How pure at heart and sound in head
How pure at heart and sound in head,With what divine affections boldShould be the man whose thought would holdAn hour’s communion with the dead.
In vain shalt thou, or any, callThe spirits from their golden day,Except, like them, thou too canst sayMy spirit is at peace with all.
They haunt the silence of the breast,Imaginations calm and fair,The memory like a cloudless air,The conscience as a sea at rest:
But when the heart is full of din,And doubt beside the portal waits,They can but listen at the gatesAnd hear the household jar within.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- cloudless a.
- Without a cloud; clear; bright.
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
How pure at heart and sound in 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, How pure at heart and sound in head, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-92.html, id L18452.
Form and metre
How pure at heart and sound in 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 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 31% 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 · boldB · holdB · deadA
- 2 ABBA callA · dayB · sayB · allA
- 3 ABBA breastA · fairB · airB · restA
- 4 ABBA dinA · waitsB · gatesB · withinA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| How pure at heart and sound in head, | 8 | ········ |
| With what divine affections bold | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| Should be the man whose thought would hold | 8 | ········ |
| An hour’s communion with the dead. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| In vain shalt thou, or any, call | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The spirits from their golden day, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Except, like them, thou too canst say | 8 | ········ |
| My spirit is at peace with all. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| They haunt the silence of the breast, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Imaginations calm and fair, | 8 | ˘·˘/˘··· |
| The memory like a cloudless air, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The conscience as a sea at rest: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But when the heart is full of din, | 8 | ········ |
| And doubt beside the portal waits, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| They can but listen at the gates | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And hear the household jar within. | 8 | ···/···· |
On this poem
"when the heart is full of din, And doubt beside the portal waits,"
the departed spirits
"can but listen at the gates, And hear the household jar within."
This fitness for apprehending any communications from the next world, well describes the condition requisite for intercourse with God Himself.
Notes from the edition 6
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 2, line 2 shows a curious coincidence with a line in Young's Night thoughts, iv.:
To drink the spirit of the golden day. [Bradley] - Stanza 3, line 1 They haunt the silence of the breast. This was what I felt. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 3, line 2 They haunt) imaginations. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 2 'doubt': see XCV. 44. If this connection was intended (which seems very questionable) the doubt in XCV. was regarded as blam cable. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 3 gates': cf. 'enter,' xcill. 13. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 4 For the metaphors of this stanza cf. Herbert, The Family. [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.