This is for the odd-numbered question in section A. For me, there's about a 90% chance I'll do Tennyson for section A (unless the fabulous Porphyria's Lover or The Patriot comes up for Browning) and I reckon a fair amount of people will feel the same way. Anywhere, here's a list of what I consider to be the 3 most important narrative techniques for each of Tennyson's poems - I've tried to go for quite broad, general things rather than very small, specific ones, because nothing says 'I'm scraping the barrel here' quite like trying to write a whole paragraph on one instance of caesura/alliteration.
The Lady of Shalott:
- Setting. Shitloads to say about setting, I won't cover it all here. My favourite quote for setting is 'Four gray walls, and four grey towers, Overlook a space of flowers'. The aggressive rhythm makes it sound 'strict' (horrendously bad word choice, but you get what I mean) and constraining, like a prison, and the syntactic repetition and use of 'grey' gives a sense of monotony. The personification ('Overlook') makes it sound powerful and controlling, like it's constantly watching/guarding, but the contrast of 'a space of flowers' makes it perhaps sound less threatening and more protective?
- Structure. Contrast of Shalott and Camelot - Shalott is isolated, a 'silent isle', whereas Camelot is busy and bustling, 'many-tower'd'. This juxtaposition gives us a rationale as to why leaves, explains her longing for the 'real' world rather than her world of 'shadows'. Shalott is repeated at the end of every stanza - she is constantly stuck with it, everything is just Shalott, Shalott, Shalott all the bluddy time for her. Camelot also interrupts pretty much every stanza, in the same way that it's a disruptive influence on her life. Part 3 shows a total shift to Lancelot - he is now the focus, he is now the 'pull factor'.
- Characterisation. She is presented as insubstantial, almost ghostly and supernatural 'Tis the fairy'. She only speaks 2 lines of dialogue in the whole thing. She never gets a real identity - she is only referred to as 'the Lady of Shallot', still tied to the place she tried to escape. It's even what she writes on the bluddy boat. And the people are still questioning at the end 'Who is this? and what is here?' just as they were in part 1 - nothing has changed, still no-one has any idea who she is.
Mariana
- Setting/Symbolism. Basically any quote from the first stanza, I personally would do the 'blackest moss' one, but you can pick whatever really. It's just the idea that she is so absorbed in despair that she isn't taking care of shit like she is supposed to - her neglect of her environment is directly linked to Angelo neglecting her. Her broken surroundings mirror her broken psychological state. Also you could talk about the isolation - 'lonely moated grange'. In here you can talk about the poplar tree as well, if you like, I guess there's a fair bit of symbolism for that. How it's one thing stood all alone, how it's a symbol of cock (and it's shadow falls 'upon her bed' because she wants the D), or (I prefer this interpretation, but that's probably just cause I like Greek mythology) how it's a symbol for grief, because Phaeton was struck down after trying to drive Helios' sun chariot, and then his nymph sisters turned into poplar trees because of their grief.
- Structure/Time. She is outside of natural cycles, everything is is carrying on but she is trapped in a timeless state of despair. She shuts her curtains in the day because she doesn't want her pain highlighted by the sun that's meant to bring happiness, and she isn't sleeping at night like the rest of the world. 'Her tears fell with the dews at even; Her tears feel ere the dews were dried' - the days are going by and nothing is changing, she's paralyzed and stagnant, time is relentlessly going on and she is still crying, still stuck in despair.
- Voice/Repetition. Here I'm talking about the refrain at the end of every stanza, the whole 'My life is dreary, I am aweary, I would that I were dead' thing. It's monotonous, the way her life is, and constantly repeated - every day is the same. It also shows how inactive and dependent she is, how everything is about her longing for Angelo - she keeps wanting him to come but 'he cometh not'. She says she wishes she was dead, but is clearly a massive whining pussy and does nothing about it, I guess she still hopes he'll turn up. She also keeps listing all this shit that she says is 'dreary', because she can't get joy out of anything, due to her psychological state. At the end there's a sense of recognition though - she recognises that SHE is dreary, that 'He will not come', and she 'wept'. However, there is still no resolution because she's still a bluddy pussy and is still depending on other people for shit - she calls out to God, praying for death, but still doesn't just bluddy kill herself. This is what pisses me off about this poem.
