"And ask ye why these sad tears stream?" is a poem written by Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), one of the most well-loved Victorian poets. At the age of 41, Tennyson had established himself as the most popular poet of the Victorian era. In 1884, he accepted a peerage, becoming Alfred Lord Tennyson. Tennyson died in1892, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
This poem was written so as to express his feeling of impotence against his wife's sudden death in 1833. Alfred expresses his reaction and al the feelings that were mixed inside of him after this horrible experience of loosing a person he loved. This poem is a description of what Elisabeth Kubler -Ross described as the fourth stage of grief, in her book “On Death and Dying". This fourth stage of grief is depression, in this case the depression of Tennyson after Hallam´s sudden death.
Through his poem Alfred describes a dream he has in which he sees his wife, but he does't se her as a normal person, he sees her as an extremely beautiful women, like adorned by heaven's glory. I have read some analysis about how people who have suddenly lost a person they loved remember them and they all have something in common: they glorify them. Their death makes them fill completely depressed and they start "glorifying"the memories they had of them. In this case, Alfred also adorns his wife by heaven's glory, but this romanticized feelings disappear when we wakes up.
Above the poem there's a latin phrase "Te somnia rostra reducunt" that in English would be "Our dreams lead you back", his making reference to his dreams, where he sees his wife as if she was just next to him, like if she had never gone. Thats why he uses this phrase so as to explain that she revives in his dreams.
The poem is divide into six quartets, all with the same consonant rhyme, a-b-a-b, and all the verses have between eight and nine syllables.
This poem has two faces, his feelings when he is sleeping and those he have when his asleep. The poem starts with two rhetorical questions that the lyrical speaker uses to express
This poem has two faces, his feelings when he is sleeping and those he have when his asleep. The poem starts with two rhetorical questions that the lyrical speaker uses to express
