Observations placeholder
Tennyson, Alfred Lord - In Memoriam A H H - I wage not any feud with Death
Identifier
004600
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
In the following quote from the poem Tennyson wrote in memory of his friend Arthur Hallam, Tennyson indicates that the soul moves from body to body [state to state/shattered stalks] and that he doesn't 'blame' death for taking his friend because what he became in his short life [Hallam was 22 when he died of a blood clot on the brain] will be used elsewhere in a new life [will bloom to profit otherwhere]. His greatest sorrow is that he 'cannot hear the other speak'.
A description of the experience
Alfred Lord Tennyson – from In Memoriam A.H.H.
I wage not any feud with Death
For changes wrought in form and face
No lower life that earth's embrace
May breed with him, can fright my faith.
Eternal process moving on
From state to state the spirit walks;
And these are but the shattered stalks
Or ruined chrysalis of one.
Nor blame I Death, because he bare
The use of virtue out of earth;
I know transplanted human worth
Will bloom to profit, otherwhere.
For this alone on Death I wreak
The wrath that garners in my heart;
He put our lives so far apart
We cannot hear each other speak