Show L. L Poetry J f ALFRED LORD TENNYSON i. i t I OUR birth is but a sleep and a forgetting The soul that rises within us our lifes life's star Hath elsewhere its setting And cometh from afar Not in entire forgetful forgetfulness ness V d V I And not in utter nakedness ff f r But trailing clouds of glory do w we come From God who is our home Wordsworth Poetry feels after God and brings bring s man to a realization of a divine Father Father- hood It echoes through the ages and manifests itself in man man man- the man the noblest work of God Truly do we realize realize the truth of Wordsworth's words when we wesee wesee wesee see the harmony and joy of a loyal life Nothing exists without harmony The beauty of this life is but a reflection reflection reflection tion of heavens heaven's sunshine The clouds of glory lory we trail into the world remain to crown our labors Nature lives for poetry and its beauty is the harmony of the U able God gave this beautiful earth toman toman to toman man as his inheritance his dwelling dwelling- place yet in the shifting scenes of this his worlds world's theatre he is born for deeds to act and work and suffer surfer Heavens Heaven's strains resound to a noble soul and the poet portrays in his verse but the he mission and purpose of a mortal existence Who realizes more Our Father of whom Christ taught us than the poet What elevates the soul more than poetry There is a place in Lincolnshire Lincolnshire Lincolnshire Lincoln Lincoln- shire England where an old white rectory stands on the face of a hill and the winding lanes are shadowed by tall elm trees and at the end of the garden two brooks meet to chatter chatter as they go to join the brimming river I It t is a place far from us now silent and solitary One can picture th rectory to ones one's self with something of ofa a holy monastic sweetness while the odd Norman cross holds its spell in the neighboring churchyard and perhaps there is still a sound in the air air of the bleating of flocks It was here that Alfred Tennyson was born August 1809 He heard many voices calling him in his early childhood during the time he played under the stately elms of his fathers father's garden With Purity for a teacher Tennyson learned to love the natural world He was educated at Cambridge and in 1850 established himself before the world as a poet simple pure divine Tennyson's poems are his life He is one of the greatest poets that has ever lived great in charity beauty and nobility great in his breadth lof of human sym sympathy pathy great in the truth with which he has expressed the hopes and fears of this country great above all in his faith for humanity and the way in which he has moved to action a doubting age His chief poems are The Idyls of the King In Memoriam Maud Enoch Arden and A A Dream of Fair Women In Memoriam is a glorious poem an elegy to the memory of Tennyson's friend It It repeats the sadness of a soul in the harmony of the organ Its glory rests in the purity of poetry and thought II In In Memoriam and Milton's II Paradise Lost are two mighty poems that have raised humanity to a higher level The distinction between them themis is narrow but deep II In In Memoriam is a religious poem Paradise Lost Lostis is is a theological poem Milton's me method hod hodis is rational Tennyson's is emotional Tennyson has no connected charm of deductive reasoning or no sharp cut definitions of objective truths His faith is subjective intuitive When proof fails him he will still believe When reason is shaken when absolute demonstrations appear impossible and doubt claims a gloomy empire in the mind then the deathless 3 fire God has kindled in the breast burns toward that heaven wh which ich is its source and home and the swit answer of immortal love leaps out to solve the mysteries of the gr grave grave ve Thus Tennyson feels after God and leads us by the path of faith fait and emotion to the same goal which Milton reached by the road of reason and logic In In Memoriam is an elegy such as the world has never seen before before before be be- fore or will never see again agam It is the work of years with such skill and adorned with such richness of poetic imagery as other men thought too great to bestow upon an epic It is the most exquisite structure ever reared above a human grave Beyond the narrow harrow range of personal loss and loneliness loneliness loneliness lone lone- liness it sweeps into the presence of the eternal realities faces the great question of our mysterious existence and nd reaches out to lay hold of that hope which is unseen but abidin abiding forever At the time Tennyson wrote his Idyls of the King there were two other master minds in literature and art who were soon to sway the world with their productions Victor Hugo of France with his wonderful romances Richard Wagner of Germany with his glorious music dr drama ma and Alfred Tennyson of England England England Eng Eng- land with his II