Tennyson's lyricism: The aesthetic of sorrow

The primary purpose of this study is to show that anticipations of the "art for art's sake" theory can be found in Tennyson's poetry which is in line with the tenets of aestheticism and symbolism, and to show that Tennyson's lyricism is a "Palace of Art" in which his tragic emotions--sadness, sorrow, despair, and melancholic sensibility--were built into beauty. It is my intention to give him a new significance in the history of literature by putting him in the line of aestheticians and symbolists.; By examining two poems, "Mariana" and "The Palace of Art," in Chapter One, I support my argument that Tennyson's early poetry is that of aesthetic rather than moral imagination. "Mariana" is perhaps the first poem of Tennyson's which deliberately recreates a particular and personal emotional state. The poem is a symbolist work in that Tennyson uses all the evocative images for symbolic purposes. "The Palace of Art" is the most consciously realized version of the Mariana theme. It is in the dedication to the poem that we find Tennyson as an artist who rests on the credo of "art for art's sake." Chapter Two is a chronological survey of Tennyson's development; it treats the development of his poetic sensibility, citing biographical details to indicate the varied influences upon his emotional and intellectual development. In Chapter Three, I argue that In Memoriam shows the persona moving from despair and sorrow to hope and happiness through his love and his developing consciousness--in short, his "living will." Chapter Four examines Tennyson's favorite poem Maud. Although it is not generally taken to be a poem about an expression of grief, thematically central in the poem is the theme of sorrow and how one recovers from it The concluding chapter deals with the three representative of Tennysonian lyrics, "Break, Break, Break," "Tears, Idle Tears," and "Crossing the Bar," in which Tennyson's worship of sorrow leads to the worship of beauty.