Notes

Slide Show

Outline

1	In Memoriam by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Long elegy to Arthur Henry Hallam published in 1850 Examined life and death, human relationship to God and nature Combined personal, subjective poetry with art of social and ideological responsibility Reflected Victorian fears of loss in changing times, expressed religious doubts of the age
2	Sections 1-3, pp. 1232-1233 Introduce Tennyson’s initial attitudes toward sorrow/loss Do loss and sorrow actually bring a greater good? Do death and sorrow make life meaningless?
3	Sections 54-56 Express Tennyson’s central crisis of faith Scientific discoveries (e.g., fossils) suggest God and Nature are “at strife” Nature causes all species to pass away (evolution)—is life then meaningless? Answers lie hidden “behind the veil”
4	Sections 28, 78, 104-106 Recount the evolution of Tennyson’s grief through the three Christmas holidays after Hallam’s death Despair, tinged with nostalgia and faint hope Calm, tearless sorrow Hope—Let go of old sorrow and make way for new understanding
5	Sections 118, 127-Epilogue Recount renewal of Tennyson’s faith Sec. 118—sorrow strengthens us, causes us to evolve spiritually Sec. 127-131—speaker’s friend is not lost but has become part of a larger truth Epilogue—Hallam was a fore-runner of the spiritual perfection toward which all creation evolves