Idyls shine among this century's most inspired composers These three great artists set themselves to work to their conceptions of human life and destiny in forms of art Tennyson's purpose was to depict the warfare of humanity in a poem and he grandly randly succeeded Like Wagner he turned to the past for his material His His' II Idyls of the King is the latest grand picture of mans man's conflicts with sin and fate In this collection of poems he has made pictures highly wrought carefully finished full of elaborate elaborate elaborate ela ela- borate and significant details but each one is animated with a purpose an idea clear definite unmistakable his object being to make a form express a soul These poems form one divine allegory showing man what should be beking beking beking king over his passions Tennyson's Maud is one of the most beautiful poems ever written It Itis Itis Itis is rich in the comprehension of nature Every line resounds in tender melody and song T Tennyson's gift of song is fascinating and divine It is sometimes this gift which descends upon a wayward wayward wayward way way- ward unsound life life life-as as it did upon Shelley's Shelleys and Shelleys and draws from it a few tones of ravishing sweetness no not harmonies harmonies harmonies har har- monies for harmony belongs to the broader mind but melodies which touch the heart lingering forever forever melodies melodies dies that the angels sing II Maud is strong and frank and the poet betrays himself f for he seems to weep and think aloud The romance of a lifes life's love the smile of a I. I girl like a beam of sunshine a spray of roses a dainty dress are all beautifully depicted under under under un un- der the inspiration of love Tennys Tennyson's ns n's songs belong to the twilight twilight twilight twi twi- light of the heart where the light of of love and the shadow of regret are mingled In his minor key he has produced produced produced pro pro- nothing more beautiful than this little song addressed to the sea 1 41 1 Break break break i I On thy cold gray stones 0 sea seal I t And I would that my tongue could utter tt r The that arise in thoughts in me 1 I O 0 well for the boy That he lie shouts with his sister at p play a 1 0 o well for the sailor lad ad That he sings in in his boat on the bay 1 I And the stately ships go on onTo onTo onTo To their haven under the hill But 0 for the touch of a vanished hand And the sound of a voice voice that is is still Break break break At the foot of thy crags 0 sea I 1 But the tender grace of a day that is is dead Will never come back to me Sadly Tennyson sings H 1 I I 0 sad no more I 0 sweet no more I 1 0 o strange no more 1 I By a brook bank on a stone I melt a wild weed flower alone There was a ringing in in my ears And both my eyes gushed out with tears Surely all pleasant things have gone before Low buried fathom deep beneath with thee no more I In what do we think of Tennyson The display of learning is isso isso so immense that it becomes amusing but it is not without significance for it distinctly marks Tennyson as one of those mien men who like Milton were students students students stu stu- dents before they were poets and whose genius did not develop in solitude solitude solitude soli soli- tude but in connection with the many sided minds of the age There is a adeep adeep adeep deep spiritual courage in his works a force of faith which conquers doubt and darkness a light of inward hope which burns even under the shadow of death Tennyson is the poet of faith faith as distinguished from the cold ideas of men faith which does not ignore doubt and mystery but triumphs over them and faces the unknown unknown unknown un un- known with a fearless heart What do dowe dowe dowe we think of Tennyson Is he a great poet Our reply will depend upon whether we think this century to be a great one foi fOl there can be no doubt that he represents the century better than any other man The thoughts feelings desires conflicts and of our age are mirrored in his verse and if we say that this alone prevents him from being great because greatness must be solitary and independent dent dentI I answer No for the great poet does not anticipate the the- conceptions of his age he only anticipates their ex ex- He tells what is the heart of the people and tells it so strongly so sobe be beautifully so purely that he becomes their voice Now if this age of ours with its renaissance of art and its admiration admiration admiration ad ad- for the beautiful in all its forms classical and romantic with its love of science and its joys in the discovery discovery discovery dis dis- covery of harm harmony on in the universe e with its social social- and political disputations disputations disputations and religious controversy controversy I I say if this age be a great age then Tennyson Tenny Tenny- son is a great poet for he is the clearest sweetest strongest voice of the cen century tury |