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영어

The main theme of Tennyson's In Memoriam A. H. H. centers around the growth and change of the self. The sudden death of his friend, Hallam, left him in deep grief and doubt. Nevertheless, he overcame his grief and found hope through the doubt and pain, and grew into a greater person than before through the faith that he found. In the process of that growth, writing poems played an important role. The sorrowful poet showed that writing poems consoled his mind as "the coarsest cloths against the cold." He accepted that others go through the same grief as he did and he paid attention to others, so for him, poetry was the very medium of self-recovery. At first, the poet was "an infant crying in the night" who didn't know who he was and was isolated in the castle of the self. But, gradually, he became wiser through the sorrow and tears that he was accustomed to and matured into an adult who realized that Hallam and he were the same being, and destined to the same place by experiencing mystical self-awareness. Therefore, we can say that he recovered from the sorrow by writing poems. This theme coincides with the principle of poetry therapy, which provides opportunities for self-examination to those who suffer from mental issues by making them read and write poetry, and let them recognize others and their world in a new way, as well as cope with life changes. This is the main subject in Tennyson's In Memoriam A. H. H., which I pay the most attention to.