Research Paper on:
'In Memoriam' by Alfred Lord Tennyson and its 'Spring Songs'

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
nearly 20 years working on In Memoriam which was finally published in 1850 and received enormous critical praise. Not surprisingly, its language and sentiment set the tone for what most  21st century readers already imagine about the poetry of the 19th century. For example, as the student reading the poem studies the repetitive imagery of the poem and the separate  "spring songs," he or she will also hear the poems piety and theological references. Of course, such components we appropriate, even expected, from a gentleman poet such as Alfred, Lord  Tennyson. The "Spring Songs" Spring has always served as a popular motif and symbol in poetry and literature. It offers hope, renewal, and rebirth -- the reassurance that life  comes again. Tennyson takes full advantage of those connections but adds something more in the spring songs. For example, in Section 38 of In Memoriam, Tennyson explains that he has  actually lost spring or the sense of those things that spring most often means: "No joy the blowing season gives, / The herald melodies of spring" but he is able  to find some measure of comfort "in the songs I love to sing / A doubtful gleam of solace lives." The reader sense that Tennyson may be speaking of songs  of faith or the songs that he and his friend once shared but the poet clarifies that the songs he loves are the songs he sings for his departed friend.  He writes: "If any care for what is here / Survive in spirits renderd free, / Then are these songs I sing of thee / Not all ungrateful to thine  ear." He appears to accept that his friend has escaped the limitations of the human or physical realm and hopes that he can still enjoy "these songs I sing of