Alfred, Lord Tennyson was a very importnat figure during the Victorian Era. He was born of somewhat a prominent figure, but due to his fathers habit of drinking, he was not able to stake his claim. He could only take a lower job as a clergyman in the church and he resented that. He had a great friend in life and he was Arthur Hallam. He considered Arthur to be his mentor and he care a great deal about him. He was even engaged to his sister. Tragic entered Lord Tennyson's life when Arthur suddenly died at an early age. This weighed heavy on the heart of Lord Tennyson and he did not write for ten years afterwords. This poem has always been kind of special to me because you have a man who is willing to express his feelings about a friend that happens to be male. His poem is very deep and you can feel the sense that Arthur was his true and dear friend. His faithfulness and what he was taught about grieving comes through in the poem. He writes:
We mock Thee when we do not fear:
But help Thy foolish ones to bear;
Help Thy vain world to bear Thy light.
Forgive my grief for one removed,
Thy creature, whom I found so fair.
I trust he lives in Thee, and there
I find him worthier to be loved.(prologue)
He knows that death is natural and that we are not supposed to question the judgement of the Lord and he asks that he help him understand why it had to be his friend Arthur. The poem itself although a sad undertone, it is also inspirational. In another part of the poem he writes:
Are God and Nature then at strife
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,....(stanza 55)
In this part of the poem he is wondering if he is believing in the after life, but he looking for reasoning in nature. This is a true feeling that all of us have wondered when we lose someone that we love.
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Tamica,
ReplyDeleteGood biographical factoids on Tennyson, and some good passages to analyze and discuss. You need to connect the passages more closely to the quotations, though, and you don't really analyze them. Remember, passages that you do not discuss in detail just seem to be padding to make your post look longer. Don't leave it up to your reader to figure out what the passages mean, or what you notice in them; provide that information yourself.
I like how Lord Tennyson talks about what everyone goes through when they lose someone close. We have this feeling that we did something wrong or that God has taken that person away from us, and wonder what we did to cause him to do that. I believe that is the worst part of the human being, the feeling of helplessness when we lose someone and couldn't have done anything to keep them from going. Even though we have no control over it we either blame ourselves or we blame others, usually God.
ReplyDeleteYour insight in this poem helped me to look at the poem on a bigger scale. The poem came to me that Tennyson is upset with God but I think that you are right, he does come to an understanding about nature and about death. Although he does not like death he seems to long for a way to understand it in order to prepare himself for what he is going through.
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