In Memoriam A. H. H 1055ever, memories of Hallam and the times they shared
motivate the poet’s spiritual growth toward hope
and faith from his initial state of spiritual darkness
and aridity. The progression from doubt to faith is
not smooth, and at each phase the poet undergoes
torturous mental and spiritual upheavals as his emo-
tions swing from one pole to the other, and he fre-
quently encounters doubt in the midst of faith and
grief in the midst of certainty.
While Tennyson does not overtly promote a
particular religious tradition in In Memoriam, its
general orientation is Christian. The poem men-
tions Christmas, in particular, as a representative
time of fellowship, and the passage of time in the
poem is marked by the recurrence of this holiday.
The religious crisis Hallam’s death initiated also
provides the basis for the poet’s grappling with the
major spiritual and philosophical concerns of the
early Victorian era, especially science and human
existence. Indeed, Tennyson anticipated some of the
philosophical questions raised by Charles Darwin’s
On the Origin of Species (1859) by nearly a decade.
For instance, the precarious existence of humankind
and the threat of its eradication by some disaster
or mischance feature vividly in some of the poem’s
cantos. In canto 54, for example, the poet notes that
all people should place their trust in God’s divine
plan because no life is “cast as rubbish to the void.”
Yet, as he tries to reconcile his belief in God’s provi-
dence, his experience of Hallam’s loss causes him
to question whether or not God is exceptionally
concerned about a single life. Therefore, in canto 55,
the poet decides that even if individuals are minor
in the grand scope of the universe, the species as
a whole will continue. However, in canto 56, the
poet’s doubts and fears revive, and he concludes that
nature cares “for nothing, all shall go.” As is typi-
cal of much of the poem, cantos 54–57 demonstrate
how the poet’s emotions vacillate between doubt
and faith, hope and fear.
The religious struggles in the poem are finally
resolved, as much as they can be, by the poet’s grad-
ual realization that God would never allow the earth
to be depopulated of sentient beings like humans.
Therefore, he begins to envision his deceased friend,
Arthur Henry Hallam, as a perfect spiritual being
who may represent a higher stage in human devel-
opment—a foreshadowing of the perfect human
being who will eventually evolve to replace the
limited, decaying physical existence humankind
currently leads. Ultimately, Tennyson rejects the
purely materialistic tendency in the science of his
day to reduce all phenomena to quantifiable and
experimental data. Throughout his long poem, he
insists that society needs to refocus on simple faith,
and he provides the example of his own progress
through grief to hope as evidence. Indeed, this need
for a spiritual reorientation of human life is further
indicated in the original title of In Memoriam: “The
Way of the Soul.”
Religion is indelibly woven into every aspect of
In Memoriam. In this account of grief and recovery,
the poet indicates that Hallam’s death has caused
him to reconsider his own relationship with faith.
While many religious and philosophical questions
have been raised by scientific inquiries and obser-
vations, the poet finds hope in the belief that the
human spirit will survive the travails of mortality,
and that mere materialistic explanations of the
universe are only partial answers—the whole of
which can only be found in the belief that God has
an overarching plan for the human spirit. Hallam’s
soul, mystically encountered by the poet in canto 95,
becomes the forerunner of the glorified existence
that shall arise even if humanity’s physical existence
ends. Thus, the pain and grief occasioned by Hal-
lam’s untimely loss becomes the catalyst for the
poet’s spiritual journey to a new understanding of
humanity’s place in the universe.
Joseph BeckerSur vIvaL in In Memoriam A. H. H.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam A. H. H.
describes his spiritual and emotional journey after
losing his best friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. The
theme of survival is introduced in the poem by the
poet/narrator’s struggle with the seeming finality of
death. If the universe is so arbitrary and uncaring,
as emphasized in stanza 55, then how can hope
be sustained for any sort of continuity or spiritual
fellowship among human beings, living or dead?
As the poem progresses, the speaker’s statements
indicate that a spiritual transformation has occurred,
and he eventually realizes that Hallam’s essence still