2. What is the suggestion of old in story?

16. grow is the important word in this line; the thought being that the lives of the lovers will be reëchoed and will 'grow' in those of the succeeding generation.

Select the lines where the sound echoes the sense.

What is gained by the use of the internal rhyme?

What variations in the refrain have been introduced? Are they skillfully arranged?

Tears, Idle Tears. 20. Death in Life. Explain.

What emotion is Tennyson here attempting to portray? What dif ferent qualities are attributed to the emotion?

What phrase is used as a refrain?

What meter is here employed? Why do we scarcely notice the absence of rhyme ?

What means are employed for securing unity?

Study the fine balance of phrases, especially in lines 13-14.

In Memoriam, XV. This series of poems was written between 1842 and 1850 in memory of Arthur Henry Hallam, Tennyson's beloved friend at Cambridge. Hallam was a young man of noble nature, and of exceptional promise.

Read Sections XI, XII, and XIII, with which this is contrasted. 9-16. Explain.

Characterize the mood of the poem.

What is the most vivid detail in this description of nature?

Would the selection be clearer if the one sentence of which it is composed were broken up?

Into how many sentences should you divide it? Why did Tennyson use the single sentence?

XXX. 8. mute Shadow. Does this refer to Death or to his dead friend?

13-16. What are the poet's reasons for the repetitions in this stanza? 21-24. Of what lines in Lycidas are these a reflection?

Compare the mood with that in XV. Whence has sprung the hope? Point out the effective use of contrast in this section.

Give in your own words Tennyson's conception, as here expressed, of the condition after death.

CXXXI. 1. By Living will,' as Tennyson has explained, is meant ⚫ free will in man,' which he regarded as our highest and most enduring

part. We must remember, however, that Tennyson believed that the human will is the supreme revelation of God by Himself.

3. spiritual rock. See 1 Cor. x, 4.

10. With this compare line 4 of the introduction to In Memoriam. Stanza III summarizes well Tennyson's creed.

Is the thought here expressed loftier than that in the other two sections studied? How?

What is the stanzaic form here employed? Why is it especially good for such a series of poems?

The Brook. Though Tennyson said this was an imaginary brook, it closely resembles the brook described in the Ode to Memory which is known to have been the one near Somersby, Tennyson's birthplace. The two descriptions should be compared. This poem, though complete in itself, is part of a longer one (The Brook), which should be read entire to understand the setting.

1. hern, heron.

7. thorps, villages.

19. fairy foreland, tiny cape.

Note the melody, or tune of the verse, as affected by the vowels, the consonants (liquids and labials), the alliterations and assonances, the meter, the frequent double rhymes, the length of the stanza employed. Where has Tennyson most successfully suggested the sound of the brook?

How has Tennyson given a human interest to the brook?

Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. This ode first appeared in 1852, on the day of the Duke's funeral. It was twice revised for subsequent editions. The present text is that of the final revision of 1855. 42. World-victor's victor, conqueror of Napoleon.

49. the cross of gold. This is upon the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the crypt of which Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington are buried.

52. Among the wise and bold. Many military and naval heroes are buried in the cathedral.

59. Cf. Macbeth, V, viii, 50.

80-82. This thought is perhaps suggested by Is. lxiii. 1.

83. Mighty Seaman, Nelson.

99-101. What incidents in the life of Wellington are here referred to? 123. loud Sabbath, Waterloo, June 18, 1815.

137. Baltic. Campbell's The Battle of the Baltic commemorates this

victory.

153. What two kinds of government did Tennyson dislike?

188. Who was Alfred the Great?

217. To which our God, etc., Is. lx. 19.

What pairs of lines occurring twice (with variations) serve as a kind of refrain?

What is the metrical effect of the single rhyme and the long vowels in stanza III? Compare in The Battle of the Baltic, 11. 68–72,—

Soft sigh the winds of heaven o'er their grave!

While the billow mournful rolls,

And the mermaid's song condoles,
Singing glory to the souls
Of the brave!

What is the effect of the irregular meter in the lines describing the battle of Waterloo?

Which lines suggest by their sound the tolling of the bell?

Which lines suggest by their music the choral chant in the cathedral?

Compare with the thought of stanza VII that of Kipling's Recessional.

Where is the climax of the ode reach its emotional culmination?

in which stanza does the poem

This ode has been called the best poem on a national event that has ever been struck off by a Laureate under the sudden impatient spur of the moment.’ What qualities in the Ode tend to justify this

estimate?

The Charge of the Light Brigade. The charge here commemorated occurred at Balaklava in the Crimea, October 25, 1854. Scarcely a hundred and fifty, out of about six hundred and thirty, survived.

Of the four battle poems - The Ballad of Agincourt, Hohenlinden, Naseby, and this which is the most stirring? Which is the most

noble? Which is the most reflective? In which is the meter best adapted to express the thought?

To what emotions besides that of patriotism does this poem appeal? How does this poem compare in warmth and fervor with Tennyson's other poems?

Why is this probably the best known of the author's poems?

Milton. This poem is one of Tennyson's 'experiments in quantity.' The meter is an imitation of the Alcaic meter, so called from Alcæus, the inventor, a lyric poet of Mitylene in Lesbos.

The Alcaic meter consists of five feet - a spondee or iambus, an iambus, a long syllable, and two dactyls.

9. Me rather. Tennyson evidently preferred the fourth and fifth

books of Paradise Lost.

Compare line 3 with line 10 of Wordsworth's London, 1802. Which better describes Milton's style?

By what means has Milton varied the regular Alcaic meter?
What is the most famous phrase in the poem?

What poem of Milton's previously read should you choose as best illustrating the appropriateness of this phrase?

Crossing the Bır.

For an account of the composition of this poem

see Tennyson's Memoirs, II, 367.

3. Explain this line.

15. Pilot. Meaning?

9. With this contrast line I.

Was Tennyson's death such as he here desires?

Compare the attitude toward death with that expressed in Raleigh's Even Such is Time, and that in Waller's Old Age.

Why has this frequently been regarded as the most perfect of Tennyson's lyrics?

Should you judge that Tennyson polished his work? Give reasons for your answer.

Do his poems ever seem over-ornate?

Are there many lines that could be detached from the poems for quotation?

Compare Tennyson with Browning in respect to hopefulness, clarity of thought and expression, depth of thought. Which possessed the greater insight into human nature? Which was the better metrist?

Compare Tennyson with Wordsworth and with Burns in respect to their appreciation of nature, and their attitude towards it. Which interested Tennyson more— man or nature?