Page 6 - Qavah

The great poet Alfred Tennyson wrote an elegy named In Memoriam lamenting the death of his dear
friend Arthur Hallam, an elegy which is read to this day and has brought respite from sorrow for
countless people over the two centuries since it was published. In Memoriam begins with Tennyson

utterly miserable with grief in the wake of his friend’s death. He mourns the literal separation between
him and his friend, and that he will no longer ever be able to physically “clasp his friend’s hand” like he
used to. The grief coupled with doubt slowly gives way to hope and faith, and the refusal to believe that
nature is governed not by a beneficent deity but by senseless forces which serve no higher purpose. It’s
this pervading theme of doubt however and not its final message of hope that emphasizes the greatness

of the poem.

From despair to renewed hope, Tennyson marks a transition that was made possible only by living
through the entire breadth of his grief and embracing the promise of an afterlife over the purposeless

evolution of humankind.

We will not be able to physically hold Fr. Anoop’s hand again just like Tennyson found himself unable
to with Hallam two centuries ago, and doubt and despair might indeed bring on a crisis of faith. It is

certainly difficult at times to reconcile such disorders of life with the steadfastness required by faith.
But all of this needs to eventually give way to the same conclusion that Tennyson, after a debilitating
battle with grief for over 18 years during which he wrote the elegy, finally reached: “I trust he lives

with Thee”
Jilin Cherian