I worked in a used bookstore in grad school, and the owner is one of the most cultured people I know. In particular, he urged his employees to take out anything in the poetry section on long-term loan. In Memoriam is one of the relatively few poems about which we disagreed--I loved it, every single line of it, whereas he loathed every single line of it. Except perhaps this section, because he always put two or three of the stanzas up on the store's sign board before January 1.
In any case, the setting I know and like best, by Augusta Read Thomas (a very fine contemporary composer), does not seem to be up on YT. There's always Fletcher's 1914 arrangement though:
Me, too. The posts have led me to see certain poets more clearly--Christina Rossetti and Walter De La Mare, to name just two. I also deeply appreciated the respect paid to Rudyard Kipling.
In addition to hoping (the mood of "ring" through-out is subjunctive, not imperative: Tennyson is not *ordering* the bells to perform all these things) that the new year will bring new life and hope, he is praying that it will induce a change in him, as poet: "Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes/But ring the fuller minstrel in" means: may I stop being the poet who only writes about my grief and sorrow, and may I become a fuller, more complete poet. "Minstrel" is a tricky word now, since it seems a trivialising term for poet or singer, a mere popular entertainer, the US traditions of blackface minstrel performances: but that postdates Tennyson, and the word here has more dignity. (like Dante Gabriel Rossetti's “The House of Life. Sonnet IX. Passion and Worship”, 'One flame-winged brought a white-winged harp-player / Even where my lady and I lay all alone; / Saying: "Behold, this minstrel is unknown; / Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here."')
I'm also struck that this is, in a sense, Tennyson's version of the "virtues of the bell": as if the tolling of bells has magical powers.
"There grew up in the Middle Ages what were called the virtues of the bell. These were usually expressed in two or three words of Latin, and anywhere from two to twelve were inscribed on a bell according to its location, importance. and use. The best known are the three on a bell of 1486 at Schaffhausen, Switzerland, which inspired Schiller three hundred yean later to write his immortal poem, ‘Das Lied von der Glocke’, The Song of the Bell. The conciseness of the Latin gives a power which no translation can convey; VIVOS VOCO — MORTUOS PLANGO — FVLGVRA FRANCO (“I call the living; I wail for the dead; I break the lightning”) It will be seen that, from our present-day viewpoint, the virtues vary from the highly religious to the deeply superstitious. In the Middle Ages there was no clear dividing line between the religious and the non-religious. It was therefore quite natural that the inscription which mentioned such virtues as, “‘I praise the true God”, “I signal the sabbath”, “I note the hours”, “I arouse the lazy”, “I call for assembly”, “I weep at the burial” should also include “I torment demons”, “I drive away the plague” “I break offensive things”, and even, “I dispel the winds”, “I drive away the cloud”, “I break the lightning”, “I dispatch hail”, and “I extinguish fire”. [Percival Price, ‘Bell Inscriptions of Western Europe’, Dalhousie Review (1966) 423–24]
I worked in a used bookstore in grad school, and the owner is one of the most cultured people I know. In particular, he urged his employees to take out anything in the poetry section on long-term loan. In Memoriam is one of the relatively few poems about which we disagreed--I loved it, every single line of it, whereas he loathed every single line of it. Except perhaps this section, because he always put two or three of the stanzas up on the store's sign board before January 1.
In any case, the setting I know and like best, by Augusta Read Thomas (a very fine contemporary composer), does not seem to be up on YT. There's always Fletcher's 1914 arrangement though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIN7jKRUPq4
Ahhh, I love this one!
I deeply appreciate the investment the two of you make writing these posts week in and week out!
As do I. (And we are not alone in this.)
Me, too. The posts have led me to see certain poets more clearly--Christina Rossetti and Walter De La Mare, to name just two. I also deeply appreciated the respect paid to Rudyard Kipling.
So beautiful! Thank you for sharing! It rings so close to what I wrote last night. https://open.substack.com/pub/otiliajones/p/just-be-you-are-an-essay-that-god?r=1sjuyz&utm_medium=ios
In addition to hoping (the mood of "ring" through-out is subjunctive, not imperative: Tennyson is not *ordering* the bells to perform all these things) that the new year will bring new life and hope, he is praying that it will induce a change in him, as poet: "Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes/But ring the fuller minstrel in" means: may I stop being the poet who only writes about my grief and sorrow, and may I become a fuller, more complete poet. "Minstrel" is a tricky word now, since it seems a trivialising term for poet or singer, a mere popular entertainer, the US traditions of blackface minstrel performances: but that postdates Tennyson, and the word here has more dignity. (like Dante Gabriel Rossetti's “The House of Life. Sonnet IX. Passion and Worship”, 'One flame-winged brought a white-winged harp-player / Even where my lady and I lay all alone; / Saying: "Behold, this minstrel is unknown; / Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here."')
I'm also struck that this is, in a sense, Tennyson's version of the "virtues of the bell": as if the tolling of bells has magical powers.
"There grew up in the Middle Ages what were called the virtues of the bell. These were usually expressed in two or three words of Latin, and anywhere from two to twelve were inscribed on a bell according to its location, importance. and use. The best known are the three on a bell of 1486 at Schaffhausen, Switzerland, which inspired Schiller three hundred yean later to write his immortal poem, ‘Das Lied von der Glocke’, The Song of the Bell. The conciseness of the Latin gives a power which no translation can convey; VIVOS VOCO — MORTUOS PLANGO — FVLGVRA FRANCO (“I call the living; I wail for the dead; I break the lightning”) It will be seen that, from our present-day viewpoint, the virtues vary from the highly religious to the deeply superstitious. In the Middle Ages there was no clear dividing line between the religious and the non-religious. It was therefore quite natural that the inscription which mentioned such virtues as, “‘I praise the true God”, “I signal the sabbath”, “I note the hours”, “I arouse the lazy”, “I call for assembly”, “I weep at the burial” should also include “I torment demons”, “I drive away the plague” “I break offensive things”, and even, “I dispel the winds”, “I drive away the cloud”, “I break the lightning”, “I dispatch hail”, and “I extinguish fire”. [Percival Price, ‘Bell Inscriptions of Western Europe’, Dalhousie Review (1966) 423–24]
Thank you for this comment! So interesting.
Fascinating!
Thank you for your comments on this lovely and hopeful poem. We need this hope so badly just now!