Lecture 11 Lord Tennyson (1809--1892)

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Lecture 11 Lord Tennyson(1809--1892)
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I. Background

• The year 1832 marks the death of Scott, Keats.
  Shelley and Byron had died, Wordsworth had
  written his best poems, and the glorious period
  of Romantic poetry had come to an end.
• The Victorian Age, which followed it, was largely
  an age of prose, especially the novel, eminently
  represented by Dickens and Thackeray, as well as
  literary and social criticism, represented by
  Carlyle and Ruskin.

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• the most admired of the prolific Victorian
  poets--Tennyson, Arnold, the Rossettis,
  Swinburne, the Brownings, Edward Fitzgerald--we
  find rarely if ever, in their long writing lives,
  do they reach the profound significance or
  emotional intensity achieved, in such varied
  ways, by Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Blake,
  Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats."
  ( A.T. Rubinstein ' The Great Tradition in
  English Literature' )

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• Poetry was no longer a major art intended to
  change the world, as that of Byron and Shelley.
• It now seldom touched on the serious social
  problems but mainly concerned itself with the
  poet's purely personal or spiritual
  questionings--such ' luxury problems' as shades
  of religious belief, the conflict between faith
  and science, or a study of the Italian
  Renaissance from a purely aesthetic view.
• So the Victorian Age witnessed ' the at least
  temporary decline of English poetry'. It was, "an
  age which gave us little or no great poetry,
  although it has left us more than enough of
  skilful verse".

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II. Tennyson's Life and Career

• Alfred Tennyson, the most important poet of the
  Victorian Age, was born in 1809, the fourth son
  of a clergyman in Somersby, a village in
  Lincolnshire.
• Alfred's youthful hero was Byron.
• In 1828 he went to Cambridge, where he joined the
  "Apostles', a group of gifted middle-class
  students headed by Arthur Henry Hallam.
• Tennyson's friends did much to frame his mind and
  encouraged him to devote his life to poetry.

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• The first book bearing his own name, Poems,
  Chiefly Lyrical', was printed in 1830. It was
  enlarged and published again in 1833. But his
  poems received severe criticismas ' obscure" and
  "affected".
• In 1842 he republished his "Poems" in two
  volumes, which was a success and established his
  position as a poet.
• After 1842 he became more and more popular.
• "The Princess' (1847) is a ' medley' or
  mixture of medieval story and modern middle-class
  morality, showing the author's view on the
  position of women
• 'Maud' (1855) is a monodrama, telling the
  story of a lover who passes from morbidness to
  ecstasy, then to anger and murder, followed by
  insanity and recovery ' The Idylls of the King'
  (1859-1885) is meant to be an English epic built
  upon the stories of King Arthur.
• In 1884 he was made a peer and so has since been
  called Lord Tennyson. In 1892 he died and was
  buried in Westminster Abbey.

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III. In Memoriam

• In Memoriam was written by Tennyson in memory of
  A.H. Hallam, his closest friend and the fiance of
  his sister. Hallam died in 1833 in Vienna at the
  age of 22. The sadden death of his friend plunged
  Tennyson into great sorrow, which found its first
  expression in the exquisite little poem" Break,
  Break, Break'.
• From 1833 to 1850 Tennyson wrote a series of
  elegies to record his feelings and moods related
  to the death of his friend. All these poems are
  written in octosyllabic quatrains, rhyming a b b
  a.
• This song cycle comprises 131 lyrics with a
  prologue and an epilogue, less than half of which
  are directly connected with Hallam's death. As a
  whole, this "poetic diary is rather a
  representation of the poet's thoughts on the
  problems of life, death and immortality.

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• The poet tried to find some consolation for
  himself and for the pious Victorians who were
  thrown into a crisis in faith by the new
  discoveries in science. Some sort of scanty hope
  is found in a belief that fear, doubts, and
  suffering will find answer and relief only
  through faith in a God of Love.
• But such a solution, which amounts to a
  hypothesis that the mere desire of an after-life
  is in itself a kind of proof that people ought to
  believe in it, is not powerful enough to dispel
  the religious doubts and strengthen the old
  faith.
• Nevertheless, some of Tennyson's best lyrics are
  scattered here and there in the collection, and
  "In Memoriam", for its exquisite form and melody,
  is regarded by many critics as the summit of
  Tennyson's poetic achievement.

