Nature Imagery in Tennysons In Memoriam and Arnolds To Marguerite--Continued and Dover Beach :: Comparison Compare Conatrast Essays

Nature Imagery in Tennysons In Memoriam and Arnolds To Marguerite--Continued and capital of Delaw are BeachTwo poets who used an abundance of nature imagery in the Victorian period were Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Matthew Arnold. In Tennysons In Memoriam, he utilizes galore(postnominal) different aspects of nature as metaphors to describe his emotions after the death of a close friend. Arnolds poetry uses different types of water as metaphors in To Marguerite--Continued and capital of Delaware Beach. In the beginning of Tennysons poetry, he describes an old yew shoetree. The tree, to him, is cold and at this proto(prenominal) point of his grief he undersidenot find any life in the nature surrounding him. The old yew which grapsest at the stones/ That name the underlying dead,/ Thy fibers unclutter the dreamless head,/ Thy roots are wrapped about the bones (2.1-4). whence he sees the tree as an extension of the graves it grew on. The roots are entangled around the dead bones and are as dead as the skull of the person, unable to dream ever again. The world around the tree and grave entrust begin again to bloom, but Tennyson feels the tree will not change and keep its gloomy appearance throughout the year. He is sick for thy stubborn hardihood (2.14) and seems to wish to be like the tree. For if he were also dead, he would not have to feel the pain he is experiencing. He likens his poetry to nature also. He uses words, like weeds... (5.9) to envelope himself from the pain. His poem is this poor flower of poesy (8.18) but he writes it anyway since it one time pleased his dead friend. I go to plant it on his tomb./ That if it can it there whitethorn bloom,/ Or dying, there at least may die (8.22-24). At this point he is considering the possibility of life continuing, at least through his poetry. Yet he does not seem to wield about this possibility strongly. If there is no life within his poetry, hence he feels its proper place is dead with his friend. Furt her into the poem, the immediate delirium of grief has subsided, and he reflects upon his grief more calmly. Calm is the morn without a sound,/ Calm as to suit a calmer grief, And only through the watery leaf/ The chestnut pattering to the ground (11.1-4). His natural surroundings are quiet, which he feels are suited to this stage in his grief.