We, the whole species of Mankind, and our whole existence and history, are but a floating speck in the illimitable ocean of the All; yet in that ocean; indissoluble portion thereof; partaking of its infinite tendencies: borne this way and that by its deep swelling tides, and grand ocean currents; of which what faintest chance is there that we should ever exhaust the significance, ascertain the goings and comings? A region of Doubt, therefore, lovers forever in the background: in action alone can we have certainty. Nay properly doubt is the indispensable inexhaustible material whereon action works, which action has to fashion into certainty and reality; only on a canvas of da

Stanza one refers to earth as embracing Hallam's decaying body while in stanza three the earth is referred to as losing Hallam because Death transplanted his virtue to "otherwhere" or Heaven to bloom and do good there. The "transplanted human worth" (11) blooms almost like a flower in spring. This knowledge expressed in lines 11 and 12 should console the speaker, but he is still bitter over losing the companionship of Hallam on earth.

iests, are types. Tennyson closes his elegy with the now calm assurance that Hallam "was a noble type". In Memoriam resolves the crisis of faith precipitated by Hallam's death by presenting him doubly as a type, because he foreshadowed both the second appearance of Christ and the coming higher race of human beings.

The "state to state" (6) the spirit passes through represents its ascension to Heaven. "Shatter'd stalks" (7) and "ruin'd chrysalis" (8) both describe the body Hallam left on earth. In religion, it is sometimes believed the body is merely a receptacle for the soul before it moves on to live eternal life in Heaven. This imagery helps explain the speaker's claim in the first stanza that the process of decay does not frighten him.

In Memoriam represents a struggle of a man trying to make sense of a world that has taken his friend and this also causes him to question God. When Tennyson came to write In Memoriam, one of the most experimental and yet influential poems of the century, he already had refined his characteristic basic poetic structure and needed a theme that would permit him to apply his gifts to a major form. Arthur Henry Hallam's death in 1833 provided Tennyson with one by forcing him to question his faith in nature, God, and poetry. Hallam was engaged to marry Tennyson's sister Emily, when he died suddenly of a stroke in Vienna at the age of 22. Although written without any plans at first, the parts of the poem were finally arranged in a pattern to co

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1298
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)