Note on Tennyson as a Pictorial artist
Tennyson is without doubt the greatest of the Victorian poets. He exercise a hypnotic influence on the mind and heart of his readers. He is celebrated for both - for the matter contained in his composition and for the manner of presentation. He was a man with an ecclesiastical bent of mind but he looked at religion from the practical point of view. He recommended social changes based on reality.
Tennyson stepped into the library Arena at the critical juncture. He came on the scene when many famous poets had died young. Within four years from - 1821 to 1824 Keats died at the age of 23, Shelly at 30, Byron at 36 and Wordsworth (though he lived long) had stopped composing poems at 40. Light after light had gone out and the throne of english poetry was virtually vacant when Tennyson came to occupy it.
Tennyson stands in the same relation to the Victorian Era as Chaucer to the 14th century and Pope to the early 18th. He reflected in his poetry the aspiration of his age for full 30 years. He was the spokesman of England. He was loved an owner not simply by a few discerning critics but by a whole people, who do not easily give their allegiance to any one man.
Tennyson was a celebrated poet and also an eminent artist. It is as a skilled craft men that posterity will remember him. A critic has rightly assessed the attribution of tension as an artist. This is precisely what he proclaimed-
" The gifts Tennyson has, and will keep, his place among the great poet of England are preeminently those of an artist. His genius for vivid and musical expression and leaving pictures shows him as a flawless artist."
Tennyson was really an accomplished Victorian artist with unrivalled reputation for picturing in words a scene or situation with clarity. He owned, as it were, the rare gift of painting in a flash and accurate picture of a world or a phrase. It seems that Tennyson learn the art of pictorian painting from John Keats. He used words as a pentre wields his brush, for registering the glory of a scene. Leaving aside Shakespeare and Keats, no other poet was able to draw such gorgeous pictures of landscape as Tennyson. Nearly all his poems, even the smallest and the simplest, are rich in ornate descriptions of natural scenes.
As Albert aptly observed,
"Tennyson's method is two seize upon appropriate dress them in expressive and musical phrases and thus furnish a glistening image before the reader's eye."
The tiniest pictorial designs of landscape are available in the Lotus Eaters where the poet draws a life like picture of the island. The streams flowing seaward are nicely depicted, specially when falling from a higher level.
"A land of streams! Some like a downward stream go."
In 'Ulysses', the scene of evening, which marks the advent of the moon, is realistically reflected. When he says,
" The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks. The long day veins the slow moon climbs."
Fowler rightly pointed out that Tennyson used painting to communicate the theme of his poem. The most convincing example in this respect is that of Tithonus. Tithonus married Aurora, who obtained for him the gift of immortality from the Zeus, the king of heaven but Tithonus got permanent life without perpetual youth. The very first line clarifies the theme of the poem.
" The woods decay, the words decay and fall."
He suggested that the trees have a span of life and so have man and swan. Nothing in life is certain and life itself is uncertain. That is why Tithonus at the end of the poem demanded the withdrawal of the gift of immortality. He did not want to live in heaven but to stay on the earth and join "happy man that have the power to die".
Without any fear of contradiction one can claim that Tennyson's art is beyond comparison. His claim as an artist on both his word pictures and musical language. Added to this attributes is his skill in advancing logical arguments and reaching convincing conclusion.
In 'the Lotus-Eaters', he justify his claim for leading a steady life by giving one after another three examples-those of the folded leaves the apple and the flower.
"Tennyson is a great poet he is a great artist- a maker of words and moster of magical music."
It is as a craftsman in the words that Tennyson has established his claim in poetry. No wonder the melody and the music of his poems linger long in the ears of the readers long after they have read them.
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