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Stages of grief essay
Romanticism in tennyson's poetry
Stages of grief essay
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It is something that all suffer through. It is something that many question. It is one of the hardest things to understand and bear. It is death. Death happens everyday and is one of the hardest concepts to grasp. Each person deals with death differently, grieving uniquely, and yet, everyone can relate in the commonality of loss. Lord Tennyson, for example, dealt with the death of his beloved friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, in various stages, which he expressed in his poem In Memoriam A.H.H. When Hallam, Tennyson’s closest friend, died suddenly at the age of twenty-two, Tennyson felt as if his life had been crushed right before his eyes (Robson, Christ 1189). After his friend’s death, Tennyson began to doubt his own life, his purpose, and the meaning of the universe. To express his feelings he composed In Memoriam A.H.H over a period of seventeen years (Robson, Christ 1189). The various sections in the poem represent Tennyson’s gradual passage through the grieving process, allowing readers to grasp how Tennyson felt through the stages of his bereavement (Robson, Christ 1189). Tennyson illustrates this process, starting from when Hallam first died. Tennyson’s tone can be felt in his lines, “I held it truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping stones Of their dead selves to higher things” (1.5-8). Tennyson once believed that men could rise to bigger and better things, but is having a hard time contemplating the reality of death and how he will ever be able to find any positive in the situation. He questions why this happened to his beloved friend. How could this be? Why Hallam? In canto 6, Tennyson relates the death of Hallam to other grievances, trying to find something tha... ... middle of paper ... ...assing of his beloved friend, but after questioning God, himself, and the world; Tennyson came to the realization that God is ultimately in control of our fate. Tennyson realized through his various stages of grief that Arthur Henry Hallam was in a better place, and he could finally be at peace with what happened to his beloved friend. Works Cited Tennyson, Lord Alfred. “From In Memoriam A.H.H.” 1849. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 2. 9th edition. Boston: W.W. Norton, 2013. 1186-1235. "Headnote to In Memoriam A.H.H." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Catherine Robson and Carol Christ. 9th ed. Vol. 2. Boston: W.W. Norton, 2013. 1189. Print. “Epilogue to In Memoriam A.H.H.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Catherine Robson and Carol Christ. 9th ed. Vol. 2. Boston: W.W. Norton, 2013. 1234-1235. Print.
Abrams, M. H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol I. 5th Ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1986.
Abrams, M.H., et al. ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. 2 Vols. New York: Norton, 1993.
Tennyson, Alfred Lord. “Maud; A Monodrama.” Tennyson’s Poetry. Ed. Robert W. Hill New York: W. W. Norton, 1971. 214-215.
Blunden, Edmund and Heinemann, Eds. “Tennyson.” Selected Poems. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1960. p.1. print.
Riede, G, David.. "Tennyson's poetics of melancholy and the imperial imagination." Studies in English Literature, 1500 - 1900 4(2000):659. eLibrary. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
Tennyson’s abstract poetic structure provides comprehension difficulties in finding a single thematic idea. He intertwines historical allusions, along with deep and person feelings through one piece of work. The organic structure of certain Tennyson poetry presents a tone of uncertainty. While his unconventional works give a more solidified aura. Contrary in structure, mood, and tone, “Ulysses” and “The Lady of Shalott”, harbor the underlying theme of coveting to escape from their idle worlds.
The subject of this poem is drawn from a line in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure: ‘‘Mariana in the moated grange.’’ This describes a young woman waiting for her lover Angelo, who has abandoned her upon the loss of her dowry. From the outset Tennyson creates an impression of profound disrepair and decrepitude, the ‘sheds’ are left broken and abandoned, the thatch is ‘worn’ and covered in weeds. Everything is coated in rust, moss or dust, unmoving, inactive and still. This strong suggestion of stagnation recurs throughout, and is emphasized by the refrain of the poem:
Abrams, M.H., The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition, Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1993
t may be said to be self-evident that the poem " In Memoriam A.H.H." by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is an extended expression of the poet's grief for the loss of his beloved friend Arthur Hallam. What may not be as immediately obvious, and what I intend to show in this essay, is that, over the course of the poem, the narrator (whom we may safely identify as Tennyson, given the degree of correlation between the text and historical evidence) passes through each of the five stages of grief, as delineated by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her seminal work On Death and Dying. 1. I intend to accomplish this through a juxtaposition of key definitions of each stage with evidence from Tennyson's text and a brief accompanying exercise.
330-337. Tennyson, Alfred, Lord of the Lord. The Lady of Shalott. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed.
Tennyson’s “Tithonus” is a poem about the ancient Greek story involving Tithonus and Eos. The story is of the goddess of the dawn, Eos’ lover, Tithonus, who asks to become immortal, though forgetting to ask to also stay young and handsome. The first stanza explains that people have come and died by the line, “Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath.” In the first stanza, it is also mentioned that Tithonus is an old man through referring to him as a “white-haired shadow”. The second stanza explains that he had asked for the immortality, “Who madest him thy chosen, that he seemed to his great heart none other than a God! I asked thee, give me immortality!”. Though as the stanza continues it becomes obvious that he is no longer happy with this gift, now seen as a curse. “Let me go: take back thy gift” Tithonus says as he realizes it is a mistake asking for this ability. Eos has to tell her past lover that Gods do not have the power to take back the gifts they have granted to others, thus damning Tithonus to continue to grow old, to have to continue to look upon his love in a painful way, and to continue to think of his mistakes and wish that he was normal. Put simply, “Tithonus” is a poem about love, immortality and youth.
Tennyson's poetry has stood the test of time because it successfully paints a time and place and reflects the feelings of the people in it. His ability to capture the feelings of uncertainty and loss that were characteristic of this time period, through his use of descriptions, diction, and pathetic fallacy made his poetry not only pleasing to the ear, but also historically important. He surpassed Wordsworth and other poets of his generation as Poet Laureate because his poems capture the important social issues of the Victorian Age such as the shift in religious belief as a result of science, the confusion surrounding women's roles in society, and the isolation that came as a result of the rapid social and economical changes that occurred.
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem composed by Thomas Gray over a period of ten years. Beginning shortly after the death of his close friend Richard West in 1742, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was first published in 1751. This poem’s use of dubbal entendre may lead the intended audience away from the overall theme of death, mourning, loss, despair and sadness; however, this poem clearly uses several literary devices to convey the author’s feelings toward the death of his friend Richard West, his beloved mother, aunt and those fallen soldiers of the Civil War. This essay will discuss how Gray uses that symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, M.H. Abrams (ed.) 7th edition, volume 1. (New York and London, 2000)
He wants vengeance against death because he can no longer communicate with his dead friend. This anger anchors the speaker by allowing him to focus on something other than his grief over the loss of his friend. During the next stage of grief, bargaining, an individual wants life to return to the way it was before the loss of a loved one. Depression can be seen in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “In Memoriam A. H. H.” For example, in Canto 46 the speaker writes, “A lifelong tract of time revealed; / The fruitful hours of still increase; /