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IV. The Idylls of the King

• Between 1859 and 1885 Tennyson worked at his
  narrative poems based on the stories of King
  Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. These
  poems were gathered together as "The Idylls of
  the King".
• An idyll is a kind of poetical story, and each of
  Tennyson's "Idylls" relates an episode in the
  legendary romance of King Arthur.
• In writing these "Idylls', Tennyson attempted to
  pour new wine into old bottles. He coloured the
  old, medieval tales with the middle-class
  morality and sentiment of his own day and tried
  "to naturalize the Arthurian heroes and their
  women in the England of Victoria'.
• The theme running through the whole collection is
  "the conflict continually maintained between the
  spirit and the flesh' as shown by the story of
  the liaison between Guinevere, the queen of
  Arthur, and Lancelot, ' the flower of
  knighthood".
• Arthur is not a real human being but a shadowy
  figure, a symbol. He becomes "the embodiment of
  complete virtue conceived in a Victorian fashion,
  an " endless clergyman".
• And the over-exquisite elaboration of form makes
  the ' Idylls- sound affected to the ear of an
  ordinary reader.

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V. Major works

• (1) Poems (1842)
• The collection contains the famous dramatic
  monologue "Ulysses" (See Selected Readings), the
  narrative poem "Morte D' Arthur", a new version
  of the legend of King Arthur and his round-table
  knights.
• (2) The Princess (1847)
• Written in blank verse, it deals with the theme
  of women's rights and position both at home and
  in the society. The well-known lyrics are "Tears,
  Idle Tears", "Come Down, O Maid", "Sweet and
  Low", etc. Some of them have been set to music by
  composers.
• (3) In Memoriam (1850)
• This elegy in memory of his dead friend Arthur
  Hallam is generally considered his greatest work.
  It's also a diary in poetic form, expressing not
  only the poet's great sorrow at the loss of a
  dear friend, but also the philosophical and
  religious beliefs and doubts which were going on
  in the minds of most people in an age of fast
  changes. The poetry is famous for its profound
  feeling and artistic beauty. The trance-like
  experience, the musical rhythm and pictorial
  descriptions make it one of the best elegies in
  English literature. Of the 132 pieces, about a
  half is devoted to the memory of Arthur Hallam.

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• (4) Idylls of the King (1842--85)
• This is the most ambitious work by the poet. It
  is made up of 12 books and based on the Celtic
  legends of King Arthur and his round-table
  knights. Despite the mystery and romance, the
  Victorian moral code of exalting purity of heart
  and censuring treachery and unfaithfulness
  pervades the whole story, Though King Arthur is
  here described as a hero trying to restore peace
  and order to his collapsing kingdom and as one
  who never loses his faith in God, the poet sounds
  pessimistic about the inevitable end of
  civilization.
• The long narration is arranged according to the
  seasonal cycle. It starts in spring with the
  coming of Arthur, through the summer prosperity
  when many knights and heroes rush to join Arthur
  at the table and the autumn decline which is
  symbolized in the last losing battle, and ends in
  winter with the fast increase of power of his
  rivals and the final break-up of his kingdom when
  all his friends and knights, his wife, and his
  advisor fall away from him.

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VI. His artistic features

• Tennyson is a real, conscientious artist who
  manages to master the best qualities of past
  great poets and at the same time possesses the
  creative imagination and the natural ability of
  poetic production.
• He is a traditionalist in style. His poetry has a
  professional perfection. It is rich in poetic
  images and melodious language and noted for
  lyrical beauty and metrical charm, its good taste
  of diction, and ingenuous mixture of visual
  pictures, musical sound, and human feelings.

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VII. Break, break, break.

• Break, break, break.
• On thy cold grey stones, O Sear
• And I would that my tongue could utter
• The thoughts that arise in me.
• 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!
• And the stately ships go on
• To their haven under the hill
• But O for the touch era vanished band.
• And the sound era voice that is still!
• 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."

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• "Break, Break, Break" Published in 1842, it is
  one of Tennyson's first attempts to express his
  grief over the death of Arthur Hallam and one of
  his most anthologized poems.
• In this poem, he contrasts his own feeling of
  sorrow with the carefree joys of the children at
  play and the young sailor at works and with the
  unfeeling movements of the ship and the sea
  waves. The repetitive beginning of the first and
  the last stanza indicates not only the
  indifferent, mechanical movement of the sea waves
  but is also an echo of the rushes of grief of the
  heart-broken poet. The five "O" are the
  exclamations of one whose mourning heart is
  filled with an unutterable and yet uncontrollable
  longing and sorrow and of one who wishes "that my
  tongue could utter the thoughts that arise in
  me". And the lines after "O" in the second and
  the third stanza are unfinished as is suitable
  for a deep-mourning man. There is good reason for
  them--the children and the sailor lad--to shout
  and sing with joy, but there is no chance for me
  to feel the touch and hear the voice of my dear
  friend again!

