Lyric Poem · Grief
In Memoriam 28: The time draws near the birth of Christ
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson · 1850
1The time draws near the birth of Christ:
2The moon is hid; the night is still;
3The Christmas bells from hill to hill
4Answer each other in the mist.
5Four voices of four hamlets round,
6From far and near, on mead and moor,
7Swell out and fail, as if a door
8Were shut between me and the sound:
9Each voice four changes on the wind,
10That now dilate, and now decrease,
11Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,
12Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.
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“In Memoriam 28: The time draws near the birth of Christ” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson — quilloak.com/poems/in-memoriam-28-the-time-draws-near-the-birth-of-christ
Quick facts
- Poem
- In Memoriam 28: The time draws near the birth of Christ
- Poet
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Published
- 1850
- Length
- 20 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Quatrain
- Themes
- Grief, Winter, Hope
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 20 lines · 5 quatrains
- Line length
- Consistent with long metre. Four eight-syllable lines (8.8.8.8), the hymn stanza's longer cousin.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
First published before 1929 and checked line by line against the cited copy. Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892
- Source record
- Project Gutenberg eBook #70950, In Memoriam (first edition, 1850)In Memoriam 28: The time draws near the birth of Christ; In Memoriam (London: Edward Moxon, 1850), section XXVIII
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-11-04
- Publication record
- In Memoriam (London: Edward Moxon, 1850), section XXVIII
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 f8ce9631456885ca…
- Editorial handling
- Curly apostrophes and quotation marks printed as straight ones. Wording and punctuation follow the first edition of 1850 exactly.