This astonished me even more, and I turned to the subject of poems: No one memorizes them anymore, as we used to! Whereupon Jake, with a sly smile, launched into Tennyson’s “Ulysses.” ...

In 1850 Tennyson published In Memoriam AHH. The poem was dedicated to his late friend Arthur Hallam. It was a favourite of Queen Victoria, who said the book helped to comfort her after her husband ...