Many high school texts include only a brief blurb about this incredible poet who maintained popularity as a "voice of his times" throughout the Victorian period of British literature. Limited to "The Charge of the Light Brigade" or the "Eagle?" Want to give your students just a little more depth? Then check out the following ideas and resources suggested in this section of a two part article highlighting some of Tennyson's [less popular in the classroom] poems.
"Mariana" and "The Lady of Shalott"
Both Mariana and The Lady of Shalott make use of "word painting" or rich visual imagery that Tennyson is known for. In Mariana, the thick crust of blackest moss, the brokenness of the sheds and the lonely moated grange all set the mood of despondency that mirrors that of the main speaker, Mariana. Both poems feature contrasts between lightness and darkness. Finally, both poems feature an "embowered woman," or a woman locked up away from the world. Both Mariana and the Lady are isolated, surrounded by a moat, on a "beach" or an edge. The beach becomes a symbol of transition between the sea and the land.
"MARIANA" The poem opens with an epigram from Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" in which the fated lover Mariana waits for her beloved Angelo who has left her becausse he lost the dowery. In Tennyson's Mariana, we are not sure why her lover has ditched her, but we see the sad result of the Victorian woman robbed of purpose. Since women of this era were not able to pursue independent interests like education or profession, the betrothed who finds herself husbandless in a run-down domicile on a moated grange finds herself robbed of her only socially acceptable pursuits: husband, home, family, and social responsibilities. Though young Mariana may seem strange to modern female readers who would find it strange to just give up and die over the betrayal of a fiance, there really isn't anything else that Mariana can do alone on the moated grange. The "inactivity" of the woman in the poem further delineates her status as a victim. [see pathetic fallacy] As time passes from stanza to stanza, the fact that nothing happens in the poem illustrates that the poem's action is internal, taking the form of mental depression. Though in Shakespeare's comedy, we are not privvy to the problems that the jilted Mariana faces, all works out in the end with Angelo marrying Mariana.
"Mariana" and "The Lady of Shalott"
Both Mariana and The Lady of Shalott make use of "word painting" or rich visual imagery that Tennyson is known for. In Mariana, the thick crust of blackest moss, the brokenness of the sheds and the lonely moated grange all set the mood of despondency that mirrors that of the main speaker, Mariana. Both poems feature contrasts between lightness and darkness. Finally, both poems feature an "embowered woman," or a woman locked up away from the world. Both Mariana and the Lady are isolated, surrounded by a moat, on a "beach" or an edge. The beach becomes a symbol of transition between the sea and the land.
"MARIANA" The poem opens with an epigram from Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" in which the fated lover Mariana waits for her beloved Angelo who has left her becausse he lost the dowery. In Tennyson's Mariana, we are not sure why her lover has ditched her, but we see the sad result of the Victorian woman robbed of purpose. Since women of this era were not able to pursue independent interests like education or profession, the betrothed who finds herself husbandless in a run-down domicile on a moated grange finds herself robbed of her only socially acceptable pursuits: husband, home, family, and social responsibilities. Though young Mariana may seem strange to modern female readers who would find it strange to just give up and die over the betrayal of a fiance, there really isn't anything else that Mariana can do alone on the moated grange. The "inactivity" of the woman in the poem further delineates her status as a victim. [see pathetic fallacy] As time passes from stanza to stanza, the fact that nothing happens in the poem illustrates that the poem's action is internal, taking the form of mental depression. Though in Shakespeare's comedy, we are not privvy to the problems that the jilted Mariana faces, all works out in the end with Angelo marrying Mariana.
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