Hallam, Arthur Henry

(1811-1833)

   He was born in London, the son of the historian Henry Hallam (1777-1859), and was educated at Eton College. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1832, having won several prizes, one being for an essay upon the philosophical writings of Cicero. He was a member of the "Cambridge Apostles," which included Lord Tennyson (see entry) and their friendship is the subject of Tennyson's long poem "In Memoriam A.H.H.," written in 1849, in which he grieves over the loss of his friend who was in love with his sister, Emily. On a tour with his father in Austria, he suddenly died, having had some circulatory problem, which first showed at Cambridge. He was buried in the chancel of Clevedon Church, Somersetshire. For one who died so young, his output was prodigious. His Remains was edited by his father in 1834. Some of his poems: "A melancholy thought had laid me low," "Lady, I bid thee to a sunny dome," "Oh Poetry, Oh Rarest Spirit of All," "Still Here-Thou Hast Not Faded from My Sight," "To My Mother," "When gentle fingers cease to touch the string."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Sonnet Central (www.sonnets.org). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Regency Verse 1798-1837. H.S. Milford, ed. Oxford University Press, 1928. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Victorian Web (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/hallam/bioov.html).