Bring out the pictorial quality of Tennyson’s poetry

Or, Bring out the pictorial quality of Tennyson’s poetry.

Or, Write a note on the pictorial quality of Tennyson’s poetry.

Or, “The best of Tennyson is in his lyrics. In these, he touches the stars.” Critically examine this statement.

Or, “Tennyson is at best in his lyrical and descriptive poems.” Elucidate with illustrations.

Or, Discuss Tennyson’s pictorial quality with reference to the poems you have read.

Or, “Tennyson’s imagination is less dramatic than lyrical.” Discuss.

Or, Estimate the importance of Tennyson as a pictorial poet.

Or, Comment fully on Tennyson’s lyrical excellence.

Or, Write an essay on Tennyson as a lyrical poet.

Answer: Lord Alfred Tennyson is a great pictorial artist and a lyric poet. He is gifted with unrivaled powers of picturing a scene, a landscape, and a person in words marked with clarity and vividness. This art of pictorial painting was learned by the poet quite early in his life by keeping Keats’s pictorial paintings as models taken by him. His art is essentially picturesque. He used words as a painter employs his brush for conveying the impression of a scene in all its vivid glory and color. In this respect, Tennyson is clearly influenced by Turner. As a lyricist, he expresses his subjective ideas and thoughts in his poems. When we go through his poetry, we feel a proper combination of pictorial and lyrical quality to a great extent.

Leaving aside Shakespeare, Spenser, and Keats, no poet is able to draw such gorgeous pictures of landscapes as Tennyson does. Nearly all of Tennyson’s poems, even the simplest and rich are in the ornate description of natural scenes. “His method”, says Albert, “is to seize upon appropriate details dress them in expressive and musical phrases, and thus throw a glistening image before the reader’s eye.”

The most delicate pictorial painting of landscape is seen in “The Lotos Eaters”. In this poem, the poet draws a vivid picture of Lotos island in all the richness of nature’s scenery. It is a land of streams in which the Lotos-Eaters find themselves —

“A land of streams! some, like a downward smoke,

Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn did go;

And some thro’ wavering lights and shadows broke,

Rolling a slumberous sheet of foam below.”

Tennyson is able to represent himself as a great artist for his description, diction, and music. His depiction of the landscape brings picture after picture before our eyes. His eye for detail, again and again, serves to conjure up the required image.

The details of the description alone do not produce a dreamy picture. Tennyson has used the sound and melody of his verses throughout to convey this atmosphere. “The Lotos-Eaters” abounds in words and sound views. This is obvious in the following lines —

“And in the stream, the long-leaved flowers weep

And from the craggy-ledge, the poppy hangs in sleep.”

The poet has painted a pictorial picture here. He has also created the sound and rhythmic melody. This is evident in this respect.

The natural scene is in harmony with human moods. In “Tithonus”, the poet narrates the story of the mythological character, Tithonus. “Aurora is in love with Tithonus. She gives her lover immortality. But immortal life without immortal youth becomes a burden for Tithonus. He expresses his sorrowful mood in the following way-

“The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,

The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,

Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,

And after many a summer dies the swan.”

Man comes and works in the fields. He dies at last. He goes on his job till his death and is buried beneath the earth. After many years, the swan dies. It is only Tithonus himself who cannot die. Death is inevitable for everything and everybody but not for him. Immortality is a curse to him. It is very cruel to him. He is unable to bear his over-aging body. Consequently, he wants to die. Thus he expresses the agony of his aching heart in the decaying process of nature.

Imagery in his poems of Tennyson is life-like and pictorial. The poet has drawn wonderfully the picture in words. He evokes the atmosphere of the medieval castle in a great romantic poem, “Morte D’ Arthur”. He depicts the following picture of nature with great beauty —

“On the one side lay the Ocean, and on one

Lay a great water, and the moon was full.”

The poet has described excellently the magical sword of King Arthur, Excalibur. He narrates a story of the Lady of the Lake and the magnificence of the sword romantically.

Tennyson is a romantic poet. His poetry is marked by many striking characteristics of romanticism. In this sense, he is subjective and a great lyricist. His idea or philosophy has been stained with his subjective thoughts. He is able to create a deep sense of music in his poems. Elegiac touch and a note of pathos give his poems an air of romanticism. Melancholy and sadness stain his poems with individuality.

To sum up, we can say that Tennyson is almost incomparable in the art of depicting pictures in words. He is able to produce sad and melancholic tunes in his poems. His famous poems certainly express and sing the most painful thought of humanity. They reveal his lyrical and subjective thoughts. They have a universal appeal. They have made Tennyson a great pictorial artist and a matchless lyrical poet.