Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"The Wye is hush'd nor moved along,
And hush'd my deepest grief of all,
When filled with tears that cannot fall,
I brim with sorrow drowning song."
(Tennyson, pg 602, from In Memoriam A. H. H.)

Have you ever been so overtaken with emotion that you have cried all your tears and still feel more waiting? Wordsworth wrote about the Wye and described places that the river disappeared into the woods. I imagine, that as a tributary, some of it is very still and quiet as Tennyson is suggesting. The water has stopped flowing as have his tears, but like any river, it must move again at some point along the way. He is anticipating this return to crying. He said once that he "always had a strange charm" for far, far away. I think it is very fitting that this is where he puts his friend with the words, "He is not here, but far away (pg 601)." He thought so highly of his closest friend that he dwelt on his death for nearly his whole life writing this poem. He seemed unsure of whether he was even expressing his true feelings.

"I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel;
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within."
(pg 601)

He reminds me a lot of Wordsworth, but the tone is much different. Wordsworth appealed to a more reverent side (romantic), while Tennyson seems more curious. I definitely sense a very romantic quality in him though. He is not far off from the last era. I am able to identify with this poem just as I did with Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey in a natural sense, but I also get his deeper explanation of human nature than Nature itself:

"I envy not in any moods
The captive void of noble rage,
The linnet born within the cage,
That never knew the summer woods."

"I hold it true, what'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all."
(pg 603)

---------------------------------

He is discussing human nature in relation to his friend again in Ulysses. He seems to be struggling here for the strength to go on after the death of his friend. He has been left heartbroken and searches not only for strength, but knowledge. He seems to want to understand the scientific reasoning behind death as much as the nature of it itself. The same reasoning is found in In Memoriam. He goes back and forth with science's questions and nature's answers, all with soothing tones.

"To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought."
(pg 593)

"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."
(pg 594)

----------------------------------

I think that The Princess; Tears, Idle Tears is an excellent poem and it demonstrates Tennyson's tolerance of women, separating him from Byron and most others.

"For woman is not undevelopt man,
But diverse: could we make her as the man,
Sweet love were slain" his dearest bond is this,
Not like to like, but like in difference."

"And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time,
Sit side by side, full-summ'd in all their powers"
(pg 598)

I again hear an echo of Wordsworth throughout the poem as each of the first four stanzas end in "the days that are no more." This is a lot like Tintern Abbey, but again Tennyson is more caught up with the emotional side of things than the imaginative. Wordsworth was remembering days of being with his sister and being on the Wye before. His whole view was related to Nature and describing it in detail, while Tennyson is speaking of the emotions it invokes. He is constantly reminded of his friend's death. It seems to torment him throughout all of his life's works.

"Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more."
(pg 597)

--------------------------------

Tennyson has also echoed Coleridge, Keats, Byron, and Hemans in writing Crossing the Bar. It is beginning to seem like requirement as a poet to write something about your death. At least his is a pretty positive look at things.

"And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far"
(pg 616)

I am really surprised that he didn't say the flood would bear him far away, but I think it is the thought that he intended to provoke from his readers. He requested no sadness as he knew how tormenting it could be to dwell on loss. He was an excellent writer who used smart words and language, less imagery than Wordsworth, but still an interesting and beautiful read.