Lord Alfred Tennyson Works 2

“Locksley Hall”

 Written in 1835; Published in 1842 in Poems

 The poem represents "young life, its good side, its deficiencies, and its yearnings"

 A dramatic monologue written as a set of 97 rhyming couplets. Each line follows a modified version of trochaic octameter in which the last unstressed syllable has been eliminated

 The speaker of this dramatic monologue declaims against 

marriages made for material gain and worldly prestige.

 The speaker, a soldier, revisits Locksley Hall, his childhood home, where he and his cousin Amy had fallen in love. Amy, 

however, was a shallow young woman who acceded to her parents’ desires that she marry a wealthier suitor. The speaker 

begins the poem by protesting the modern mechanized world but ends by reluctantly accepting the inevitability of change.

 In the end, he bids farewell to Locksley Hall, hoping that that a thunderbolt will strike it down.

 Important quoteso

“Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest, Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the West.”

 “Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver 

braid.”

 “Falser than all fancy fathoms, falser than all songs have sung, Puppet to a father's threat, and servile to a shrewish 

tongue!”

 “Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet 't is early morn: Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the 

bugle-horn.”

“Love took up the glass of Time, and turn'd it in his glowing hands;

Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands.”

 “What is that which I should turn to, lighting upon days like these?/Every door is barr'd with gold, and opens but 

to golden keys.”

“Break, Break, Break”

 Written in 1835 (2 years after the death of Arthur Hallam) and published in 1842.

 Though most readers read "Break, Break, Break" as an elegy to 

Hallam, though the poem stands on its own as a more general meditation on mortality and loss. Tennyson laments the loss of his friend and expresses his sense of isolation. 

 Rhyme scheme- ABCB

 The speaker watches the sea waves breaking on the rocks and wishes a better expression of grief on the loss of his dearest friend.

 Important quoteso

“And the stately ships go on

 To their haven under the hill;

But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,

 And the sound of a voice that is still!”

“But the tender grace of a day that is dead

 Will never come back to me.

“The Charge of the Light Brigade”

 Narrative poem; Written & published in 1854 in The Examiner

 The poem was later revised and expanded for inclusion in Maud and Other Poems (1855).

 The poem is comprised of six numbered stanzas varying in length from six to twelve lines. Each line is in dimeter, which means it has two stressed syllables; moreover, each stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables, making the rhythm dactylic.

 The poem commemorates the doomed charge of 600 British soldiers in the Crimean War (1853-1856), who were led into the battlefield due to a wrong command; on account of a smaller 

number, the soldiers are bound to lose as they charge into the “mouth of Hell”.

 The poem was inspired by an article in The Times which recounted that "Some one had blunder'd."

 The poem celebrates an act of bravery and sacrifice—a suicidal cavalry charge during the Crimean war. Written just six weeks later, Tennyson's poem argues that the willingness of the cavalry to sacrifice themselves—without calling their orders 

into question—makes them heroes.

 Tennyson recited this poem onto a wax cylinder, an earlier form of recording device, in 1890.

 Important quoteso "Half a league, half a league, half a league onward,"

"Honour the charge they made! Honour the light brigade,"

 “Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die.

“Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell.”

“The Defence of Lucknow”

 About the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 in India

 A narrative poem divided into 7 stanzas of varied length and lines of free verse

 Spoken from the point of view of an English soldier who was a survivor in the siege of Lucknow, that lasted over 80 days. 

 Dramatizes the traditional ballad theme of wartime bravery, while emphasizing the importance of national strength and 

unity, but it also highlights…the great risk associated with foreign campaigns. As is evident in the opening lines, "Banner 

of England, not for a season, O banner of Britain, hast thou / Floated in conquering battle or flapt to the battle-cry!"

 The poem rooted in Victorian imperial history is spoken by a survivor of the defence of Lucknow against Indian mutiny. The British unity, however is not strong enough to prevent the blood shed of the mutiny.

 6 out of 7 stanzas end as such- “And ever upon the topmost roof our banner of England blew.”

 Important quoteso

“Every man die at his post!’ and there hailed on our houses and halls

 Death from their rifle-bullets, and death from their cannon-balls,”

 “Men will forget what we suffer and not what we do.”

“Torture and trouble in vain,—for it never could save us a life.

“Crossing the Bar”

 Tennyson wrote the poem in 1889, three years before he died. The poem describes his placid and accepting attitude 

toward death. Although he followed this work with subsequent poems, he requested that “Crossing the Bar” 

appear as the final poem in all collections of his work.

 Death is compared to crossing a sandbar on the seashore

 Written in 4 stanzas of varied length lines

 Rhyme scheme- ABAB

 Important quoteso

“Sunset and evening star,And one clear call for me!”

 “When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.”

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

 “I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have crost the bar”

“The Princess”

 A narrative poem in humorous tone

 Published in 1847

 Written in Blank Verse

 The poem tells the story of a heroic princess who forswears the world of men and founds a women's university where men are forbidden to enter. The prince to whom she was betrothed in infancy enters the university with two friends, disguised as women students. 

 They are discovered and flee, but eventually they fight a battle for the princess's hand. They lose and are wounded,but the women nurse the men back to health. Eventually the 

princess returns the prince's love.

 Speaker- The prince; Princess- Ida

 Princes’ friends- Cyril & Florian

 Lady Blanche and Lady Psyche- Inspired princess Ida to remain unmarried

 Poem begins with a prologue/foil narrative- party of Sir Walter Vivian

 Important quoteso

“Life is brief but love is LONG .”

"The man may be more of woman, she of man".  

"Too comic for the solemn things they are, / Too solemn for the comic touches in them." 

“Claribel: A Melody”

 First published in 1830

 Lyrical Poem

 Although, Tennyson tells a poem about a dead lover, he ultimately concludes that he can see Claribel in different beautiful things (Like bee hum or falling leaves) which suggests, love cannot be destroyed by death.

 The poem might also suggest the danger of isolation, as in Mariana. 

 Title inspired from Book II of Spenser’s Faerie Queene, or,  Shakespeare’s The Tempest (daughter of King Alonso of Naples  in Southern Italy and the sister of Ferdinand.)