How has this poem influenced
you? For many persons, Tennyson, out of a simple love-story, has made
a prophecy of ideal love. Has he for you? For many persons Tennyson
made poetry out of this simple story when he paralleled the tale of
earthly passion with a vision of completer life, so vivid that the
pain and tragedy of this present life come to be for us but the
preparation for the better life to come, as the poet sings to us that
"Through the ages one increasing purpose runs And the thoughts of men
are widened with the process of the suns."
Has he to you in like manner through his poem given a truer conception
of the nature and use of poetry?
Systematic study such as that suggested above will help in answering
the questions, "What charm has this poem for us?" and "How does it put
a deeper meaning into the events it records?" But it is difficult to
frame formal questions the answers to which will show how a poem
quickens life. The influence of a poem is so much a matter of
temperament and of emotion, both of the author and of the reader, that
one has to feel its power rather than to work it out logically. Poetry
passes beyond prose in that it quickens life by moving us to feel its
nobler emotions. It will teach its own lesson to the appreciative
reader, and the student who gets fully into sympathy with a great poem
will have his whole life made brighter. Class work, done
sympathetically and sincerely, will aid in finding the truest
interpretations.
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