Victorian Contract #8 Tennyson

“Dark House”, “My Own Dim Life”, and “You Say” were all written by Alfred Lord Tennyson as a memorial to his friend Arthur Henry Hallum. His state of mind was ever changing during the time that these poems were written. He admits that it began with a funeral and ended with a wedding. These poems will show the slow recovery of Tennyson after the death of his friend.

            “Dark House” is aptly titled because it is a sad poem.  Tennyson is so sad that he is standing in the street looking around and feeling like his heart is no longer beating in his chest.  Then when it is night time he simply roams around his home because he cannot sleep with all the grief built up in his heart. He knows it is because his friend is beyond his reach and he is left behind to suffer.

            “My Own Dim Life” is a little less depressing to the reader.  He talks about his life being dim as opposed to being dark like “Dark House”.  He also is now talking about the earth being beautiful and how God is the creator of this. He then says that he was given patience to wait until he dies. He compares dying like a charming serpent draws a bird into its jaws until it ceases. So it is still not a happy poem but there is a little more happiness that in the first one.

            “You Say” was written near the end of the creation of the memorial to Hallum and is much more lighthearted.  In the first verse he has written that he was told doubt is devil born but that he know from experience that he has more faith in “honest doubt” than in half the creeds written.  The next paragraph declares that he is fighting his doubts and gathering strength so he would not judge himself blindly. The third paragraph states he is looking for a faith that is stronger than his own and he found it because we have to have light to have darkness. I believe the final paragraph is referring to Jesus and his coming to save our souls, his included.

            These three poems were all vastly different. They start out very dark and depressing because that is what Tennyson was feeling. They then move to a little bit lighter with “My Own Dim Life” which is still sad and depressing but has a lighter side to it as well. Lastly “You Say” is much more hopeful reading. Tennyson was by no means completely over the loss of his friend but now has some hope that his friend is in a better place and he will one day follow him to this great place.