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Just a note. i did poorly on this, not because the essay completely sucks, but because i completely ignored the topic. It could be tremendously useful for someone not writing a research paper, as I was supposed to have done
Many words have been written on the subject of love. Many words have also been written on the subject of industrial change, specifically the Industrial Revolution.
Both have appeared frequently in prose and poetry alike, yet the two subjects are not often connected in the mind. They pose different questions and dilemmas; one tackled primarily from an emotional perspective, the other from a highly intellectual standpoint. Yet, in his poem Locksley Hall, Lord Alfred Tennyson tackles both of these issues in one poem. His approach is unique, linking his topics together on the basis of his own indecision, drawing parallels that make perfect sense, but that otherwise would not likely be considered. His use of poetry to achieve this purpose of exposing two issues, and remaining without resolution is crucial.
This objective could not be achieved in argumentative prose, where the simple expectation of flow and logic inhibits the ability to combine unrelated ideas. Thus, by using poetry, Tennyson is able to successfully combine emotional love, and intellectual thoughts on the industrial age by tying them together with his own lack of decisiveness. Tennyson's use of rhyming couplets is the first thing that one notices when reading the poem. Thoughts are quick, and often are left without expansion. The fifteen syllable lines force ideas to develop quickly, creating a sense of the fast paced times that Tennyson was a part of. The poem is told from the perspective of a man who is trying to overcome the emotions he feels about the fact that his love has been lost to a rich landowner.
Obviously upset by this, the poem deals with his lack of action in the matter, as he chooses to simply watch the events and comment on them. His lack of action however, can be justified by the idea that he feels virtually helpless in the situation. Tennyson is able to voice the storytellers emotions effectively by making use of the urgency and desperation that is created by the couplets. Tennyson writes of the lost love, O my cousin, shallow-hearted! O my Amy, mine no more! / Of the dreary, dreary moorland! O the barren, barren shore! / Falser than all fancy fathoms, falser than all songs have sung, / Puppet to fathers threat, and servile to a shrewish tongue. (39 - 42).
His thoughts here are choppy, yet concise. The repetition of the simple word O causes the lines to carry with them a certain plea, and a sense of despair. Similarly, repeating both the words dreary and barren accentuate the narrators sense of loss and of being completely alone. Isolation is further dealt with in line 40 with the simple phrase O the barren, barren shore!
The immediate image is of someone alone on the shore of a great body of water, with endless empty beach in either direction, just staring out into a hollow sea. It allows the reader to identify with the sensation of helplessness over having lost a romantic love, even if the reader has never experienced this first hand. Tennyson, while trying to pull the reader into empathizing with the narrators situation, also attempts to remove himself from the situation, pushing away any responsibility, claiming that Amy is simply doing what her father would like, that she is a slave to his tricky words. In doing this, he abandons personal responsibility, resting it solely on her weakness.
Tennyson skillfully manages to elude blame by using phrasing that evokes sympathy, and images that demand attention. While Tennyson's feelings of desperation are true of his relationship with Amy, they also hold true in his relationship with the world around him. He makes use of the nature of the verse again to draw attention to the fast-paced world that is whirling around him. Tennyson makes the jump from talking about his lost love, to discussing industrialization by pretending to jump backwards in time, and then look forward at the future he perceives to be coming.
His words, while attempting to remain positive, carry a strange negative undertone, as though he cant successfully pretend to imagine what he was thinking years ago, when he is living in the times he once imagined. In the same hasty tone as when describing Amy, he writes
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales; Heard the heaven fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew From the nations airy navies grappling in the central blue; Far along the world-wide whisper of the south wind rushing warm, With the standards of the peoples plunging though the thunderstorm (121 - 126)The outlook seems optimistic, noting the increase in commerce, even predicting the use of air ships in trade, but the verbs carry a different meaning. The words dropping, shouting, grappling, and plunging are all words filled with a sense of struggle and strife. It appears that the narrator does not necessarily view the heavens fill[ed] with commerce as a good thing.
This struggle with the new wealth of the world around him is reminiscent of his struggle with Amy. Rather than taking serious action on the matter, the narrator simply chooses to state an opinion, and a widely unsupported opinion at best. The poem format allows for the thick line between love and industrialism to be virtually erased so that neither is a statement completely alone, but each relies on the other to convey indecision. Tennyson is able to not only use similar styles to link love and industrial progress, but also similar language, often using almost identical phrasing when discussing the topics. The distinction between the narrators romantic struggles and his social ones are further blotched to the point where phrasing describing one could easily be applied to the other, and where certain other lines seem to have neither topic in mind specifically. An example of the a line that is written in reference to his romantic situation, but could easily be applied to his social one is, Overlive it lower yet happy!
Wherefore should I care? / I myself must mix with action, lest I wither by despair. (97 - 98). He could easily be urging himself to overcome the dissatisfaction he feels with the way the world is going, telling himself that he really needs to cope with the situation. In the same way that he feels he must deal with situation regarding Amy, he must also learn to deal with society as a whole, lest [he] wither in despair. This ability to interchange ideas works the other way as well.
When coming to terms with the fact of industrialization, and boasting that he has accepted it almost entirely, he writes, So I triumphed ere my passion sweeping though me left me dry, / Left me with the palsied heart, and left me with the jaundiced eye (131 - 32). This could easily be applied to his love situation, as he claims to have overcome the feeling that burdened him. Yet, it seems this feeling has only been dealt with by admitting to helplessness and jealousy. In the case of changing social values, he feels helpless, and is jealous of those who accept it more easily than he does, and in the case of Amy, he is powerless to change the situation, and jealous of the man she is with.
Tennyson further challenges the reader by using phrases that seem to refer to neither of the two subjects specifically, but rather appear to address them both in a more general way. The best example of this is when the narrator says,
Cursed be the social wants that sin against the strength of youth! Cursed by the social lies that warp us from the living truth! Cursed by the sickly forms that err from honest Natures rule! Cursed be the gold that gilds the straitened forehead of the fool!The social wants and lies can easily be applied to both his love situation, and the increasingly capitalistic society that is taking shape. In the case of Amy, the lies would be that a rich landowner is a more capable husband, and in the industrial sense it could be interpreted as saying that wealth does not equal greatness.
Further, he states that the situations have turned from Natures rule. He feels that his love for Amy is what nature had dictated, and should not be ignored. Similarly he believes that wealth at the cost of humanity is not what Nature wants, and thus is it wrong. The final line combines the first two points, stating that wealth, in either situation, does not justify the actions. The stance taken in these four lines is among the strongest that link the two major subjects in the poem. It outlines a rough argument against the industrialization of Europe, but stops short of offering any real alternative or solution.
By linking the two subjects so closely Tennyson has managed to accomplish a variety of things. First, he forces the reader to examine the state of the social system by comparing it to a love relationship, something which most people would be quite familiar with. Furthermore, he introduces the idea that one must take action in the situation in order for it to be rectified. Finally, however, he demonstrates that taking action is harder than it seems, and that the entire situation must be approached with a degree of resignation. Thus, Tennyson, in a way, tip-toes around the popular Victorian debate about whether industrialization was a blessing or a curse (1696). Rather than offering a concrete opinion, he offers a brilliant way of looking at the issue but putting it on the same playing field as a common topic of love.
So while he may not necessarily take a proactive stance, his mere attention to the subject is one of great value.
A. H. Abrams. New York.
W. W Norton and Company, Inc 2000. 1219 - 1225 Industrialism: Progress or Decline? The Norton Anthology of English Literature Volume 2. Ed.
A. H. Abrams. New York. W. W Norton and Company, Inc 2000. 1696 - 1697.
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