Metrical form ) Written in
iambic tetrameter (four-line ABBA stanzas), the poetical metre of
In Memoriam A.H.H. creates the tonal effects of the sounds of grief and mourning. In 133 cantos, including the prologue and the epilogue, Tennyson uses the stylistic beats of tetrameter to address the subjects of spiritual loss and themes of
nostalgia, philosophic speculation, and
Romantic fantasy in service to mourning the death of his friend, the poet A. H. Hallam; thus, in Canto IX, Tennyson describes the return of the corpse to England: "Fair ship, that from the Italian shore / Saileth the placid ocean-plains / With my lost Arthur's remains, / Spread thy full wings and waft him o'er".
Themes As a man of the Victorian age (1837–1901) and as a poet, Tennyson addressed the intellectual matters of his day, such as the theory of the
transmutation of species presented in the anonymously published book
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), a speculative
natural history about the negative theological implications of
Nature functioning without divine direction. Moreover, 19th-century
Evangelicalism required belief in
literal interpretations of
The Holy Bible against the theory of
human evolution; thus, in Canto CXXIX, Tennyson alludes to "the truths that never can be proved" – the Victorian belief that
reason and
intellect would reconcile science with religion. In Canto LV, the poet asks: In Canto LVI, the poet queries Nature about the
existential circumstance of Man on planet Earth: Moreover, although Tennyson published "In Memoriam A.H.H." (1850) nine years before
Charles Darwin published the book
On the Origin of Species (1859), contemporary advocates for the theory of
natural selection had adopted the poetical phrase
Nature, red in tooth and claw (Canto LVI) to support their
humanist arguments for the theory of
human evolution. In Canto CXXII, Tennyson addresses the conflict between conscience and theology: The conclusion of the poem reaffirmed Tennyson's religiosity, his progress from doubt-and-despair to faith-and-hope, which he realised by mourning the death of his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam (1811–1833).
Personal themes The literary scholar
Christopher Ricks relates the following lines, from canto XCIX, to the end of Tennyson's boyhood at the Somersby Rectory, Lincolnshire, especially the boy's leaving Somersby upon the death of his father. In Canto XCIX, the poet writes: ==Quotations==