In Memoriam A.H.H.

In Memoriam, by world-renown poet Alfred Tennyson, is a requiem written for Tennyson’s friend, Arthur, who died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage. While inspired by a tragic event, the work features some of Tennyson’s most popular verse. The poem not only explores themes of faith, science, nature, and mortality, it also explores Tennyson’s emotions as he grieved the loss of his friend. In Memoriam is a beautiful collection of spirituality, existentialism, the philosophy of death, and nostalgia, with the stages of grief being the thread of continuity throughout the requiem. As Tennyson himself said: “‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”