Tennyson's Childlike Faith in "In Memoriam" Faith Neece College

When Jesus’s disciples asked him about the greatest in Heaven, they were likely expecting him to speak of great religious figures or historical leaders. However, Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” completely shifting the disciples’ worldview (Matt 18.3). From this verse, Christians are encouraged to have “childlike faith,” which is typically interpreted to mean a simple, yet unwavering trust in God. However, in his elegy In Memoriam, Alfred, Lord Tennyson challenges our perspective on what the faith of a child means. Tennyson writes of grief as a humbling experience that places him in a childlike position. His several child and infancy images throughout the poem illustrate our helplessness in proximity to death. When dealing with grief, we are left without explanation. But it is this vulnerability that opens us up for a relationship with the Father. It is only in emptying that we can be filled with God’s presence; it is only in crying that we know our “father near” (124.20). Through this comforting relationship with the divine, Tennyson’s grief, and Tennyson himself, are transformed. Tennyson’s childlike faith renews the elegy from a...