Tears, idyle Tears - Tennyson
...t "the days that are no more". This could mean death, or just simply moments in the past that you can't get back again. Second stanza : Tennyson says: "Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail," The freshness of memories is what is being described here and Tennyson uses an image of the sun shining on a boat's sail to emphasise this freshness. Tennyson believes in religious mythology, and this is evident when he says : "That brings our friends up from the underworld," The 'underworld' is a term that could mean a criminal world, but in this context (and due to the period in which the poem was written – 19th century) it is obvious that he is talking about the abode of the dead. He says that the beam on the sail will "bring our friends up from the underworld", which suggests that he believes in re-incarnation. The beam is like a symbol of hope, as the first two lines of this stanza are hopeful. However the next two lines are about the emotion of sadness : "Sad as the last which reddens over one That sinks with all we love below the verge" The speaker is now describing the last beam of sun at the end of the day that is cast over a boat's sail. The use of 'reddens' suggests this because sunset is a red colour. The boat then sinks "with all we love below the verge" which suggests that the spirits that were conjured up by the freshness of the first beam, have now been banished to the depths with the sinking boat. The whole image creates a feeling of gain and then loss, which is sad. The last line is a summary to the stanza : "So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more" The speaker is saying that the memories of dead loved ones are both sad, and fresh in his memory, and remind him of the days that are gone. Third stanza : The third stanza begins: "Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns". The speaker is saying that as well as being sad, he finds it strange to not be able to go back to the "days that are no more". The alliteration in 's' conveys this feeling of sadness , a slow rhythm and a melancholy tone. 'sad' evokes the image of what seems to be the speaker on the verge of death awake for his very last morning. 'strange' underlines the paradox between the end of life and the beginning of a day. Indeed, this stanza, in which both sight ("eyes") and sound ("ears") figure, presents an analogy. The contrast between dawning sun and closing eyes is similar to the dawning/waning contrast of the previous stanza. Here the waning is that of dying eyes in which the objects of visual perception blur into "a glimmering square" (as if tears have gathered in them). The glimmer recalls the glitter of the previous stanza. Final stanza : It is in the last stanza of the poem that is the most emotional and sentimental ; the theme conveyed is a great yearning for something that will never happen again and lost time. "Dear as remember'd kisses after death" Tennyson says that the days that are now gone are as dear to him as the kisses of loved ones that are now dead. There is a sense of deep regret about the past in the last two lines : "[…] deep as love, Deep as first love, and wild with all regret ; O Death in Life, the days that are no more." Tennyson is talking about the emotion of love here, and firstly says "deep as love" but then extends it to "deep as first love" to suggest that first love is even deeper. The word 'wi...