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VIII. Crossing the Bar

• Sunset and evening star,
• And one clear call for me!
• And may there be no moaning of the bar,
• When I put out to sea.
• But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
• Too full for sound and foam.
• When that which drew from out the boundless deep
• Turns again home.

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• Twilight and evening bell
• And after that the dark!
• And may there be no sadness of farewell,
• When I embark
• For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
• The flood may bear me far.
• I hope to see my Pilot face to face
• When I have crossed the bar."

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• The poem was written in Tennyson's later life and
  published in 1889.
• Here the aged poet is calmly bidding his farewell
  to this world with apparent serenity though not
  without sadness. When the time comes, he says,
  our spirit departs gradually and peacefully as if
  in sleep.
• The metaphors of life and death used here are
  common and easy to understand.

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IX. Ulysses

• It little profits that an idle king,
• By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
• Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
• Unequal laws unto a savage race,
• That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

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• I cannot rest from travel I will drink
• Life to the lees all times I have enjoyed
• Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
• That loved me, and alone on shore, and when
• Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
• Vexed the dim sea I am become a name
• For always roaming with a hungry heart
• Much have I seen and known cities of men
• And manners, climates, councils, governments,
• Myself not least, but honoured of them all
• And drunk delight of battle with my peers
• Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
• I am part of all that I have met
• Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
• Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
• For ever and for ever when I move.
• How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

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• To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
• As though to breath were life. Life piled on life
• Were all too little, and of one to me
• Little remains but every hour is saved
• From that eternal silence, something more,
• A bringer of new things and vile it were
• For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
• And this grey spirit yearning in desire
• To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
• Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

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• This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
• To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle
• Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
• This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
• A rugged people, and through soft degrees
• Subdue them to the useful and the good.
• Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
• Of common duties, decent not to fail
• In offices of tenderness, and pay
• Meet adoration to my household gods,
• When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

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• There lies the port the vessel puffs her sail
• There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
• Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought
  with me
• That ever with a frolic welcome took
• The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
• Free hearts, free foreheads you and I are old
• Old age hath yet his honour and his toil
• Death closes all but something ere the end,
• Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
• Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
• The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks
• The long day wanes the slow moon climbs the
  deep
• Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
• 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
• Push off, and sitting well in order smite
• The sounding furrows for my purpose holds
• To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
• Of all the western stars, until I die.
• It may be that the gulfs will wash us down

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• Tho' much is taken, much abides and though
• We are not now that strength which in old days
• Moved earth and heaven that which we are, we
  are
• One equal temper of heroic hearts,
• Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
• To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

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• (A) Main idea
• Written in blank verse, it is a story about
  Ulysses, king of the Ithaca Island, a Trojan War
  hero. Now, in his old age and three years back in
  his homeland, he calls on his old followers to
  give up their idle life at home and to set forth
  with him on further quests and travels. The story
  is based upon Dante's account of Ulysses on his
  last voyage to "explore the world and search the
  ways of life" (Inferno, XXVI).
• Ulysses tries to convince his followers" How
  dull it is to pause, to make an end,/To rust
  unburnish'd, not to shine in use! /As tho' to
  breathe were life," He persuades them "'Tis not
  too late to seek a newer world." "...tho'/We are
  not now that strength which in old days/Moved
  earth and heaven that which we are, we are/One
  equal temper of heroic hearts, / Made weak by
  time and fate, but strong in will/To strive, to
  seek, to find, and not to yield." The general
  idea of his speech is that the value and
  significance of human life ties in living it to
  the full, to do and achieve something new when
  one is alive. And even in old age, when one is
  weaker in body, his spirit never wanes, his heart
  is as heroic and his will as strong as before.
  The search and strife ends only with life. Such
  undying spirit of adventure and exploration in an
  old man is really admirable. In a way, it
  expresses the unconquerable urge of mankind to
  seek knowledge and enrich our life in this world.

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• (B) Comprehension notes
• (a) I am become a name" I've become a very
  famous warrior and adventurer.
• (b) "I am a part of all that I have met /Yet all
  experience is an arch where-thro'/ Gleams that
  untravell'd world, whose margin fades/ Forever
  and forever when I move" I've made myself
  well-known wherever I went, and yet my past
  experience always allures me to the unknown
  world. The more I explore, the more there is for
  me to explore.
• (c) "And this grey spirit yearning in desire/To
  follow knowledge like a sinking star, / Beyond
  the utmost hound of human thought" This old man
  (I) still longs to explore the knowledge of a
  world still unknown to us.