Poetry as a Reflection of The Inner Being - 1969 Words

Alfred Tennyson gifted the Victorian Era, and the literary world with two iconic poems. The author explored the themes of personal development and culture clash in one of his most famous poems, â€Å"Ulysses†. Tennyson also discovered and analyzed the themes of love and death through his renowned and eminent poem, â€Å"Tears Idle, Tears†. The poet was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire in 1809 in the East Lindy district of England. Tennyson experienced numerous amounts of difficulties in his childhood and growing adolescent phases that spilled into his adult life. These trials and tribulations became a foundation and source of inspiration for Tennyson, who used them as a stimulus and catalyst to aide his literary progress and ideas. Two of the most†¦show more content†¦Thirdly, although Tennyson was â€Å"engaged to Emily Sell-wood†¦the condition of his health resulted in their separation† (Napierkowski and Rose 273). The poet is unable to maintain rel ationships even with his fiancà ©, which drives him to dissect the ideas of love and death in his poems. But the negative brought a sliver of positive, â€Å"without the anguish at the loss of a friend, Tennyson would have never written†¦his greatest poem† (Padgett 93). This validates that the author’s life experiences contributed to his writings, and were implanted into his tone, themes, words and stylistic decisions. His characters can also be seen as a mirror reflection of Tennyson’s deeper and underlying being. Overall Tennyson was a perfect mold to the ideals and thoughts of society in the Victorian Era. He opposed the new scientific knowledge that created a drift from traditionalism. He was rooted in the old-style, organic beliefs that the Victorian era was ferociously trying to preserve, as new technology and scientific inventions and theories were being developed. The Victorian era was characterized by many â€Å"qualities such as smugness, narrow mindedness, bourgeoisie, materialism, faith in social progress and priggish morality† (Galens 380). Society maintained a sense of pride and confidence in themselves. These ideals can be witnessed in Tennyson’s poems which are a â€Å"†¦typical example of Victorian smugness† (Bloom 20). A sense of smugness is also paralleledShow MoreRelatedThe Confessional Mode Of Poetry Essay1454 Words   |  6 Pages During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the confessional mode of poetry, coined by M.L. Rosenthal in 1959, emerg ed in the United States as a reaction to New criticism and Modernism, the dominant literary theories at that time. This mode of writing worked as â€Å"a model for poets who chose to reject modernist difficulty and new critical complexity in favor of a more relaxed or personal voice† and gave them the opportunity to â€Å"articulate feelings , thoughts and emotions that challenged the decorumRead MoreThroughout History, Poetry Has Evolved To Fit The Needs1515 Words   |  7 PagesThroughout history, poetry has evolved to fit the needs of the poet. Typically, scholars categorize writings in time periods that often reflect similar ideals between writers. The Age of the Romantics, can be viewed as a literary movement in which writers appear to have a similar driving force behind writing. Two important authors during this Age of the Romantics are William Wordsworth and William Blake. Although both Blake and Wordsworth are considered to be writers from the Romantic literary peri odRead MoreAmerican Romanticism : The Highest Expression Of Imagination1721 Words   |  7 Pagesfeeling and intuition over reason, placing faith in inner experience and the power of imagination, preferring youthful innocence over educated sophistication, finding beauty and reality in exotic locales. It encouraged people to enjoy the integrity of nature and freedom of imagination. It also encouraged one to have faith in imagination and inner experience. In addition, romanticists found inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture and found poetry as the highest expression of imagination. RomanticistsRead MoreThe Poetry of Sylvia Plath734 Words   |  3 PagesSylvia Plaths poetry roots from her harsh life long battle with heart break, death, and depression. It is clear by her work, that life was a daily struggle for this poet. In the research of her poetry, i found one poem in particular that really interested me. My main focus was the poem Mirror. The narrator of this poem is a wa ll mirror. At first glance, the mirror appears to be human, based off of its qualities and descriptions. The mirror has the ability to recognize things, such as the smallRead MoreWordsworth And Shelley s On Powers And Illusions Of The Inner Imaginative Life1350 Words   |  6 Pagescentre of life and social importance. An important aspect of Romanticism: its emphasis upon the power and terrors of the inner imaginative life (Watson, 2012, p. 1). The Prelude celebrates Wordsworth s life retained through memories and with the act of remembering, depicting emotions and experiences. Whereas, Shelley and the Ode to the West Wind engaged his audience with inner and outer lives situations, ideas and elements of nature that represent his own position and ideas. This essay will compareRead MoreGender Inequalities in Victorian England: Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover984 Words   |  4 Pagesexpress their affection and devotion. So how exactly did this tale of love, en d in cruel, cold-blooded murder? Good evening and welcome to Poetry Break Down, I’m your host Mary Doe. Tonight, we will delve into the fascinating world of classic Victorian literature. Under the microscope is canonized poet, the late Robert Browning. Browning’s poetry was a reflection of his life and times living in Victorian England. Later on this evening we will analyze just how his times came to play a major role inRead MoreHow Do Poems Use Language to Create Imaginary Worlds That Question Our Understanding of Human Nature?1009 Words   |  5 Pagesfalling, the death of a flower as it wilts and the blade of a scythe, invoking images of the Grim Reaper (Wu). All these observations are made as metaphors as opposed to similes, forcing the reader to consider each point as being the same thing as that which it is being compared to. In doing so, the reader is actually is involved in surmising the meaning of the passage through the metaphor, in collaboration with the author (Hirsch). This allows the reader to have a deeper connection with theRead MoreAmerican Authors Research Project: Emily Dickinson644 Words   |  3 Pagesreturned to the family homestead to live a reclusive life (Emily np). Because of this she was able to compile over 40 hand bound books with roughly 1800 poems in them, reflecting much of her inner feelings and somewhat dark side. Emily Dickinson changed the literary world in bringing about a new style, and being one of the first to be considered a realist, even though she wrote towards the end of the Romantic Movement (Poets np). She took some elements from one era to shape a completely new one. UnfortunatelyRead MoreUnde rstanding Poetry By Robert Penn Warren And Cleanth Brooks1400 Words   |  6 PagesAs defined by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks in his book ‘Understanding Poetry’ published in 1978, â€Å"poetry is a kind of saying. It is a kind that many people, until they become well acquainted with it, feel is rather peculiar and even useless. They feel this way for two reasons: the â€Å"way of saying† and the â€Å"nature of the said.† As for the way of saying, the strongly marked rhythms, the frequent appearance of rhyme, and the figurative language may seem odd and distracting; and as for the â€Å"natureRead MoreMetaphysical Poetry of John Donne1441 Words   |  6 PagesNovember 1, 2012 Literary Analysis of John Donne This examination of John Donne’s metaphysical poetry includes analysis of Donne’s use of topic, structure, scansion, style and theme. John Donne is known as one of the best writers of metaphysical poetry, a genre of poetry that is characterized specifically by themes of knowledge, intellect, and having a somewhat unrecognizable meter or rhyme. Metaphysical poetry forsakes pure and genial nature of other Elizabethan poets. Paradox, juxtaposition, and philosophy