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Serious Discussion / A Farewell by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Literary Discussion: Poem 1

1. Jaybles

   Date: Sat, Nov 14 2009 15:23:18
   A Farewell
   
   by Lord Alfred Tennyson
   
   Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
   Thy tribute wave deliver:
   No more by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
   A rivulet then a river;
   No where by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   But here will sigh thine alder tree,
   And here thine aspen shiver;
   And here by thee will hum the bee,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   A thousand suns will stream on thee,
   A thousand moons will quiver;
   But not by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.

2. Jaybles

   Date: Sat, Nov 14 2009 15:38:37

   For example reasons, I'll add comments throughout.
   The analysis will be a bit more comprehensive, explaining even devices which are absent for comparisons as this is the first topic in the series of Literary Discussions planned.
   
   A Trim Summary:
   
   (The obvious part; A meaning of the poem)
   The poem is an epitaph, a lament of sorts, for a brooke that runth by the poet. He despaireths of the parting of ways he shall have to endure at the point of their farewell. It speaks of sadness and regret, emotion of his realisation that the poet will never possibly treadth the grassy gnolls that surround the rivulet once he leaves, forever more. He envies the aspects of nature that are permanent, that can affect that particularth brooke: the trees, the bees, the sun, the moon. Its is very existential, very muchth pertaining to the fragility and liquidness of human life versus the solidity and contentment of nature left to its own devices.
   
   An Analysis:
   
   (The part where I discuss the devices/theme/moods/symbols/etc)
   The structure of the poem is pretty simple. The general form it holds is a four line stanza with the rhyming scheme, A B A B.
   
   I. Rhythm
   
   (The devices that affect the smoothness of the poem)
   Enjambment
   
   There is very light enjambment in the poem.
   
   
   

   QUOTE
   Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
   Thy tribute wave deliver:
   No more by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   
   Take a look at this:
   
   
   QUOTE
   Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
   Thy tribute wave deliver:
   
   
   At “sea,”, the line continuation is disrupted, causing a break in the natural reading of the line, “Thy tribute wave deliver:”. However, since the poet positioned the enjambment at a point where it is natural to take a pause, a comma, the line reads somewhat smoothly.
   
   Thus, the run on line only slightly causes a small break in the fluency of the stanza and the reading is quite flowing and smooth.
   
   It is true for the other lines in similar positions in the poem.
   
   Rhyme
   
   
   QUOTE
   Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
   Thy tribute wave deliver:
   No more by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
   A rivulet then a river;
   No where by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   But here will sigh thine alder tree,
   And here thine aspen shiver;
   And here by thee will hum the bee,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   A thousand suns will stream on thee,
   A thousand moons will quiver;
   But not by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   
   The poet rhymes every first line with the third line, every second with the forth, the first line of every stanza and the third line of every stanza with the first line of the next.
   
   This rhyming is especially important in the rhythm in the reading of the poem because of the emphasis it gives to the ends of lines and certain points of interest. When one reads the stanza,
   
   
   
   QUOTE
   Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
   A rivulet then a river;
   No where by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   
   we can easily discern that the 'beats' of the poem are at 'lea', 'river', 'be' and 'ever'.
   At these points, the rhyming words give a sort of step to the line and introduce an element of continuity thus enhancing the flow. This can be contrasted with a blank verse, which is more disrupted and broken. Blank verses usually have a very staccato feel to them. 'A Farewell' has a pretty transitionary feel to it.
   
   Repetition
   
   QUOTE
   Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
   Thy tribute wave deliver:
   No more by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
   A rivulet then a river;
   No where by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   
   Repetition is employed to lend emphasis to certain ideas that the poet wants to strongly convey. “For ever and for ever” is a very prominent line in every stanza, this not only tells us that the poet feels a sense of permanence, it also draws our attention to it. There is repetition present within the line as well, “for ever” within “For ever and for ever”. This serves to again, push the sense of permanence.
   
   To a smaller extent, “No” is used to associate lines in different stanzas.
   “No more by thee my steps shall be,” is parralelised to “No where by thee my steps shall be,”.
   
   
   
   QUOTE
   But here will sigh thine alder tree,
   And here thine aspen shiver;
   And here by thee will hum the bee,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   
   In this stanza, “(But|And) here” is the repetition. As said, this reinforces the ideas of the poet and creates a continuous form.
   
   
   
   QUOTE
   A thousand suns will stream on thee,
   A thousand moons will quiver;
   But not by thee my steps shall be,
   For ever and for ever.
   
   
   
   In this stanza, “A thousand” is the repetition. This is used to dramatic effect and to exeggerate the feelings of desolation the poet feels as well as create a continuous form.
   
   Thematics, Symbology and General Understandings
   
   Themes
   
   The poem is extremely heavy on the theme of sadness, regret and loneliness. Other themes include
   nature, existentiality and acceptance.
   
   I shall expound solely on existentiality and acceptance because the rest are pretty self-explanatory.
   
   Existentiality
   
   The tone of the poem is slightly contemplative. He speaks of the future and of what is to be.
   There is a hint of a Human Civility versus Wild Nature aspect of the poem in its entirety. It can be theorised that the poet is in the act of a very human activity but stops to consider about the unrestricted primal qualities that nature possesses.
   
   Acceptance
   
   The poem is undoubtiously sad, however, the poet does not give the impression that that the loss he shall feel is the be all and end all of all happiness.
   
   
   Overview
   
   The poem is pretty literal, which no metaphors nor similes. Personification is used, Lord Alfred breathes life into the brook and speaks of it as if it is a person.
   
   And thus concludes my rather shoddy, hopefully sufficiently detailed analysis.

3. IAmTheMrGuy

   Date: Sat, Nov 14 2009 21:14:07

   Well written, with a clear and concise summary. This provides a complete analysis of the construction of this piece. Well done, I would enjoy reading more. You definitely have a solid grasp of poetry.