Masterclass: In Memoriam
In Memoriam by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Masterclass with Clare Williams
10.30am – 3.00pm, Wednesday 4th November
19 Abercromby Square, Liverpool, L69 7ZG
£30 (lunch & refreshments included)
Concessions available
Let Love clasp Grief lest both be drown’d,
Let darkness keep her raven gloss:
Ah, sweeter to be drunk with loss,
To dance with death, to beat the ground
After the death of her beloved husband Prince Albert, Queen Victoria remarked that: “Next to the Bible, In Memoriam is my comfort”. Today, this poem continues to captivate the reader’s imagination as it interrogates the universal themes of life and death, courageously confronting the experience of grief and loss.
In words, like weeds, I’ll wrap me o’er,
Like coarsest clothes against the cold;
Words often fail us in times of bereavement but for Tennyson they provided his one source of comfort. His writing gives us a language by which we can possess and make sense of our suffering; it takes us on an epic philosophical journey to search for resolution to the cycle of grief, pain, and doubt.
We invite all readers who are interested in sharing something of this journey to join Clare Williams in this Masterclass. We highly recommend that you read In Memoriam before hand, but a selection of key passages will be available on the day.
To book your place contact Casi Dylan on casidylan@thereader.org.uk or download a booking form from our wesbsite.
To remark that ‘words fail us’ seems pre-requisite (as phrases go) to our overwhelming sense of grief when facing/being confronted by death. But, maybe, death pushes us towards realising this, that our primary feelings (coarsest clothing) have to struggle and find all the words symptomatic of those feelings – and that is no ordinary struggle, nor simple chronological passage of healing.
This should be an interesting journey for all those who can make the date with Claire.