This chapter discusses Tennyson, but, like Chapter 4, also reads his work as representative of a particular branch of Victorian Christianity. In Tennyson’s case, In Memoriam was widely read as a salvo fired by the Broad Church, and Tennyson’s personal friendships with many of the leading figures in this nebulous grouping — F. D. Maurice in particular — added strength to this reading. After introducing the fundamentals of ‘Broad Church’ thought with relation to form, I offer a close reading of form in In Memoriam and its relation to the writings of religious authors such as Maurice, Benjamin...

This chapter discusses Tennyson, but, like Chapter 4, also reads his work as representative of a particular branch of Victorian Christianity. In Tennyson’s case, In Memoriam was widely read as a salvo fired by the Broad Church, and Tennyson’s personal friendships with many of the leading figures in this nebulous grouping — F. D. Maurice in particular — added strength to this reading. After introducing the fundamentals of ‘Broad Church’ thought with relation to form, I offer a close reading of form in In Memoriam and its relation to the writings of religious authors such as Maurice, Benjamin Jowett, and F. W. Robertson. The final section of the chapter considers Tennyson’s late poem ‘Akbar’s Dream’, which assesses forms in relation to comparative religion.