Poetry for Students

Proem

“Proem” was originally published as the introduc-

tory passage to Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s book-

length poem In Memoriam A. H. H.The complete

poem consists of 131 sections and was written over

the course of seventeen years, capturing the devel-

opment of the poet’s grief over the death of his

friend Arthur Henry Hallam. The influence of Hal-

lam’s death can be seen in several of Tennyson’s

poems, including “Ulysses,” “Tithonus,” “The Two

Voices,” and “Break, break, break.”

Tennyson met Hallam in the 1820s at Trinity

College, Cambridge. Hallam was considered by his

classmates to be one of the most promising schol-

ars of the day, until his sudden death from a stroke

in 1833, at age twenty-two. Hallam and Tennyson

were close companions. They traveled through Eu-

rope together, and at the time of his death, Hallam

was engaged to Tennyson’s sister Emily.

In Memoriam A. H. H.is considered one of the

single most influential poems of the Victorian age.

It was a favorite of Queen Victoria’s and her hus-

band Prince Albert and was so admired by the royal

couple that Tennyson was appointed poet laureate

the year the poem was published. Throughout the

last half of the century, In Memoriam A. H. H.was

frequently quoted in church sermons, due to Ten-

nyson’s masterful control of the language and the

poem’s mournful contemplation of humanity’s re-

lationship to the eternal. In modern times, the poem

is seldom read in its 2,868-line entirety, but indi-

vidual sections like “Proem” are considered exam-

ples of Tennyson’s poetry at its best.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1850

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