Tennyson’s Conceiving Nature's Beauty and Sublimity :
Wordsworth was the high priest of Nature. He conceived of Nature as a living force and in his belief each and every object of Nature had a soul of its own. Nature could be better teacher of humanity than books. Wordsworth found in Nature a beautitude and joy. Tennyson's treatment of Nature was largely at variance with that of Wordsworth. He failed to notice that there was a soul in the objects of Nature. He could not feel that Nature was a vitalising energy that could mould the life of mankind. He discovered no conscious soul or purpose in Nature. To him Nature was beautiful and sublime. It could fill one with awe and admiration, but it could not communicate because it was lifeless.
Pointing out the difference between Wordsworth's and Tennyson's attitude to Nature Stopford A. Brooke says, "Mainly speaking, the difference between Wordsworth and Tennyson as poet of Nature consists in the absence from Tennyson's mind of any belief or conception of life in Nature. He described Nature, on the whole, as she was to his own sense, as he appeared on the outside. He did it with extraordinary skill, observation, accuracy and magnificence. He did not conceive Nature as alive. He did not love her as a Living Being as Wordsworth did. As a poet of Nature he is vivid, accurate, lively but cold."
His Accurate Observation of Nature:
The romantic poets, revolting against a scientific view of the world, had found reality in a religion of nature, or, more broadly, in poetic intuition. In the course of the nineteenth century the gulf between scientific rationalism and poetry only widened and deepened. While science was making immense progress, it had its own 'Fundamentalism', an obsession with mechanical law that affected even ethical thought of the period. At any rate the Wordsworthian religion of Nature could have little meaning for most Victorians. Tennyson, a zealous student of science form youth to old age, for the most part saw in nature only what his acute senses or scientific knowledge reported. One result was much accurate and beautiful description of the varied appearances of sky and earth and sea; and other was glimpses of Nature red in tooth and claws, of a globe shifting its contours through ages of geological change, of a universe in which that globe was a microscopic dot.
His Paying his Attention towards Cruelty of Nature:
Tennyson directed his attention not only to the calm and tranquil aspects of Nature but also to its stormy and tumultuous exhibitions. He found Nature 'red in tooth and claw’ and agreed with the popular conception that Wordsworth had failed to take notice of the rugged, hard and cruel moods of Nature. Tennyson took cognizance of the cruelty of Nature and refused to see anything holy and benignant in Nature's wise plans. In Maud he drew the attention of the readers to the sinister side of Nature. He said:
“For Nature is one with rapine, a harm no preacher can heal,
The mayfly is torn by the swallow; the sparrow is speared by the strike
And the whole little world where I sit is a world of plunder and prey.”
His Treating of Nature As An Accompaniment of Human Emotions and Sentiments:
Tennyson failed to have any communication with the forces of nature. He was afraid to be alone with her. He did not care much to be alone with Nature since he did not care to love her for her own sake. He treated of Nature as an accompaniment of human emotions and sentiments. Everywhere man is present in the descriptions of Nature; without man Nature appeared meaningless to Tennyson. He has the rare gift of giving atmosphere to a poem by suggesting the correspondence and interaction between the mind and its surrounding, between the situation and the subjective feelings.
Tennyson subordinated Nature to the varying moods of man. Nature was presented from the human standpoint. In The Lotos-Eaters the dreamy and languorous atmosphere of Nature provides a suitable background to the lethargic and sleepy mood of the mariners who wanted to lead a life of ease and inactivity. The poet deliberately chose such natural scenes as were in harmony with the mood he wanted to depict. The mood of calm resignation has been described in In Memoriam:
“Calm is the morn without a sound
Calm as to suit a calmer mood.”
In Tears, Idle Tears the scenes of Nature have an autumnal hue since the heart of the poet is in a state of grief. ‘Tears rise and gather to the eyes in looking on the Autumnal field', for happiness of Nature accentuates tears when the poet is in an aggrieved state. Compton-Rickett has very nicely elaborated this point. He says, "In The Lotos-Eaters the narcotised companions of Ulysses read their own feelings into the surrounding; while the poet suggests by many subtle touches how well dreamy, languid atmosphere of the place chimes in with their feelings. Mark again how admirable the desolate background of Mariana suits the mood of despondent isolation; the melancholy autumnal touch in Tithonus, the tranquil charm of the sea-coast village in Enoch Arden. Sorrow in varying degrees of poignancy serves the poet as the inspiration of some of the loveliest pictures in In Memoriam."
