01-16-2005, 07:13 AM | #1 |
Fëanorophobic
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The Alfred Lord Tennyson Fan Club
Ok, I've asked around and I found some Tennyson fans among you. So here is the thread where you can talk about your favorite Tennyson poems and discuss his work in general.
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01-16-2005, 02:49 PM | #2 | |
Fëanorophobic
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My favorite Tennyson poem is called The Miller's Daughter, here it goes(continued in the next post):
Quote:
Last edited by Beren3000 : 01-16-2005 at 02:51 PM. |
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01-16-2005, 02:51 PM | #3 | |
Fëanorophobic
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(Continued; italics mine to indicate "the songs")
Quote:
Last edited by Beren3000 : 01-16-2005 at 02:55 PM. |
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01-16-2005, 03:26 PM | #4 |
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He's on my list to read, what do you reccommend I start with?
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01-16-2005, 03:50 PM | #5 |
Fëanorophobic
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Well, look here. I'd recommend Amphion, Edward Gray, Ulysses, Lilian, Claribel, Isabel and The Lady of Shalott.
After you get familiar with his style, you should try his longer poems like the one I posted just above and Locksley Hall and finally, before you switch to another poet read his magnum opus: In Memoriam A. H. H. an elegy for his friend in 131 parts (which I have yet to read) Last edited by Beren3000 : 01-16-2005 at 03:52 PM. |
01-16-2005, 06:10 PM | #6 |
Elf Lord
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Well, I should say begin with In Memoriam , if only the introduction. This poem made such an impact on me that I memorized the opening in HS and have inscribed its inital words on pottery and used it in memorials to friends who have died.
So potent is the opening and so utterly human! Strong Son of God, Immortal Love, Whom we that have not seen thy face By faith and faith alone embrace, Believing where we cannot prove. Thine are these orbs of light and shade! Thou madest life in man and brute. Thou madest death, and, lo Thy foot Is on the skull which Thou hast made! as is the ending of another of his great poems, This is how the world ends. This is how the world ends. Not with a bang But with a whimper. The Charybdis of hope and the Scylla of despair! What a poet!
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
01-17-2005, 01:29 AM | #7 |
Fëanorophobic
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Inked, that was great! I'd recommend Amphion and The Miller's Daughter from the link I posted above...
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01-17-2005, 05:57 AM | #8 | |
Lady of Letters
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Quote:
I recommend Ulysses, Crossing the Bar, Mariana and the Idylls of the King as Tennyson's most accessible poems. In Memoriam also works very well if you just dip into it, rather than trying to read the whole thing in one go. Lots of the poems there are good stand-alones. |
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01-17-2005, 01:21 PM | #9 |
Elf Lord
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Sun-star,
I shall blame it on too many years reading anthologies and linking opposites in the formerly robust neurons which, alas, occasionally short-circuit! Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
01-17-2005, 03:14 PM | #10 | |
Fëanorophobic
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Ok, fans! We need to be discussing a poem here (at least I say so ).
Here's one I never understood: Quote:
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01-17-2005, 05:34 PM | #11 |
Elf Lord
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Conquered Chaos released and destroyed for eternity in the Final Judgment.
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
01-17-2005, 05:43 PM | #12 | |
Fëanorophobic
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Quote:
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01-18-2005, 05:49 AM | #13 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
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The Kraken could stand for that which man never could discover and never will, since the creature sleeps and will only reveal itself to die at the end of things.
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01-18-2005, 07:05 AM | #14 | |
Fëanorophobic
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Quote:
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01-18-2005, 10:46 AM | #15 | |
Elf Lord
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Quote:
Tennyson was a Christian by profession and we see that explicitly in this poem affirming the conquering of chaos in its manifestation as kraken and seaworms. It is a very image of the Psalmist - YHWH is without peer. The pagan gods may have arisen from matter and chaos to control it, but YHWH is above that and His might unimpeachable. Also, if I am correct in the association of the sea and its creatures being in God's control, that final line about surfacing, roaring and dying is a statement of the Apocalypse of St John that "there will be no more sea" when the enemies are made Christ's footstool. So the conquering of the sea is an image of God's ultimate power of all Creation. That help?
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
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01-18-2005, 01:27 PM | #16 | |
Fëanorophobic
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Quote:
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01-18-2005, 04:13 PM | #17 |
Elf Lord
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Beren3000,
The fact is clearly stated as a matter of belief that God made matter: Genesis 1:1 IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH. This foundational statement NECESSITATES the relegation of all matter as under his control. It also NECESSITATES that all pagan gods attributed to have arisen from matter and subjugated chaos by non-Hebraic religions were INFERIOR to GOD the CREATOR. So, the imagery of God conquering chaos or Chaos is literary and dramatic shorthand, not heresy. And the sea is the traditonal imagery for chaos or Chaos. So, in this context, the Kraken's sleep is an image for the mastery of chaos and "battening down the seaworms" an image of the lesser false gods, the polypi survive in and due to the calm due to God's victory. In the final battle, the Master leaves no witness unconvinced of the mastery - significantly men and angels (those groups of whom there are faithful and rebels, believers and unbelievers) and faith or lack of it thus becomes incontrovertible fact. More better?
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
01-18-2005, 06:33 PM | #18 |
Elven Warrior
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Having just recently read a book to my little niece on the subject (in a way), I'll venture my thoughts... the Kraken (in this particular storybook, anyway) is, simply put, a mythical sea-monster, the tales of which probably originated from sightings of giant squid. More here. Of course, it's entirely possible and highly probable that in this context Tennyson was using it to symbolize the mastery of Chaos.
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01-19-2005, 11:15 AM | #19 |
The Lovely Hobbit-Lass
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I love Tennyson! My favorite poems are his Idylls of the King- my favorite being Lancelot and Elaine. As for his other poems, I like Roses on the Terrace, The Lady of Shalott (this one's the one that caught me), and lots more.
Anyone read Will Waterproof's Lyrical Monologue (I think that's it's full title)? I love the part where T makes up a history for the headwaiter and the rooster. It's very funny. The Two Voices is also very good. The ending is powerful, when he wonders "how the mind was brought/ To anchor by one gloomy thought// And wherefore rather I made choice/ To commune with that barren voice/ Than him that said 'Rejoice! Rejoice!'"
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01-19-2005, 12:30 PM | #20 |
Elf Lord
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RG, you whet my appetite for greater experience of Tennyson. Thank you for your descriptions.
Minielin, have you perused the X'n Themes in HP thread. I started on Fawkes. Would love your reactions/impressions/evaluations. Gracias!
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
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