Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 1225-1236
Sweet soul, do with me as thou wilt;
I lull a fancy trouble-tost
With "Love's too precious to be lost,
A little grain shall not be spilt."
And in that solace can I sing,
Till out of painful phases wrought
There flutters up a happy thought,
Self-balanced on a lightsome wing:
Since we deserved the name of friends,
And thine effect so lives in me,
A part of mine may live in thee
And move thee on to noble ends.
- The speaker tells Arthur's spirit (the "sweet soul") to do with him what he will, and that his imagination is being affected by his sadness.
- Love, he concludes, is too great for Arthur to forget about him. This seems to comfort Tennyson, who claims that from this comfort he will "sing," or write his poem.
- In fact, this poem will be the way that Arthur's memory will live on through Tennyson.