‘Raving of dead men’s dust and beating hearts’: Tennyson and the Pathological Heart
‘Raving of dead men’s dust and beating hearts’: Tennyson and the Pathological Heart
This chapter examines Tennyson's poetics in detail, arguing that they constitute the most important intervention in the poetic culture of the heart. It shows how Hallam's death from a heart-related complaint influences the use of heart metaphor in In Memoriam, a poem which repeatedly references the heart, and where the steady rhythmic beat can be interpreted as the pulse. It then turns to Maud, which is read as a sustained and deliberate investigation of the pathological heart, as the speaker takes on all the characteristics of a medical case-study into heart disease.
Keywords: Tennyson, Hallam, In Memoriam, Maud, medical case-study
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