Poetic Weaknesses in Locksley Hall
Considering Negative Aspects in Tennyson's Poem of Lost Love
Jan 23, 2009
Although one of Tennyson’s more well-known poems, parts of Locksley Hall mar its overall readability and effectiveness, excluding it from being considered among Tennyson’s best.
Meter in Poetry
Tennyson wrote the poem in trochaics(metrical foot with its stress on the first beat, and second unstressed), which can be seen in scansion:
Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet ‘tis early morn:
He also remarked he chose the meter because “the English people liked verse in trochaics”. While showing dexterity, the chosen meter creates problems as “no one knows how the line should be read” (Robert Cummings).
Attempting to read the trochees faithfully is unnatural, and in Cumming’s words, “accentuates what is most banal” in the poem. On the other hand, not emphasizing the stresses creates an effect where “the rhythm collapses altogether into something close to prose.” Another possibility to read the middle of each line as iambic, ignoring the effects of the first beat stress seems similarly erroneous.
The length of the lines can also been seen as excessive, with fifteen syllables as opposed to the typical pentameter in English poetry. This makes the poem unusually drawn out, and in some ways tedious to read. Cummings suggests treating each single line as two with four stresses each as more sensible than the original choices.
Expression of Depression
It is easier to feel impatient upon reading through the lines about the persona’s depression, rather than to be captivated by their depth of meaning and skill in expression.
The persona’s attitude towards Amy and her husband reveals an ugly bitterness. As he rails “Overlive it- lower yet- be happy! Wherefore should I care?” the vindictive qualities are bitter and ugly, and unlikely to gain sympathy. At one point, the persona rails: “Cursed be…” things, such as “social lies” and “sickly forms”. Yet the fourfold repetition comes across as tedious in expression, and his defense of his lines “Well-‘tis well that I should bluster!” is entirely unpersuasive.
As the poem moves towards its latter stages, the undesirability of the persona’s character might be considered to be reinforced rather than replaced, further making the poem harder to appreciate.
Rhetoric and Self Glorification
The final portions of the poem have impressive lines, most pronounced in the final couplets:
Let it fall on Locksley Hall, with rain or hail, or fire or snow;
For the mighty wind arises, roaring seaward, and I go.
Yet amidst the triumph there still lurks a bigoted nature: “Woman is the lesser man, and all thy passions, math’d with mine...as water unto wine”, he voices, marring the idea that he has matured to a stage of heroism, and suggesting instead he has avoided rather than confronted his internal conflicts. Perhaps this explains a return with Locksley Hall Sixty Years After.
Alastair Thomson also identified a certain sense of self glorification and rhetoric within the persona. This might be seen also what could be seen as boasting as “I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time-”, and also in some of the imagery: as he calls out for Mother-Age to “Rift the hills, and roll the waters, flash the lightnings, weight the Sun”, the tumultuous movement of the elements seem empty rather than contributing to any sense of grandeur.
Definitions of Good Poetry
Rating a poem is tricky and subjective. However, one definition of good poetry is given by Emily Dickinson: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me I know that is poetry.” Locksley Hall is a fine poem, but weighed against such standards, could be said to be still found wanting.
Tennyson’s later poem, Maud, touches on similar themes, but is considered more evocative than Locksley Hall. Reading both would be well worth the effort to understanding Tennyson.
Bibliography
Alfred Lord Tennyson: Selected Poems Edited by Christopher Ricks
Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Bloom’s Major Poets Edited by Harold Bloom
The Poetry of Tennyson by Alastair W. Thomson
 |
