"The Higher Pantheism" is an 1867 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in which Tennyson presents a view of God as subsisting throughout the material world. The poem drew both praise and criticism, as well as examination of its inspirations in the words of Tennyson's contemporaries.
The poem was presented at the inaugural meeting of the Metaphysical Society, of which Tennyson was a member, in 1869. Tennyson himself was unable to attend the event, so the poem was read by James Knowles.C. D. Broad, Review of Brown's The metaphysical society (1947), p. 101.
Examinations The poem has been compared to passages from the philosophy of Thomas Carlyle, a longtime friend and confidante of Tennyson's.D. T. Starnes, "The Influence of Carlyle Upon Tennyson, The Texas Review, Volumes VI, No. 4 (July 1921), p. 323.
British Nonconformist divine Robert Forman Horton wrote that while "some of the older theologians" suspected Tennyson of literal pantheism, "The Higher Pantheism" "does not say that the All (Pan) is God, but that the All is a shadow of God whom we are at present too imperfect to apprehend."Robert Forman Horton, Alfred Tennyson: A Saintly Life, 1900, p. 197. This is most evident in the closing lines of the poem:
Notably, towards the end of his life, Tennyson revealed that his "religious beliefs also defied convention, leaning towards agnosticism and pandeism". Horton compared the poem to a remark Tennyson made to Frederick Locker-Lampson during a visit to the Alps:
Algernon Charles Swinburne was not so appreciative of the poem; he called it a "gabble and babble of half-hatched thoughts in half-baked words," and wrote a parody titled "The Higher Pantheism in a Nutshell", copying the meter but with verses making absurd truisms. Swinburne's version concluded:
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