You leave us: you will see the Rhine
You leave us: you will see the Rhine,And those fair hills I sail’d below,When I was there with him; and goBy summer belts of wheat and vine
To where he breathed his latest breath,That City. All her splendour seemsNo livelier than the wisp that gleamsOn Lethe in the eyes of Death.
Let her great Danube rolling fairEnwind her isles, unmarked of me:I have not seen, I will not seeVienna; rather dream that there,
A treble darkness, evil hauntsThe birth, the bridal; friend from friend,Is oftener parted, fathers bendAbove more graves, a thousand wants
Gnarr at the heels of men, and preyBy each cold hearth, and sadness flingsHer shadow on the blaze of kings:And yet myself have heard him say,
That not in any mother townWith statelier progress to and froThe double tides of chariots flowBy park and suburb under brown
Of lustier leaves; nor more content,He told me, lives in any crowd,When all is gay with lamps, and loudWith sport and song, in booth and tent,
Imperial halls, or open plain;And wheels the circled dance, and breaksThe rocket molten into flakesOf crimson or in emerald rain.
Words in this poem
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- wisp n.
- A small bundle, as of straw or other like substance. [OE. wisp, wips; probably akin to D. & G. wisch, Icel. visk, and perhaps to L. virga a twig, rod. Cf. Verge a rod, Whisk, n.]
- lethe n.
- A river of Hades whose waters when drunk caused forgetfulness of the past.
- enwind v. t.
- To wind about; to encircle.
- gnarr n.
- A knot or gnarl in wood; hence, a tough, thickset man; -- written also gnarr. [OE. knarre, gnarre, akin to OD. knor, G. knorren. Cf. Knar, Knur, Gnarl.]
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- circled a.
- Having the form of a circle; round.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
You leave us: you will see the Rhine 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, You leave us: you will see the Rhine, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-96.html, id L18456.
Form and metre
You leave us: you will see the Rhine is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 56% 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 rhineA · belowB · goB · vineA
- 2 ABBA breathA · seemsB · gleamsB · deathA
- 3 ABBA fairA · meB · seeB · thereA
- 4 ABBA hauntsA · friendB · bendB · wantsA
- 5 ABBA preyA · flingsB · kingsB · sayA
- 6 ABBA townA · froB · flowB · brownA
- 7 ABBA contentA · crowdB · loudB · tentA
- 8 ABBA plainA · breaksB · flakesB · rainA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You leave us: you will see the Rhine, | 8 | ········ |
| And those fair hills I sail’d below, | 8 | ········ |
| When I was there with him; and go | 8 | ········ |
| By summer belts of wheat and vine | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To where he breathed his latest breath, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That City. All her splendour seems | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| No livelier than the wisp that gleams | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| On Lethe in the eyes of Death. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Let her great Danube rolling fair | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Enwind her isles, unmarked of me: | 8 | ˘/··˘/·· |
| I have not seen, I will not see | 8 | ········ |
| Vienna; rather dream that there, | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| A treble darkness, evil haunts | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| The birth, the bridal; friend from friend, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Is oftener parted, fathers bend | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Above more graves, a thousand wants | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Gnarr at the heels of men, and prey | 8 | ········ |
| By each cold hearth, and sadness flings | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Her shadow on the blaze of kings: | 8 | ·/······ |
| And yet myself have heard him say, | 8 | ···/···· |
| That not in any mother town | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| With statelier progress to and fro | 9 | ····/···· |
| The double tides of chariots flow | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| By park and suburb under brown | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of lustier leaves; nor more content, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| He told me, lives in any crowd, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When all is gay with lamps, and loud | 8 | ········ |
| With sport and song, in booth and tent, | 8 | ········ |
| Imperial halls, or open plain; | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| And wheels the circled dance, and breaks | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The rocket molten into flakes | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Of crimson or in emerald rain. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
On this poem
"No livelier than the wisp that gleams On Lethe in the eyes of death;"
so great is his aversion to the place, on account of the loss he had sustained there; and he charges it with all manner of ill.
But Hallam had given him a very different description; saying that in no other metropolis--"mother town"--had he seen such stately carriages of the rich pass to and fro; and such a contented crowd enjoying themselves with dance and song, amidst a display of coloured fireworks.
Notes from the edition 8
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 You leave us. "You" is imaginary. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 1, line 3 * When I was there with him': in July, 1832. [Bradley]
- Stanza 2 wisp^ ignis-fatuus. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 2, line 3 * wisp;: Will o' the wisp; * in the eyes of: watched by. n. The author kept his word. [Bradley]
- Stanza 5 Gnarr, snarl. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 5, line 1 'gnarr': snarl. Cf. Spenser, F.Q., I. v. 34, 'felly gnarre ' (of Cerberus), and Shakespeare's ' gnarl ': ( For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite,' 7?. //., I. iii. 292. [Bradley]
- Stanza 6 mother town^ metropolis. [Tennyson]
- Stanza 7, line 1 * mother town': metropolis. [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.