WRITING ABOUT
TENNYSON'S POETRY

So your teacher has asked you to write a paper on one of Tennyson's poems and you're stuck! You've only vaguely heard of Ulysses, don't know what the Holy Grail is, and haven't a clue about iambic pentameter. How should you go about writing your paper?

Here is some general advice. Now, your teacher may have something very specific in mind — something not covered by my advice. But the following steps should help you get started:

1) Read the poem THREE (3) times.

A. First time: just plow on through — don't worry if there are words you don't understand or themes you are sure you are missing. Just read the poem s-l-o-w-l-y to the end. Remember: good poetry is much richer than prose, so you've have to read at a slower pace than you would the daily newspaper or a best-selling novel.

B. Read about Tennyson and the poem in one of the sources listed below. Look up any obscure words in the poem that you missed out on the first time through.

C. Read the poem a second time. Aha — much clearer now!

D. Write your paper about the poem (more on that in a minute).

E. After you've completed the paper, read the poem for the third time — out loud. It's amazing how much the human voice adds to the meaning of a poem.

2) Consult helpful books and essays

There are three kinds of books that can help you understand the poem you are reading:

1) Books about Tennyson's life
2) Books with discussions of individual poems
3) Books about poetic form

There are others — a volume about Victorian England could be very helpful — but for now, we'll just concenrate on the three listed above.

A good place to start is with collections of Tennyson's poetry edited by scholars. Very often you can get #1 and #2, and maybe even #3, in the same book. When I teach Tennyson's poetry at San Francisco State University I use Poems of Tennyson, edited by Jerome H. Buckley. This book has a very good introduction, which talks about Tennyson's life and the major themes of his poetry. In addition, there are notes at the end of the book that offer brief help with each of the poems.

Not enough? OK, then your next trip is to the library. Using an electronic search engine or a card catalogue, look up "Tennyson, Alfred" and see what you turn up. Find the books and see if they have what you need. If you're looking for help with a specific poem, go to the index first and see if its listed there.
You can also use encyclopedias; but they usually aren't complete enough to be of much help. If you're library has a copy of the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, look up the essay on Tennyson. It's written by Edmond Gosse, who was a very good writer himself. His essay on Tennyson is a classic.

Poetic form is a more difficult subject. The opening lines of "The Lotos-Eaters," for example, are written in Spenserian stanzas. The Spenserian stanza is a very complex form, and you may need help figuring it out. If so, try a book such as Thrall and Hibbard's A Handbook to Literature. They will tell you all about blank verse, metaphors, etc.

3) Writing your essay

There are lots of ways to organize an essay about a Tennyson poem. Your teachers may have some very specific format that they want you to follow. If not, try this:

A) A general appreciation of Tennyson and his work (one or two paragraphs).
Example: "For many years, Tennyson's poetry has attracted readers by what Edmond Gosse called "the beauty of the atmosphere which Tennyson contrives to cast around his work, molding it in the blue mystery of twilight, in the opaline haze of sunset." [etc.]

B) Brief account of Tennyson's life (one or two paragraphs).
Be sure to note the point in his life when he wrote the poem you are discussing.
Example: " Though still in his early twenties, Tennyson wrote one of his greatest poems about old age at this time. His "Ulysses" [etc.]

C) Analysis of the poem under consideration (3-10 paragraphs)
HINT: One of the recurring themes in Tennyson's poetry is the conflict between personal fulfillment and public responsibility. That is, often the character in the poem is pulled one way by something he or she wants to do, and another way by a sense of duty or obligation that must be performed. Does this conflict occur in the poem you are writing about?

D) Concluding lessons to be learned from the poem (one paragraph)
Example: "Though few people today believe in the literal reality of the Holy Grail, Tennyson's rendering of the story make it a modern parable of the search for religious values — and the dangers involved in such a search. [etc.]"

E) Bibliography
Most teachers want to see a list of works you've consulted in writing your paper. And if you quote from one of these sources, you MUST footnote where you got it from, and mention the work in the bibliography. You can find a bibliography for some Tennyson works at

http://charon.sfsu.edu/tennyson/bibliography.html

Note especially the form of that bibliography (the listing of author, title, publishing date, etc.). Use that format in constructing your own bibliography. If you use the world-wide web, add a URL list, and put the addresses of your sources. Also put the date when you visited the site, since material on the web changes all the time:

http://charon.sfsu.edu/tennyson/bibliography.html, visited January 29, 1997

All best wishes,

Arthur Chandler