Tithonus
- Natural/death cycles. A key part of this poem, and of Tithonus' misery, is his fixation on death and exemption from natural cycles. 'The woods decay...and after many a summer dies the swan' - everything natural decays, even the most regal of birds die, but Tithonus only has 'cruel immortality'. He has a preoccupation with death because he is jealous of it, he is jealous of 'happy men that have the power to die' and feels without it he is no longer human, he is unnatural and consumed by his own immortality.
- Chronology. We flit between the present and past, to get the full tragic tale from Tithonus - and can compare how he used to be filled with love and adoration when he saw Aurora get reborn, but now it only leaves him cold. 'With what another heart In days far-off, and with what other eyes I used to watch - if I be he that watch'd' - I really like this quote. It's exaggerated and hyperbolic, but shows just how different he is from how he used to be - there has been such an alteration of self-perception that he feels the man he used to be was an entirely different person to the man he is now. 'How can my nature longer mix with thine?' - 'longer' being the key word here, they used to mix fine, but that's over now, everything has changed, he just can't be with her anymore.
- Characterisation. There are two things we can talk about here. You can talk about the tone/voice of Tithonus - he uses a lot of rhetorical questions to sort of guilt-trip her, and uses a lot of imperatives 'let me go: take back thy gift' but these aren't powerful and authoritative orders, they are desperate cries of someone who is powerless to do anything himself. He also uses exclamations of grief to evoke pity/sympathy 'Ay me! Ay me!'. You can also talk about the contrast/juxtaposition of Aurora and Tithonus. She is the goddess of the dawn, and he is merely a 'white-hair'd shadow'. 'Immortal age beside immortal youth'. 'Coldly thy rose shadows bathe me' - she is warmth and light, he is cold and dark - he can't love her the way he used to, can't even feel her warmth, either because it only painfully highlights his own lost youth, or because he literally is old and feels cold.
Godiva
- Use of point of view/speaker. In my opinion, the (only) cool bit about this poem is the bit at the start where Tennyson is actually addressing us, up to around line 12. 'Not only we the latest seed of Time' - he's saying that we wrongly assume that we are the most morally advanced generation when all we are is 'the latest' generation and human nature doesn't change, and that we act in a superior, sanctimonious way, while all we do is 'prate' and not actually do anything - whereas Godiva actually did something. He clearly actually admires her, enough to 'shape the city's ancient legend into this', and talks of her like a hero who 'underwent and overcame' obstacles.
- Structure. The last 3 stanzas, the ones where she's doing the stuff, all start with 'Then' and this gives it a very active, orderly, structured feel - as though she's carrying out her task with unwavering resolve and military precision; she's accepted that the task must be done and so is focused on the goal and not indulging her emotions or hesitating. Also the repetition of 'And then she rode forth/back, clothed on with chastity' shows that her purity and goodness has not been lost or tainted by the act, she has maintained her modesty and goodness despite undergoing a normally degrading act. We also get a particularly strong resolution - that she 'built herself an everlasting name' and had strive actively for it - that good always wins in the end.
- Setting. When she's riding through the town, the gargoyles and statues are personified; 'fantastic gables, crowding, stared' and 'had cunning eyes to see'. It feels to her like even the inanimate objects are watching and judging her, and this shows her purity in that she feels shame even from them, and by extension we can tell how psychologically hard this task was on Godiva, and how good she is to do it anyway. The juxtaposition of the setting is also used to act as a 'turning point' (both metaphorically and literally for Godiva) - 'The white-flower'd elder-thicket from the field Gleam thro' the Gothic archway in the wall'. Here she's reached the point where she can turn back and relief begins to spread through the poem, the use of natural imagery contrasts the previously-man-made elements of Coventry that were talked about, and the pure white 'gleaming' flowers stand out against the 'Gothic archway', symbolising hope and an end in sight for Godiva, and that she is still good despite her otherwise 'sinful' act.
