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Tennyson said, "Ulysses was written soon after Arthur Hallam's death, and gave my feeling about the need of going forward, and braving the struggle of life, perhaps more simply than anything in In Memoriam." Assuredly the expression is more simple, and more noble, and the personal emotion more dignified for the classic veil. "Life piled on life Were all too little."
Ecce Homo, Hypatia, Mr Jowett, were all in the bosom of the future when In Memoriam was written. Now, The Mystic and the Supposed Confessions are prior to In Memoriam, earlier than 1830. In these things he was original. Even as an undergraduate he was not following "a train of thought made familiar" by authors who had not yet written a line, and by books which had not yet been published.
The dedication of the Idylls was written on the death of the Prince Consort in December, and in January 1862 the Ode for the opening of an exhibition. The poet was busy with his "Fisherman," Enoch Arden. The volume was published in 1864, and Lord Tennyson says it has been, next to In Memoriam, the most popular of his father's works.
It is much stronger in Asia than in Europe but some of its manifestations may be paralleled by masses and prayers for the dead, others by the care bestowed on graves and by notices in memoriam. As a rule both in China and India only the last three generations are honoured in these ceremonies. The reason is obvious: the more ancient ancestors have ceased to be living memories.
"Through the pink-stuccoed streets of Jaipur we threaded our way slowly, on account of the holy pigeons breakfasting in thousands on the road, and the sacred bulls, who barely deigned to move aside to let us pass." "It appears to be the custom, when a man dies, for his relatives to let loose a bull in memoriam, and the happy beast forthwith sets out to live a life of sloth and luxury.
The sergeant, who looked tired and dirty, was apologetically explaining that his visit to Tibblestone had been fruitless. "I had my journey for nothing," he was saying in his thick country voice, as Caldew entered. "I had a wild goose chase all over the place, and then it turned out that this chap Mr. Hawkins telephoned about was only a canvasser for In Memoriam cards for fallen soldiers.
Criticism is not the construction of a class list. But we may reasonably say that In Memoriam is a noble poem, an original poem, a poem which stands alone in literature. The wonderful beauty, ever fresh, howsoever often read, of many stanzas, is not denied by any critic.
Passing the pretty little church I heard the sound of children's voices singing psalms, and was told that the daughter of the castle was teaching the children to sing; I noticed In Memoriam on a stone in the building, and found that this church was built in memory of the good lady of the castle, who has departed to a grander inheritance, leaving a name that lingers like a blessing in the country side.
Tennyson started a fashion for viewing the two excellences as distinct, comparing them, in In Memoriam: Loveliness of perfect deeds, More strong than all poetic thought, and his disciples have continued to speak in this strain. This is the tenor, for instance, of Jean Ingelow's Letters of Life and Morning, in which she exhorts the young poet,
Knowing this amiable and remarkable man, will mark an epoch in your life, be polite and friendly to him, 'quod ipsi facies in mei memoriam faciatis'. Keep yourself well, write to me, and if you can direct him to some honest man at Carlsbad, fail not to do so. . . ."
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