Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam

Marion Shaw (University of Loughborough)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1850

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

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The full title of Tennyson's famous elegy is

In Memoriam A.H.H

Obit MDCCCXXXIII

(

In Memory of A.H.H., who died 1833)

and it commemorates Tennyson's friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage in September 1833 whilst on holiday with his father in Vienna. He was twenty-three at the time of his death. The news was brought to Tennyson at his home in Lincolnshire on 1 October, the letter saying that Hallam's body would be brought home by sea from Trieste. This journey of the body is described in a group of sections (9-18) towards the beginning of the poem, with Tennyson writing section 9 within six days of learning of Hallam's death. This section established the stanza form and rhyme scheme (a quatrain of iambic tetrameters with enclosed rhyme) which Tennyson…

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2043 words

Citation: Shaw, Marion. "In Memoriam". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 June 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4526, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam

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