How is In Memoriam organized?

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Lithograph portrait of Alfred, Lord Tennyson with wavy hair, a full beard, and a serious expression, shown in three-quarter view wearing a dark coat. — Alfred, Lord Tennyson Portrait of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, lithograph published in *The Modern Portrait Gallery*, 1890.

In Memoriam is a vast, elegiac work composed of 131 sections of varying length, accompanied by a prologue and an epilogue. The poem is organized to reflect the development of the poet’s grief and his eventual acceptance of the death of his close friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, over a period of three years.12

The structure of the poem is notable for its use of the "In Memoriam stanza," a quatrain written in iambic tetrameter with an abba rhyme scheme. While the work explores complex intellectual themes of the Victorian Age—such as the tension between religious faith and emerging scientific theories like evolution—it concludes with an epilogue that serves as a celebratory marriage song for the wedding of the poet’s sister, Cecilia.312