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
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In Memoriam is an elegy (a poem written to honor the memory of someone who has died) that Tennyson composed as a series of short poems over a period of 17 years following the death of his best friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, in 1833.  He united the short pieces into one extended poem, which he published in 1850.  Throughout his poetic career, Tennyson was concerned with the tension between the private and public voices in art—the artist’s need to find personal expression through his art, and the need to create art that moves beyond personal expression to address the public needs of the artist’s society.  In Memoriam united the private and public voices of Tennyson’s poetry by combining personal, subjective poetry recounting Tennyson’s personal grief for the loss of his friend with socially responsible poetry that addressed the anxieties of Victorian society.  In Tennyson’s elegy, his private grief and struggles with faith are analogous to the public crisis in faith faced by Victorian society as the traditions and religious beliefs of Victorian culture were challenged by the scientific discoveries and tremendous social, economic, and political changes of the nineteenth century.  In recounting Tennyson’s passage from loss of faith, sorrow and despair, to a gradual recovery of faith and hope for the future, In Memoriam offered Victorians an example of how faith could be maintained in times of crisis.  Tennyson’s spiritual evolution throughout the sections of the poem mirrors the spiritual evolution of his society.