Alfred Lord Tennyson's poetry
Alfred Lord Tennyson as all other poets had many different themes he wrote about. For the sake of analysis I have picked three of these themes which, in my humble opinion, are the most important. These themes are: the coming and happening of the inevitable, love and poets/poetry. The purpose of this small writing is to compare, bring examples and analyze poetry written about those topics.
The happening of the inevitable I find the most interesting for it shows the realistic side of Tennyson, meaning that Tennyson can be thought to be more like a philosopher, pondering over life and future, than a poet. Which of course he is but the philosophical side of him asks the reader to think along with him as well to actually “choose a side”, which creates more emotions than just reading through stanza after stanza of descriptions only to come to a conclusion the author thought of. By “choosing a side” I mean that when one writes of something inevitable he states that the topic discussed is like it is. The reader, at that moment, can really choose either he or she agrees with ones written views on that certain topic or he/she does not. For example, Tennyson's views on life and death are quite clear and he presents these ideas as a logical, well-structured argumentation. The one reading it, as I mentioned, can choose a side, either to support Tennyson's arguments about life and death or ponder over them themselves, leading to another idea. Either way the purpose of a poem (for example) “Life and death” is fulfilled, being the fact that Tennyson wanted to write about life and death – no matter how the reader understands that. As I already said there are many poems by Tennyson that deal with the inevitable and the theme can be found among many works written by him even if the whole poem is not about the inevitable itself, but it is intertwined with other works as well. Poems like “All things will die” and “The death of the old year” are great examples of inevitable things and as well as contradictions leading towards individual understanding of these works:
“All things will die”
Yet all things must die.
The stream will cease to flow;
The wind will cease to blow;
The clouds will cease to fleet;
The heart will cease to beat;
For all things must die.
All things must die.
[...]
And the old earth must die.
So let the warm winds range,
And the blue wave beat the shore;
For even and morn
Ye will never see
Thro’ eternity.
All things were born.
Ye will come never more,
For all things must die.
“The death of the old year”
Old year lies a-dying.
Old year, you must not die;
You came to us so readily,
You lived with us so steadily,
Old year, you shall not die.
[...]
Step from the corpse, and let him in
That standeth there alone,
And waiteth at the door.
There’s a new foot on the floor, my friend,
And a new face at the door, my friend,
A new face at the door.
Both of these poems speak of ending of something or ending of everything. Everything (life, old earth, rivers, clouds, streams as well as years) end at some point. Tennyson sees that everything ends and it should end at some point. There is another point, however, in “The death of the old year”. He admits that everything ends but he also thinks that every end is a beginning to something new. Perfect examples of inevitability.
Another important theme Tennyson wrote about is love, which is nothing to be wondered about for almost every last poet has wrote about love, in some sense at least. Tennyson wrote about love from different perspectives and of everything it causes. That is why there are so many poems of love written by him, but that is not a surprise as well, for love is possibly something unexplainable and can be understood only if felt. Reading something written about affection can only give you a vague idea of what the author means or feels, if you have not felt at least something similar to the described point. Different conceptions of love are best described by poems “The burial of love”, “Love and death” and “Love thou thy land, with love far-brought”.
“The burial of love”
His eyes in eclipse,
Pale-cold his lips,
The light of his hopes unfed,
Mute his tongue,
His bow unstrung
With the tears he hath shed,
Backward drooping his graceful head,
Love is dead:
His last arrow is sped;
He hath not another dart;
Go–carry him to his dark deathbed;
Bury him in the cold, cold heart–
Love is dead.
[...]
“Love and death”
What time the mighty moon was gathering light
Love paced the thymy plots of Paradise,
And all about him roll’d his lustrous eyes;
When, turning round a cassia, full in view,
Death, walking all alone beneath a yew,
And talking to himself, first met his sight.
‘You must begone,’ said Death, ‘these walks are mine.’
Love wept and spread his sheeny vans for flight;
Yet ere he parted said, ‘This hour is thine:
Thou art the shadow of life, and as the tree
Stands in the sun and shadows all beneath,
So in the light of great eternity
Life eminent creates the shade of death.
The shadow passeth when the tree shall fall,
But I shall reign for ever over all.’
“Love thou thy land, with love far-brought”
Love thou thy land, with love far-brought
From out the storied past, and used
Within the present, but transfused
Thro’ future time by power of thought
[...]
As one can understand there really are different kinds of love described. The first poem concentrates on the pain or the loss of love (or the loss of a loved one), which is actually something inevitable but not in the sense as the “All things will die”. There are, however connections between those as well for the loss of of love at some point is quite certain. The second poem focuses mostly on the strength of love and it's victory over death. It is contradictory to the first poem and not only in the sense that it has a more positive feel towards love, but that it implies to the fact that love is not lost or dead after it ends, but the love even continues after death. Maybe in the sense of the people left behind the loved one who died but maybe it means that you still feel love after it ends. Possibilities are endless here and that is something I wanted to point out as well (and I already did in other words) – that Tennyson's poetry gives you a chance to explore the meaning behind his writings and find a conclusion you want to come to. The third poem describes a simpler love and that is love for your land, in other words it describes patriotism as the kind of love that carries lands and people onwards with love being a power of thought.
Third main idea and topic of Tennyson's poetry is other poets and written poems. Tennyson tries to explore the boundaries of the power in words and how poets and poems have had effect on humans in general. The poems and poets are best described with three of his famous works: “The poet's song”, “The poet's mind” and with “The poet”.
“The poet's song”
The rain had fallen, the Poet arose,
He pass’d by the town and out of the street;
A light wind blew from the gates of the sun,
And waves of shadow went over the wheat;
And he sat him down in a lonely place,
And chanted a melody loud and sweet,
That made the wild-swan pause in her cloud,
And the lark drop down at his feet.
“The poet's mind”
Vex not thou the poet’s mind
With thy shallow wit;
Vex not thou the poet’s mind,
For thou canst not fathom it.
Clear and bright it should be ever,
Flowing like a crystal river,
Bright as light, and clear as wind.
“The poet”
[...]
Her words did gather thunder as they ran,
And as the lightning to the thunder
Which follows it, riving the spirit of man,
Making earth wonder,
So was their meaning to her words. No sword
Of wrath her right arm whirl’d,
But one poor poet’s scroll, and with his word
She shook the world.
All of these poems concentrate on the understanding and some-what praising the poets. First poem describes how one melody created can even stop the world if needed to and even catch the attention of the swans. That is what is described in the last poem as well. According to Tennyson the words of a poet can be so strong that he describes them as thunder which no arm nor sword can match. Tennyson genuinely believes that word is all powerful and can achieve a lot more than war or fighting can. “The poet's mind” is not much different but it has it's own point. It asks for poet's mind not to be vexed for in order for one to be a poet, one needs a clear mind which can be compared to crystal rivers and clear flowing winds. Tennyson sees a true poet in a person who has a clear and an open mind towards everything for only then can one really write as good as possible. Even stop wars and shake the world if needed to.
In conclusion I can say that Tennyson had great and idealistic ideas. He had different views on many different topics he wrote about and was willing to share them with people. He represents something a true poet should be like - letting you ponder over the given topic yourself while just feeding you with ideas. A poet who not only offers you emotion through his work but also makes you think about what ever he has written about.
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