From THE PRINCESS - Alfred Tennyson
A. THE SPLENDOR FALLS
The Splendor Falls is a beautiful song that occurs at the end of Canto III of The Princess. All readers of Tennyson have noticed the music and
melody of the lyric, enhanced by the use of double rhymes.
As is the case with the other
songs, this song also is closely connected with the main theme of the poem.
Princess Ida founded the Female
Academy
In the evening they saw the
bright light of the sun falling on walls of the castle. When the bugle sounds,
the echo resounds through hills and dales. But the air does not retain the
sound, it grows thinner and thinner every moment, till it dies out and it is
heard no more. But the response produced in the heart of the beloved is indelible
and it lasts. There it is nursed and fed on thoughts and hopes, and watered
with tears, till it transcends time and distance and becomes immortal.
B. TEARS, IDLE TEARS
Tears, Idle Tears is a song, which occurs in the beginning of the Canto IV of The Princess. After a day's hard work, the Princess Ida asks one of
her maidens to sing a song and she sings the present song. The mood of the
lyric is one of the wistful longings, and it harmonises well with the mood of
the princess at the moment. It is a poignant lyric, which goes directly to the
heart of readers. Its popularity has been a continuing one, and it is included
in most anthologies of English lyrics.
The poet does not exactly know
the cause of the tears that gathers up in his eyes. The immediate cause of his
sadness is the sight of the ripe autumn fields whose richness and golden hues
stand in contrast to the poet's present misery and his own regret for the past.
They remind him of his own happiness.
The memory of his past happiness
is as fresh as the hope which is kindled at the sight of a ship on the eastern
horizon, bringing our friends back to home and lit up by the early rays of the
sun. But the very next moment the unreal nature of this hope produces a regret,
which is as poignant as that which one feels at the last glimpse of the ship
carrying away one's dear friends.
Due to the passage of time, the
memory of the past happiness becomes blurred and dim; just as for a dying
person the sight of a window lit up by the beautiful morning light on a summer
day becomes dim due to failing vision and once favourite and spontaneous songs
of birds, singing in the morning, assume an unfamiliar sound. This naturally
causes a poignant sadness in the heart of the poets, and he is inclined to
weep.
The memory of past happiness in
itself is as dear to the poet as the memory of the kisses enjoyed in the past
and as sweet as those, which we enjoy in our imagination, even though their
actual enjoyment may be an impossibility owing to the death of the beloved or her
marriage with another. It is as
overpowering as the first moments of love;
yet it fills the poet with a sense of intense sorrow because he cannot
call it back. Without the happiness which, the poet knew in the past, his life
is no better than death; if the pleasure and joy for which this life is meant
is absent, the life becomes dull and as good as death. It is life in death; the
poet is living. But he suffers the pain of death. He weeps, even though his
tears are futile.
C. NOW SLEEPS THE CRIMSON PETAL
The sweet lyric occurs in Canto VII of The princess. One night,
the prince awoke from a sound sleep, and found the Princess Ida, whom he loved,
reading in low tones a song form, " a volume of the poets of her
land". It was the present song, which she was reading.
The lyric is an appeal to the
beloved to surrender herself and join the lover. It is a common device in
songs, especially in love-songs, to enshrine a passionate purport in the midst
of illustrative references to Nature, animate or inanimate. In the present case
the lover makes his appeal by drawing attention to the subtle spiritual
magnetism that exists between the restful earth and the palpitating sky. The
earth is influenced by the stars overhead, and so she must also be influenced
by his love. Just as the meteor leaves a streak of light in the sky, so
thoughts of his beloved have caused a furrow in his heart. In the end, the
lover exhorts the beloved to fold herself in his bosom and be lost in him, just
as the lily sinks into the bosom of the lake.
The lyric is an appeal to the
beloved to surrender herself completely to her lover, and become one with him.
The unusual form of this lyric appears to be Tennyson's personal adaptation of
the, 'ghazal', a type of Persian
love-ode. Examples of such ghazals he
had been reading in the original and in translation with the help of
Fitz-Gerald. The imagery of roses, lilies, peacocks, stars and cypress is
common to Persian Poetry.
D. COME DOWN, O MAID
This exquisite lyric occurs in Canto VII of Tennyson's The Princess. And it is closely integrated with its context. Late
in the night, Princess Ida, unable to sleep, reads a volume of poems. First she
sings to herself the song "Now
sleeps the crimson petal, and now the
white", and then the present one.She sings it to herself unaware of
the fact that the Prince, who loves her, and sleeping nearby, is not really
sleep but is watching her, and listening to her.
In this love-lyric, remarkable
for its fervour and intensity, a shepherd lover asks his beloved to come down
from the mountain peak where she stands to the valley below where he himself
stands. On the mountain she might be nearer to heaven, but she is farther from
the earth and from the pleasures of love. The mountain symbolizes isolation and
separation -- a life barren and futile given to intellectual pursuits -- while
life in the valley represents and fruitful life full of love and happiness, a
life guided by emotions, by the heart and not the head. Princess Ida is very
much moved by the song. She realizes the barrenness of her own life, which is
like a life lived on a mountaintop. Her heart is touched and she decides to
give up her ambitious plans, which result in emotional sterility, and to
surrender herself to her lover.
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