Illustrations for Tennyson’s Idylls of the King


	In the final sections of the poem, the speaker asserts his faith in his new concept of spiritual evolution—painful change can bring about spiritual progress. In Section 118, the speaker argues that sorrow and loss strengthen us and allow us to grow spiritually, like iron that is “battered with the shocks of doom/ To shape and use” (lines 24-25). Sorrows may batter us, but they also temper and “shape” us for a specific purpose. Therefore, sorrow does not make life meaningless but brings new meaning through prompting spiritual evolution. The speaker therefore asserts we should “Move upward, working out the beast,/ And let the ape and tiger die” (lines 27-28). Instead of being frightened and losing faith in the face of sorrow and change, we should evolve and progress spiritually, leaving our baser natures behind.
	In Sections 127-131, the speaker addresses his dead friend Hallam and realizes that through death his friend has evolved to higher life. He has not lost his friend, but his friend has become part of a larger truth that the speaker doesn’t yet fully understand: “Far off thou art, but ever nigh;/ I have thee still, and I rejoice; I prosper, circled with thy voice;/ I shall not lose thee tho’ I die” (Section 130, lines 13-16). Although separated from his friend by death, the speaker’s continuing spiritual connection with his friend will allow him to “prosper,” to evolve spiritually.
	The poem’s Epilogue is set at the marriage of Tennyson’s sister (she was originally engaged to Hallam, but he died before they could marry). The sister’s marriage demonstrates that grief can be overcome and can lead to new life. The speaker imagines a future child born of this marriage and sees this child as being one step closer to “the crowning race,” a human race that has spiritually evolved (it is “no longer half-akin to brute” (line 133)) and has achieved an understanding of the meaning of life. Nature will be “like an open book” to this new form of humanity, and the questions of faith that currently trouble humans will become clear. In the final two stanzas, the speaker depicts his friend Hallam as a “noble type” or example of this new race that is to come. His friend appeared on Earth “ere the times were ripe” [before the world was ready for this newly evolved human], and consequently, his friend left the world, but still lives— “lives in God,/ That God, which ever lives and loves,/ One God, one law, one element,/ And one far-off divine event,/ To which the whole creation moves” (lines 140-145). Thus, the speaker reaffirms his faith that the whole of creation has a divine purpose of progress to something greater, and the speaker sees his friend as an example of the progress that is to come for humanity. The friend who “lives with God” is a forerunner of the spiritual perfection, that “one far-off divine event,” toward which all creation is evolving. In this way, Tennyson uses the renewal of faith he experienced through the personal loss of his friend to promote a general renewal of faith for his society. His own spiritual evolution as the speaker of In Memoriam exemplifies how threatening and painful loss can bring about spiritual growth.