What does Gareth represent in his constant devotion to high ideals?
What truth is ill.u.s.trated by Gareth"s overcoming the petulant opposition of Lynette?
Connect the teaching of this poem with the thought of the whole series.
FORM.--What is the meter of the poem? What are the princ.i.p.al variations from the normal line in the number of syllables and the position of accents or stresses? Explain and ill.u.s.trate _caesura_, _end-stopt line_, _run-on line_. What variations do you find in the position of the pauses? What is the effect of the variations on the music of the verse?
Base your study of meter on several pa.s.sages (for example, ll. 100-150, 520-550, 1350-1394).
Compare the language used by Bellicent and Gareth in their dialogue (ll.
34-168), with descriptive pa.s.sages (like 184-193, 209-226, 376-427, 650-685, and 883-900).
What differences do you note in the poet"s choice of words?
Find pa.s.sages that present a vivid picture, a vigorous action, simple narrative, true sentiment.
_Lancelot and Elaine_
SETTING.--Where did the King keep court at the time of this story?
Where did Elaine live?
Where was the tournament held? What do we know of the relative positions of these places?
At what season of the year do the events of the story take place? How does the season fit the story? Do the places seem real?
PLOT.--How is the story introduced? Compare with the introduction of the previous Idyll.
What was the occasion for the tournament?
What led Lancelot to Astolat? What caused Elaine"s pa.s.sion for him? Why did he wear her favor? What were the consequences of his wearing it?
Elaine"s love for Lancelot led her to what different acts? What did Lancelot"s devotion to Guinevere lead him to do?
At what dramatic moment did Elaine"s body reach Camelot? How did the event affect the King? Guinevere? Lancelot?
CHARACTERS.--From what Arthur says and does, do you find any change in him since his appearance in _Gareth and Lynette_?
Do Lancelot and Guinevere, as they talk of him, reveal any real weakness in his character?
What personal characteristics does Guinevere show in the opening interview? What at the conclusion of the story?
How is Lancelot pictured in the opening interview? in the night that he spends at Astolat? How does he appear when he defends himself after Elaine"s letter has been read? What, on the whole, is our feeling for him? Show how his life was a tragedy.
Describe Elaine as we first see her. Does it seem consistent with her retiring, almost timid, nature to press Lancelot to wear her favor and later to confess her love to him? How do you account for her doing it?
What is the charm of her character?
Contrast Elaine and Guinevere.
INTERPRETATION.--Compare the picture of the court that we get here with the one that is drawn in _Gareth and Lynette_.
What stage in the history of the Round Table does this story mark? What is the central idea of the poem?
FORM.--Compare this Idyll with _Gareth and Lynette_ with reference to meter, and to choice of language.
_The Pa.s.sing of Arthur_
SETTING.--Where is the scene of the story laid? At what season of the year? How does the season fit the story? Do the descriptive pa.s.sages help you to imagine the places? Ill.u.s.trate. Do they help you to feel the situations? Ill.u.s.trate. Of what importance are place and time here?
PLOT.--Make a simple outline to show the chain of incidents that form the plot. Compare this Idyll, in respect to reality, with the other two you have studied.
CHARACTERS.--Is Arthur"s character essentially the same as it appears in the other Idylls we have studied?
What is his mood at the beginning? Does he talk like a vanquished man?
INTERPRETATION.--Do we think of Arthur here as King of Britain, or as a figure in an allegory? Why?
What is indicated by the fact that Arthur did not die, but was taken away by the three Queens?
What is indicated by the uncertainty of Bedivere and even of Arthur himself as to where he was going and whether he would ever return?
Show how the "war between Sense and Soul" is manifest in the war between the King and his enemies; in the struggle of Bedivere between obedience and disobedience; and in the conversation of Arthur and Bedivere as the barge is coming.
FORM.--Compare the meter of the part of the poem published in 1842 (ll.
170-440), with that of _Gareth and Lynette_ published in 1872, to note the difference in the poet"s variations from the normal line, and, in general, the difference in effect.
Compare this Idyll with the other two in respect to language, beauty of description, etc. Study especially such pa.s.sages as ll. 95-117, 129-135, 349-360. Find others worthy to be learned for their sentiment or beauty of description.
THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOR.--What do we know of Tennyson"s parentage? his boyhood? his early love of poetry? his favorite poets?
his college life? his employment after leaving college? his early volumes of poems? the importance of his 1842 volume? the significance to him of the death of Arthur Henry Hallam? the three princ.i.p.al events of his life in 1850? his great and continued popularity? the honors conferred upon him? his two estates? his peaceful death?
Did Tennyson ever pursue any profession other than that of a poet? Did he write prose literature? Did he hold public office? Compare him with other famous poets in each of these three particulars.
Point out, by reference to his best known poems, Tennyson"s three successive impulses: aesthetic, personal and religious, social and patriotic. (See Introduction to _Idylls of the King_ pp. 11-15.) Show how all these are blended together in the _Idylls of the King_. Was he equally successful in all the kinds of poetry that he undertook?
Discriminate.
What were some of his favorite pursuits?
What three successive attempts did Tennyson make with the Arthurian legends? in what periods of his poetic development?
III. THE TEACHING OF LYRIC POETRY
The lyric is a poem which voices the personal feeling, sentiment, or pa.s.sion of the poet. The poet"s feelings are the feelings of human nature, but purified and intensified by his genius. So they are as varied as human nature, but n.o.bler and more beautiful. Lyric poetry, then, appeals to our various moods and often expresses that of which we have been vaguely conscious in ourselves. Sometimes, too, it inspires us to n.o.bler and purer feeling and to higher conceptions of life.