Tears, Idle Tears

1. Tears, Idle Tears Alfred, Lord Tennyson Kristina Kim, Sophie Lee

2. Alfred Lord Tennyson Born in August 6th, 1809, as a fourth child of twelve children. His poems were once harshly criticized, so it kept him from publishing again for another nine years. He was at first not well off, but the success of some poems such as "The Princess" and ’In Memoriam’ established him as the most popular poet of the Victorian era. Suffered from extreme bad eyesight, which gave him difficulty writing and reading and creating poetry.

3. Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,Tears from the depth of some divine despairRise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,And thinking of the days that are no more.Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,That brings our friends up from the underworld,Sad as the last which reddens over oneThat sinks with all we love below the verge;So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawnsThe earliest pipe of half-awakened birdsTo dying ears, when unto dying eyesThe casement slowly grows a glimmering square;So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.Dear as remembered kisses after death,And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feignedOn lips that are for others; deep as love,Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;O Death in Life, the days that are no more.

4. Aging • Acceptance of human mortality • Regret Themes/Main ideas

5. Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy Autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more. Idle: Baseless, ineffective, useless -implying that his tears are pointless as it won’t help bring things back (the things that he is mourning for) Divine despair: Paradox as divine means God-like, whereas despair is a sin in Christianity. Shows that his feelings are genuine and sincere Direct imagery of tears -implies that the tears are a symbol for sincerity. Looking->Thinking: Insinuates that the poet hopefully thinks back to the memories and expresses them as if they are still tangible, then he moves on to saying ‘Thinking’ which shows a sorrowful acceptance as he realises that time cannot be reversed (Theme. Acceptance of hauman cycle of life and death) Autumn: a season where summer and spring have gone and have only a cold winter to look forward to Reveals that the tears are derived from memories Paradox, because the ‘happy’ things are the cause of the poet’s ‘tears.’

6. Memory of birth of friendship-Positive imagery. Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That brings our friends up from the underworld, Sad as the last which reddens over one That sinks with all we love below the verge; So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. Greek Mythology- Death(image of boat man Charon, who ferries the dead to Hades) Sinks..verge: Imagery of the blood and body sinking/ returning back into the ground as dirt and dust. Reddens: Blood. Parallel ending: Continuous idea. As if the poet is accepting the mortality of humans and the uncontrollable presence of time, but the fact is daunting him-emphasizes his grief.

7. Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds To dying ears, when unto dying eyes The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. Creates a fading out image- implies ‘aging’ enjambment:creates a connection to the next line “To dying ears.” The theme of ‘Aging’ is insinuated through this image. THEME: AGING enjambment:to create connection Sad, but strange as he accepts that aging and death is a natural process of life LINE12: implies that their hearing has gone worse with aging, and therefore they cannot hear the birds chirping properly, so it sounds like “half awakened birds.” The connection to the dying eyes implies that the “casement” and “glimmering square” is a metaphor for glasses. This indicates the gradual process of aging- Worse eyesight=thicker lenses.The poet is expressing this ‘aging’ process as a natural part of life and reality.

8. Highly priced; precious Dear as remembered kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned On lips that are for others; deep as love, Deep as first love, and wild with all regret; O Death in Life, the days that are no more. In: Accepting that death is part of life Regret for not making most of life(As he realises how precious the time/memories were as he is reminiscing Deep: Links back to ‘Depth..divine despair’ in stanza1. This ‘Depth’ in Stanza1 was the source of tears.

9. Unrhymed iambic pentameter • Consists of four five-line stanzas, each of which closes with the words “the days that are no more. • Does not rhyme because it is not a specific emotion with dear boundaries- (It is about a great idea of sorrow and grief and regret that is continuous and does not exist as a single, organised feeling.) • Lack of rhyme shows unorganised and jumbled ideas • Not set to “sound pleasing” FORM

10. Because I could not stop for death –Emily Dickinson • One Art –Elizabeth Bishop • Elegy for my father’s father –James K. Baxter Related Poems