In our discussion during class on Wednesday, my group was asked to analyze section XCV of Tennyson's In Memoriam while considering the fact that some see it as an alternate conclusion to the poem. We discussed, roughly, the following progressive analysis of the section. In the beginning of the section, Tennyson is accompanied by others who “linger on the lawn” and he feels “genial warmth”. As Tennyson describes an enjoyable scene of collaborative singing, he paints a picture of his corporeal setting as a series of knolls, “where, couch’d at ease, / The white kine glimmer’d, and the trees / Laid their dark arms about the field”. This stanza signifies Tennyson’s transition away from the corporeal, for in the following stanza “those others, one by one, / Withdrew themselves […] and [he] was all alone”. In Tennyson’s isolation he slips into dark subconscious thought, reminiscing over sad memories of his dear lost friend: “I read / Of that glad year which once had been”. During this deep contemplation of death, Tennyson is “whirl’d / About empyreal heights of thought”. Amongst these thoughts are the steps of Time, the shocks of Chance, the blows of Death – phenomena outside of man’s control and that essentially govern reality as “the deep pulsations of the world”. Tennyson’s contemplation over such lofty and ungraspable concepts as time, chance and death ultimately pulls him out of his trance as he realizes the futility of trying to understand and explain such things: “Vague words! But ah, how hard to frame / In matter-molded forms of speech, / Or ev’n for intellect to reach / Thro’ memory that which I became”. As Tennyson leaves his trance, we revisit the stanza describing his corporeal setting of knolls, the white kine and the trees that marks his return to reality. However, the first line of the stanza has changed to, “Till now the doubtful dusk reveal’d”. This line suggests a sort of conclusion for Tennyson as he comes to an understanding and possible reconciliation concerning the indefinite nature of concepts such as death.
I think you guys have an excellent reading of the section, and I do agree with your conclusion, for the most part. But did you guys talk about what goes on after he returns from this "trance"? i think these are some of the most important (and beautiful) stanzas in the whole poem. there's HEAVY-handed use of personification and a lot of agency given to nature (dusk "reveals," trees both lay and have "arms," breeze "tremble," etc.) even though, when reading, we were no longer in the trance with the narrator, the scene feels very different. also, the dawn seems to be a rebirth, or a return to intellectual peace, or something. what did you guys think about the last few stanzas of the section?
ReplyDeletegreat summary! It does seem that the final stanzas are a return to something changed--the landscape has been infused (to use Wordsworth's term) with a different emotional tenor, which is expressed in the shift in poetic devices--personification but also alliteration, "broaden into boundless day." If the section maps the movement from calm in nature, to a strangely speaking faith, back to doubt, and finally to a changed nature--a freshened, fluctuating landscape--what has the speaker learned or recognized in the process of the section? Perhaps it is the movement of the section itself that has produced the the change--
ReplyDeleteI can not say what the final conclusion to this section is, or whether one certainly exists. It is obvious that Tennyson comes out of his trance in these end stanzas, but I think there is something more to be said about the “beauty” Nicholas finds within these lines. The scene of nature becomes much livelier once Tennyson escapes his trance as the closing stanza’s suddenly fill with verbs: “suck’d…gloom, breeze…tremble, leaves…fluctuate, swung…rose, flung…lilies, etc.” Comparably, this is a much more vivid and beautiful scene (although I don’t know if your reference to beauty was entirely aesthetic). I think that these last stanzas reflect what Tennyson experiences as he learns to accept the undefined uncertainty of death, which allows him to more enjoyably experience life.
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