Arthur Henry Hallam

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

Arthur Henry Hallam was the son of Hallam the historian and an intimate friend of Tennyson, to whose sister he was betrothed. He died in Vienna in his twenty-third year and has been commemorated by the poet in “In Memoriam,” perhaps the most beautiful of modern elegiac verse. He was born in London Feb. 1, 1811.

From “In Memoriam”

IT is the day when he was born,

A bitter day that early sank

Behind a purple-frosty bank

Of vapor, leaving night forlorn.

The time admits not flowers or leaves

To deck the banquet. Fiercely flies

The blast of North and East, and ice

Makes daggers at the sharpen’d eaves,

And bristles all the brakes and thorns

To yon hard crescent, as she hangs

About the wood which grides and clangs

Its leafless ribs and iron horns.

Together in the drifts that pass

To darken on the rolling brine

That breaks the coast. But fetch the wine,

Arrange the board and brim the glass;

Bring in great logs and let them lie,

To make a solid core of heat;

Be cheerful-minded, talk and treat

Of all things ev’n as he were by;

We keep the day. With festal cheer,

With books and music, surely we

Will drink to him, whate’er he be,

And sing the songs he loved to hear.

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