The Lotos-eaters and Choric song
- Setting. There's a shitload of quotes to use for this - stuff about the island being dreamy, paradise but with sinister undertones, timeless, all that stuff. Personification - 'the languid air did swoon', even the air is overcome with the relaxed, sleepy atmosphere of the island. 'It seemed always afternoon...and like a downward smoke, the slender stream Along the cliff, to pause and fall did seem' - there's this feeling of timelessness, unnaturally so. The references to downward smoke, while sounding hazy, surreal and dream-like, also sound quite sinister - similarly 'the mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters' sounds very suspicious, why are they sad if everything is so pleasant? They sound like drug addicts, drained.
- Structure/Tone. The Choric song is the bit that I find really interesting about this poem. It's the lotos-mariners (that's the term I'm gonna use for them here, to differentiate from the ones that haven't eaten the lotos) presenting arguments for why they should stay on the island, like a response to judgement from others. They go through all sorts of arguments, how awesome the island is, how nature doesn't toil, how life is futile, how their families are better off without them, all that stuff, and present it quite powerfully and persuasively. Parts are defensive; 'Let us alone' being repeated, for example. And they use syntactic repetition to show how monotonous, troublesome and shitty life is - 'Trouble on trouble, pain on pain', 'Roll'd to starboard, roll'd to larboard'. There's also a feeling of unity among the lotos-mariners - they speak as 'we', as one, and say 'let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind' - they're all in it together and all want to stay, eating the lotos gives them all the same mindset. We even get a definitive resolution, a completion of their argument - 'Oh rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more', they've made up their minds and now can't be swayed, the power of the lotos has turned them from strong willed adventurers to people fully invested in the idea of escapism and rest.
- Symbolism. The mariners use a lot of natural symbolism to get their point across, basically saying that nature just does it's thing without worrying or toiling for it - leaves grow and 'take no care', apples fall 'and hath no toil'. Nature doesn't invest in growing and falling, and doesn't put effort into doing stuff, it just goes through the cycles and accepts it. The apple thing could also be reference to Adam and Eve, the idea of temptation and 'the forbidden fruit' - like the island is the Garden of Eden and the Lotos is the forbidden fruit? There's also a bit at the end where they compare themselves to Gods, they want to be 'careless of mankind' and not have to worry about all the bad things in reality.
Ulysses
- Contrast/Juxtaposition. Contrast of him and Telemachus 'He works his work, I mine'. But what I think is more interesting/important is the constant use of the juxtaposition of good and bad throughout the poem 'the thunder and the shine', 'I have enjoyed greatly, have suffered greatly' - good and bad are equally valuable, he wants to feel them both, they're both part of the rich tapestry of life.
- Chronology/Time. It varies between his present disillusionment, his past adventures, and talk of the future that he longs to have and what is yet to come- 'death closes all:but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done'. The past is talked about in a nostalgic way ('the drunk delight of battle with my peers'), and explains why he feels so dissatisfied now.
- Voice. He uses quite a persuasive, 'call-to-arms' tone - he's trying to charm the mariners into his rhetoric and get them to take him off adventuring again. It's persuasive, assured, powerful - particularly towards the end. It's inclusive as well - 'my mariners', 'come, my friends' - he's really trying to rally them up by directly addressing them. Interestingly, he also sort of sounds like an asshole at the start - he talks of 'a savage race, That hoard and sleep, and feed, and know not me' (side note - this is one of my favourite lines) which makes them sound like lowly animals, robotic, and he says 'an aged wife', after Penelope has waited this long for him. The first 5 lines are basically him slagging everything off.
No comments:
Post a Comment