His Humanizing Nature:
Nature was thus in Tennyson's view a mirror that reflected human sentiments, In his poetry, Nature is humanised. She rejoices or is steeped in gloom accordingly as man is in joyous or sorrowful mood. Her beauty, calm and music are of our creation. If we are intensely absorbed in ourselves we seldom notice her. She appears in her diverse colours and moods, not through any intrinsic quality or consciousness in her, but simply through an associative faculty in ourselves.
His Giving Correct Description without Any Admixture of Imaginative Colouring:
Tennyson's Nature poetry was greatly affected by the temper of the times. The Victorians were wont to prefer the element of 'recognition' to that of imagination, and this distrust of absolute imagination affected the Nature poetry of Tennyson. The Victorians had distrust for imagination. In his pictures of landscapes we generally find that the poet has given an accurate, precise and correct description without any admixture of imaginative colouring. In this connection Harold Nicolson has pointed out, "There were some impersonal defects which were forced upon Tennyson by his age, account of its distrust of absolute imagination. For we may observe in dealing with the Nature poetry of Tennyson that he placed accuracy of observation above the imaginative qualities. The backgrounds of his poems are always scenes or landscapes which he had himself visited: their foregrounds and their similes are drawn from the flowers that "he himself had culled."
Simplicity, Delicacy and Lively Description of Nature:
Tennyson's nature descriptions are lively and lucid. Accurate observation and delicate poetic feelings are beautifully blended. Tennyson's landscapes are never vague. They are marked with an almost preternatural clarity. The descriptions of the artist are viewed with an eye of the scientist. Everywhere indeed the observation of the scientist is glorified by the sensibility of the artist, the stark fact is clad in lovely imagery. In his Nature descriptions we have the exactitude of the botanist as well as the vision of the poet:
“Beneath a world-old yew, darkening half
The cloisters, on a gustful April morn
That puff'd the swaying branches into smoke.”
In the minute observation and vivid portrayal, Tennyson has not been excelled. Descriptions of Nature in The Lotos-Eaters and The Lady of Shalott are remarkable for their picturesque vividness. The poet can impress us with microscopic effects. Accuracy of observation and perception and beauty of delineation can be seen in such touches as these:
“Of the dragon fly,
A living flash of light he flew
Of the sunflower that
Rays round with flames her disc of seed
Of the blasts
That bow the poplars white
Of dark hair
More black than ash buds in the front of March.”
All these deft touches reflect (1) accuracy and delicacy of perception, (2) felicity of its translation into language of that which he perceives.
Landscapes of Tennyson's description can be easily recognised and localised. The natural scenery of Enoch Arden is based on Freshwater. The scenery of O Enone is drawn from the valley of Canteretz. The pictures in Mariana in the South owe their inspiration to the sights and scenes near Perpignan. The island of The Lotos-Eaters is no more than an idealised Torquay. Thus, as a poet of Nature Tennyson was thoroughly English. His Nature poetry pictured the English countryside, scenes and sounds. The landscapes of Surrey, Kent and Isle of White found successful presentation in his poetry.
In Tennyson's nature poetry we have lovely and loving references to English birds and flowers. Harrison says, "Byron is the poet of mountains and oceans, Shelley of clouds and air, Keats of the perfume of the evening, Wordsworth of the meaning and mysteries of Nature as a whole. And so Tennyson is the poet of flowers, trees and birds. Of flowers and trees he must be held to be the supreme master, above all who have written in English, perhaps indeed in any poetry. The meanest flower that blows does not inspire in Tennyson thoughts so deep as it did to Wordsworth, bat Tennyson has painted them all-flowers wild and cultivated, trees, herbs, woods, downs and moors-with the magic of a Turner. He spoke of trees and flowers, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that gross on the wall. As flowers, hills, trees and rivers uttered to Wordsworth a new moral decalogue, so they seemed to Tennyson, as they did to Turner, radiant with a fanciful beauty which no man had seen before. If we cannot claim for Tennyson the supreme place of poet of man's destinies, or as one of the creative masters of our literature, he has forever clothed the softer aspects of the world of man and Nature with garment of delicate fancy and of pure light.
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