Alfred Lord Tennysons In Memoriam contains many theological elements debating the confusion between science and religion. The striking theology in the poem makes it different from the other contemporary Victorian poems.

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Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) was one of the unsurpassed poets of victorian era, and indeed his stylistic features and subjects epitomise the period. . In Memoriam is one of his major works, and in this elegy he mourns the death of his best friend, Arthur Hallam.

When Hallam died in Vienna in September of 1833 of a sudden brain hemorrhage, it threw the 24-year-old Tennyson into intense grief and depression. Over the course of the next 17 years, Tennyson poured out his grief and confusion over both the death of his friend and the potential death of his faith into a 133 canto poem titled In Memoriam, A.H.H. while the title obviously refers directly to Arthur Henry Hallam, it can also be read as a memoriam of the loss of strong faith of both the Victorian people in general and of Tennyson himself.

In “In Memoriam”, Tennyson spends large parts of the poem in an effort to reconcile the crumbling pillars of his life and faith with his need to understand and cope and believe life is worth something. And even though he may be struggling with his faith, he still opens the poem with a declaration of faith when he says,

                                              "Strong son of God, immortal Love,

                                                      Whom we, that have not seen thy face,

                                                     By faith, and faith alone, embrace,

                                                    Believing where we cannot prove."

Clearly, though he does start with a strong belief in God, though he struggles mightily with his faith over the course of the poem. Throughout In Memoriam Tennyson reexamines his faith in God with respect to Nature by employing the conflicting discourses of biblical writing and science writing.

Tennyson first begins to deal deeply with the issues of nature and God in the 54th canto of In Memoriam with his faith seemingly still intact. Though it may have been shaken a bit by this point, it is still merely cosmetic damage, not structural. He clearly still holds his beliefs high when he opens this section by saying

                                                  "Oh yet we trust that somehow good

                                                  We  be the final goal of ill….

                                                 That nothing walks with aimless feet;
                                             

                                                 That not one life shall be destroy'd,

This section lays out the basis of his faith and serves as the foundation of the beliefs he will continue to struggle with and will vary throughout the entire remainder of the poem.

He says in this canto that regardless of what ills occur through time, we believe the end result will always be one that is good and righteous. We believe that, despite all the terrible things that befall humans, everything has a purpose, and nothing dies in vain; that no one shall lose his life without God having a larger plan for it. At this point he still relies on faith for this belief, but he searches for a more physical justification for it in order to prove that his best friend in the world did not live and die without reason. This will later prove to be a significant question for him to try to answer.

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However, this apparent retention of faith seems to suddenly be dashed to pieces when he immediately changes tack and despairs that

                                                                  "Behold, we know not anything;

                                                                  I can but trust that good shall fall." ...

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