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Alfred Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson. Lecture 19. About the Poet. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) achieved, what so many poets and writers throughout the centuries were unable to achieve, fame and success during his lifetime.

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Alfred Tennyson

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  1. Alfred Tennyson Lecture 19

  2. About the Poet • Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) achieved, what so many poets and writers throughout the centuries were unable to achieve, fame and success during his lifetime. • in 1850, after the publication of “In Memoriam”, he was installed to the position of poet laureate. • As Poet Laureate, he represented the literary voice of the nation and, as such, he made occasional pronouncements on political affairs. For example, “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854) described a disastrous battle in the Crimean War and praised the heroism of the British soldiers there.

  3. In 1859, Tennyson published the first four Idylls of the King, a group of twelve blank-verse narrative poems tracing the story of the legendary King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. This collection, dedicated to Prince Albert, enjoyed much popularity among the royal family, who saw Arthur's lengthy reign as a representation of Queen Victoria's 64-year rule (1837-1901).

  4. He is the representative poet of Victorian Age. He entered fully into the moods of his age. • His poetry is remarkable for its metrical variety, rich descriptive imagery, and exquisite verbal melodies. • His poetry dealt often with the doubts and difficulties of an age in which established Christian faith and traditional assumptions about man’s nature and destiny were increasingly called into question by science and modern progress.

  5. Due to his intimate personal problems his poetry is inclined to melancholy, yet through his poetic mastery and distinctive harmony, he conveyed a feeling of reassurance, even serenity. • Tennyson may be seen as the first great English poet to be fully aware of the new picture of man’s place in the universe revealed by modern science. • This feeling sometimes evoked his fears and forebodings, but also gave him greater understanding and depth than other poets of his age.

  6. Break, break, break Alfred Tennyson

  7. About the poem • The poem was written in 1834, a year after Tennyson's friend Hallam died abroad. • The poem is an elegy that describes Tennyson's feelings of loss after Arthur Hallam died and his feelings of isolation while at Maplethorpe, Lincolnshire. • In the poem, permanent and lasting images are contrasted with temporariness of human life: man passes away so quickly but the scene of nature remains the same.

  8. Stanza 1 Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me. The effect of repetition and relentless motion of waves create an air of despair. He wants to be able to speak out his heart like the waves.

  9. Stanza 2 O, well for the fisherman's boy, That he shouts with his sister at play! O, well for the sailor lad, That he sings in his boat on the bay! The poet contrasts his mood with the fisherman’s boy and the sailor’s lad. He admires their innocent joy and is sorry that he cannot share it.

  10. Stanza 3 And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill; But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand, And the sound of a voice that is still! Everything in nature is unchanged.

  11. Stanza 4 Break, break, break At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead Will never come back to me. The refrain or repetition again to emphasize poet’s grief.

  12. Analysis • 'Break, break, break' is a short poem with an overridingly sad and nostalgic tone. • The poem presents a sea-side image, complete with a wild sea, playing children, fishermen and sailing boats, but Tennyson manipulates these elements to reveal a poem about death and loss. • The themes of memory and nostalgia feature heavily in the poem, and there is a distinct feeling that Tennyson is indeed evoking the memory of someone he has lost.

  13. He has drawn a picture of permanent and lasting images in contrast with temporariness of human life. • The metaphor of ‘sea’ is used to emphasize permanence and to show that man passes away so quickly but the scene of nature remains the same. • The world continues to be busy and beautiful, but the happy moments of one’s life never stay. • Poetic devices used are: repetition, metaphor, alliteration

  14. Tears, Idle Tears Alfred Tennyson

  15. 'Tears, idle tears' was published in 1847, when it first appeared as a lyric embedded within Tennyson's longer poem The Princess: a Medley. • Tennyson's "Tears, Idle Tears" is a lyric poem centering on bittersweet memories of the past. • the poem is unrhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse), but several lines do not conform strictly to this pattern. • The poem evokes complex emotions and moods through a mastery of language.

  16. Stanza 1 Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,Tears from the depth of some divine despairRise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,In looking on the happy autumn-fields,And thinking of the days that are no more. The poet is grieved by sense of loss. He cannot link the tears to any specific memory.

  17. Stanza 2 Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,That brings our friends up from the underworld,Sad as the last which reddens over oneThat sinks with all we love below the verge;So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. The past memories are compared to the first and last beam of sunlight. Image of boat bringing and returning the dead to the underworld; also the memories.

  18. Stanza 3 Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawnsThe earliest pipe of half-awakened birdsTo dying ears, when unto dying eyesThe casement slowly grows a glimmering square;So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. It is strange for the dying man that as his life is ending, an new day is beginning, therefore the songs of birds are sad for him.

  19. Stanza 4 Dear as remembered kisses after death,And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feignedOn lips that are for others; deep as love,Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;O Death in Life, the days that are no more! the image of ‘death in life’ is culmination of the thoughts expressed in previous stanzas. the poet laments the transitoriness of life.

  20. Analysis • Tennyson himself said 'Tears, idle tears' was about 'the passion of the past' and 'the yearning that young people occasionally experience for that which seems to have passed away from them for ever'. • Tennyson explained that the idea for this poem came to him when he was at Tintern Abbey, not far from Hallam’s burial place. • Wordsworth’s poem, too, reflects on the passage of time and the loss of the joys of youth. However, whereas Tennyson laments “the days that are no more” and describes the past as a “Death in Life,” Wordsworth explicitly states that although the past is no more, he has been compensated for its loss with “other gifts.”

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