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E212: British Literature since 1760 Alfred Tennyson Study Questions Al Drake | Uni Hall 329 | Th. 6:00-7:00 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com Assigned: "The Lady of Shalott" (1204ff) and In Memoriam A.H.H. (1230ff) Prologue (1231), 1-3, 5, 7, 11, 14-15, 28, 34, 39, 54-56, 75, 108, 118, 123-24, 126, 130-31, Epilogue. "The Lady of Shalott" View John Waterhouse's Painting 1. What effect do the poem's rhyme scheme, metre, and presentation of imagery have on the themes it pursues? How do these elements help move the plot forward? 2. This poem employs metaphors of weaving, singing, and reflection (the "mirror" and "shadows") -- what significance do those metaphors have in establishing the poem's meaning? 3. How does the poem's descriptive quality change when Sir Lancelot enters the scene? How is his appearance connected with what the Lady has called a "curse"? Why does the sight of Lancelot induce her to leave her loom and "look down to Camelot" (110)? 4. How do the Lady's death and the villagers' perceptions of her raise the issue of art's relation to life? What statement, if any, do you think the poem as a whole makes about that relation? Why, for example, must the Lady die "singing in her song" (152) -- why is it impossible that she should arrive safely at her destination? In Memoriam A.H.H. Prologue 5. This poem was added late in the composing stages as an affirmation of Tennyson's religious faith. What do you think of the quality or steadfastness of Tennyson's affirmation? 6. What relationship between faith and knowledge does the speaker posit? 7. How does this Prologue recast or sum up the whole of In Memoriam A.H.H.? In other words, how does the speaker characterize the poetry he has been writing and editing for around 17 years? Lyric 1 8. Why does Love need to "clasp" Grief? (9) What's the penalty if Love does not do so? What is the central problem set forth by this lyric? Lyric 2 9. How is the yew tree correlated with the speaker's state of mind? Why does the speaker envy the yew tree -- what qualities or "perspective" (to personify the tree for a moment) does the tree have that he lacks? Lyric 3 10. What do Sorrow and the speaker argue about? Why does it make sense for the speaker to treat Sorrow momentarily as an external force with whom he can converse? Lyric 5 11. What does this lyric argue or explore about the relationship between words and grief? How does the poem question romantic notions about the powers of expressive language? 12. How does the speaker's exploration of expressive theory affect your relationship as a reader to In Memoriam A.H.H.? Lyric 7 13. How does the speaker's state of mind color the description he provides? Lyric 11 14. How does the speaker's own calmness compare to the natural calm he describes? How does natural calm compare to Arthur Hallam's calmness in death? 15. How does this poem amount to the speaker's preparation for accepting his friend's death, insofar as such acceptance is possible? Lyric 14 16. How does this poem set forth the importance of coming to terms with the material fact of death, as one might say Lyric 11 does as well? Lyric 15 17. How does the natural setting correlate with the speaker's state of mind? 18. Review the reference to molten glass in Job 37:18 and Revelations 15:2. What do these biblical passages add to your understanding of the poem? Lyric 28 19. How can you connect this lyric to the importance of memory in Wordsworth's poetics, as we gather from "Preface to Lyrical Ballads"? 20. What associations do the church bells bring back to the speaker? Why are those memories important to the speaker's process of grieving? Lyric 34 21. What alternative reason for writing poetry does the speaker set forth as a possibility in this lyric? Does he accept that possibility or reject it? What advantages would accrue to him if he were to become a "wild poet"? Lyric 39 22. How does "sorrow" function as a Victorian censor of romantic expression in this lyric? Lyric 54 23. What is the speaker saying about poetry's power to render the world morally or intellectually intelligible? You might examine the final stanza with this question in view. Lyric 55 24. How might you tie this lyric to Wordsworth's comments about science in "Preface to Lyrical Ballads"? The central question here is "what kind of knowledge does science give us, and how does that knowledge affect our emotional wellbeing?" Lyric 56 25. Why would it be worse for humans than for animals if Nature's self-description should turn out to be true? What effect does the answer given in the last stanza have upon the emotional movement of In Memoriam as a whole (as you gather from our selections)? Lyric 75 26. How does this lyric compare to Shakespeare's handling of the theme of "poetic immortality" in his Sonnets? Lyric 108 27. How does the speaker characterize his attitude towards Arthur Hallam? What feeling is he exploring in this lyric? Lyric 118 28. What two kinds of "evolution" does this lyric explore? What seems to be the speaker's attitude towards early formulations about evolution -- for instance Charles Lyell's theory of uniformitarianism in the 1830's text Elements of Geology? (Uniformitarianism is the theory that posits the steady, long-term application of natural forces as an explanation for earth's transformations as we see them reflected in geological features?) 29. Where does the speaker's conception of God come into play in this poem, if at all? Lyric 123 30. What attitude towards scientific knowledge does the speaker take in this lyric? What is the speaker's "dream," as he calls it in the final stanza? Why can't he accept the perpetual change that he has just described in the first two stanzas? Lyric 124 31. What does the poem set forth as evidence that God exists? What kinds of evidence fail to convince him of God's existence? 32. What is the relationship or similarity between faith and doubt as this lyric handles those states? 33. Relate this poem's ending to Carlyle's doctrine of humankind's need for "mystery." Is Tennyson's solution to religious doubt Carlylean, or more conventionally Christian? Lyric 126 34. What are the "court" and the "faithful guard" in this lyric? From what is the speaker being protected while he is in the court? Lyric 130 35. To what extent is this lyric a nature poem? What progress does it mark in the speaker's state of mind as he grieves for Arthur Hallam? Lyric 131 36. Comment on the way Tennyson describes human life as a process, a "flow." What is the thematic value of the metaphor of water employed in this lyric? Epilogue 37. How does Tennyson connect his sister's wedding with the passing of his friend Arthur Hallam? What do the two events have in common? 38. Do you find this selection from the final part of In Memoriam convincing? In other words, do you believe that Tennyson has come full circle in his process of grieving and accepted Arthur Hallam's death as part of God's providence? Has he dealt finally with the religious doubts that arose partly his from his response to Arthur's passing? Edition: Abrams, M.H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2B. Seventh edition. New York: Norton, 2000.
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