My love has talk’d with rocks and trees
My love has talk’d with rocks and trees,He finds on misty mountain-groundHis own vast shadow glory-crown’d,He sees himself in all he sees.
Two partners of a married life--I look’d on these and thought of theeIn vastness and in mystery,And of my spirit as of a wife.
These two--they dwelt with eye on eye,Their hearts of old have heat in tune,Their meetings made December June,Their every parting was to die.
Their love has never past away;The days she never can forgetAre earnest that he loves her yet,Whate’er the faithless people say.
Her life is lone, he sits apart,He loves her yet, she will not weep,Tho’ rapt in matters dark and deepHe seems to slight her simple heart.
He thrids the labyrinth of the mind,He reads the secret of the star,He seems so near and yet so far,He looks so cold: she thinks him kind.
She keeps the gift of years before,A wither’d violet is her bliss;She knows not what his greatness is;For that, for all, she loves him more.
For him she plays, to him she singsOf early faith and plighted vows;She knows but matters of the house,And he, he knows a thousand things.
Her faith is fixt and cannot move,She darkly feels him great and wise,She dwells on him with faithful eyes,‘I cannot understand: I love.’
Words in this poem
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My love has talk’d with rocks and trees 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, My love has talk’d with rocks and trees, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-95.html, id L18455.
Form and metre
My love has talk’d with rocks and trees is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 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. 14% 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 treesA · groundB · crown'dB · seesA
- 2 ABBA lifeA · theeB · mysteryB · wifeA
- 3 ABBA eyeA · tuneB · juneB · dieA
- 4 ABBA awayA · forgetB · yetB · sayA
- 5 ABBA apartA · weepB · deepB · heartA
- 6 ABBA mindA · starB · farB · kindA
- 7 ABBA beforeA · blissB · isB · moreA
- 8 ABBA singsA · vowsB · houseB · thingsA
- 9 ABBA moveA · wiseB · eyesB · loveA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My love has talk’d with rocks and trees, | 8 | ········ |
| He finds on misty mountain-ground | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| His own vast shadow glory-crown’d, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| He sees himself in all he sees. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Two partners of a married life-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I look’d on these and thought of thee | 8 | ········ |
| In vastness and in mystery, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| And of my spirit as of a wife. | 8 | ···/···· |
| These two--they dwelt with eye on eye, | 8 | ········ |
| Their hearts of old have heat in tune, | 8 | ········ |
| Their meetings made December June, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Their every parting was to die. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Their love has never past away; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| The days she never can forget | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Are earnest that he loves her yet, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Whate’er the faithless people say. | 9 | ˘˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Her life is lone, he sits apart, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| He loves her yet, she will not weep, | 8 | ········ |
| Tho’ rapt in matters dark and deep | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| He seems to slight her simple heart. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He thrids the labyrinth of the mind, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| He reads the secret of the star, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| He seems so near and yet so far, | 8 | ········ |
| He looks so cold: she thinks him kind. | 8 | ········ |
| She keeps the gift of years before, | 8 | ········ |
| A wither’d violet is her bliss; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| She knows not what his greatness is; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For that, for all, she loves him more. | 8 | ········ |
| For him she plays, to him she sings | 8 | ········ |
| Of early faith and plighted vows; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| She knows but matters of the house, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And he, he knows a thousand things. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Her faith is fixt and cannot move, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| She darkly feels him great and wise, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| She dwells on him with faithful eyes, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| ‘I cannot understand: I love.’ | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
On this poem
"My love has talk'd with rocks and trees."
His own affection for Hallam seems to personate the object of his attachment, and "sees himself in all he sees." Just as the giant spectre, sometimes seen "on misty mountain-ground," is no more than the vast shadow of the spectator himself.
The Poem proceeds more intelligibly, by drawing a comparison which typifies his own humble relation to his exalted friend. He imagines some meek-hearted and affectionate wife loving and revering a husband, whose high intellect and pursuits exclude her from any real companionship.
But she treasures any little memorials of their early devotion, and feeling that he is
"great and wise, She dwells on him with faithful eyes, 'I cannot understand: I love.'"
It must be understood that this Poem, as elsewhere, would describe the relation of one on earth to one in the other and higher world--not the Author's relation to him here. He certainly looked up to the Author, fully as much as the Author to him.
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 1 The relation of one on earth to one in the other and higher world. Not my relation to him here. He looked up to me as I looked up to him.
[Love finds his image everywhere. The relation of one on earth to one in the other world is as a wife's love for her husband after a love which has been at first demonstrative. Now he is compelled to be wrapt in matters dark and deep. Although he seems distant, she knows that he loves her as well as before, for she loves him in all true faith.] l [Tennyson] - Stanza 1 His own vast shadow glory-crowned. Like the spectre of the Brocken. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 1, line 2 The allusion is to the spectre of the Brocken. [A correspondence in the Spectator for Sept. 21 and 28, 1901, shows the necessity of explaining that the * spectre ' is the observer's shadow thrown on a bank of mist. If the bank is near him his shadow may appear enormously extended and, so, * vast.' He sees a halo round its head, but not round the head of any fellow-observer's shadow.]
7- Cf. 3. [Bradley] - Stanza 4, line 3 l earnest ': pledge. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 4 Cf. LX. 13, 14. [Bradley]
- Stanza 6, line 1 Cf. Pope, Rape of the Lock, n. 139, 'Some thrid the mazy ringlets of her hair '; and The Princess, IV., ' to thrid the musky-circled mazes.' [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.