad as this, still
"the yet-loved sire would make Confusion worse than death, and shake The pillars of domestic peace."
Though all this may be true,
"I find not yet one lonely thought That cries against my wish for thee."
Notes from the edition 5
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 [He who first suggested that the dead would not be welcome if they came to life again knew not the highest love. Cf.
For surely now our household hearths are
cold:
Our sons inherit us: our looks are strange: And we should come like ghosts to trouble
joy.
The Lotos-Eaters. — ED.] [Hallam Tennyson] - Stanza 1, line 1 He who first suggested the ideas expressed in stanzas 2-5 never loved with all his soul, and never knew love at its highest. With these stanzas cf. The Lotos-Eaters, vi., where the phrase * confusion worse than death ' recurs. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 3 G.A.C. quotes from Sadi's Gulistan: ' Oh ! if the dead man might come again among the members of his race and his kindred, the return of his inheritance would be harder to the heir than the death of his relation.' [Bradley]
- Stanza 5, line 1 ' these': the sons mentioned in stanzas 2, 3, 4. [Bradley]
- Stanza 6, line 2 See Introduction, p. 17. [Bradley]
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