Reviews for Men And Women

The average rating for Men And Women based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-08-24 00:00:00 Marvin Wells I've got an 1899 edition with terribly tiny print. After looking unsuccessfully for an ebook of Selected Poems of Tennyson for my Kindle, I compiled my own and have put it on my website English Literature Ebooks here as a free ebook for epub and mobi, or pdf. Please help yourself. It's a lot easier on the eyes than my print edition! I still remember the shiver that went down my spine when I first read the Lotos-Eaters over 40 years ago. And I still get it.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-11-04 00:00:00 Didier Tisch "Cholera, scurvy, and fever, the wound that would not be healed, Lopped away of the limb by the pitiful-pitiless knife, Torture and trouble in vain, for it never could save us a life. Valour of delicate women who tended the hospital bed, Horror of women in travail among the dying and the dead, Grief for our perishing children, and never a moment for grief, Toil and ineffable weariness, faltering hopes of relief" Lord Alfred Tennyson's poetry has mostly stood the test of time. The conversational rhythms and almost stream-of-consciousness style makes his work accessible to a broad range of readers and an excellent introductory poetic voice. I enjoyed studying his work at secondary school, back when I could recite Ulysses by heart - "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." Another repetitive, onomatopoeic school favourite is The Charge of the Light Brigade (but did you know there is also a The Charge of the Heavy Brigade? "Gallopt the gallant three hundred, the Heavy Brigade"). I was interested to broaden my knowledge of his work beyond his best known poems, and get a sense of the literary tastes of the Victorian era too. Tennyson is one of the best known 19th century poets, and was poet laureate in Britain where he is somewhat of a boxed national treasure. I enjoyed the way he wove themes topical to the age into his writing, it was interesting and novel to see scientific progress discussed in such traditional formal verse. "wake on science grown to more, secrets of the brain, the stars" Human progress and the beauties of the English countryside are two recurring themes. "every kiss of toothed wheels, and all the courses of the sun." Both are very pleasant to read about, with the former dearer to my heart as a scientist (naturally). Another Victorian era Tennyson theme is death. "'This is more vile,' he made reply, 'to breath and loathe, to live an sigh, than once for dread of pain of die'" Essentially, Tennyson was a massive emo. You don't have to take my word for it. Any of these quotes could be lyrics for The Used or Bullet For My Valentine or My Chemical Romance: "The wages of Sin is death: if the wages of Virtue be dust" "A flat malarian world of reed and rush!" "What is all but a trouble of ants in the gleam of a million million suns?" Supposed Confessions of a Second-Rate Sensitive Mind would make a fantastic album title. And I don't mean that as an insult, I have proudly identified as a goth and an emo in my youth. I was surprised to find that even in his more well-known poems such as The Lotus-Eaters, nihilism pervades everything "All things have rest, and ripen towards the grave." What happened to all these brooding poets? But Tennyson is very much a poet of his time, and many of the negative prejudices of the era seep through in his writing. I don't fund Tennyson by any means the worst example of casual sexism, racism or class discrimination from the 19th century, but it does impact on enjoyment of his writing in 2018. His female characters are worst off. Admirable women are defined mainly by their chastity, more than once literally falling dead at the sight of indecency or broken hearts, most noticeably in The Lady of Shalott (although I was warned about this one in Terry Jones' Medieval Lives). More active female characters such as Guinivere, Aldwyth, and Eleanor of Aquitaine are cast as unscrupulous and dishonest in their power and charm. "There are thousands now such women, but convention beats them down" I'm sorry to have to say this, as Guinivere is one of the fictional women I admire the most. It's slightly better for working class English characters, as they do get some representation in Tennyson's dialect poems, and are shown to have positive traits. However, for me, working class characters appeared concerned only with the very mundane and excluded from the philosophical musings in some of Tennyson's other poems. Thomas Hardy was ahead of the game with representation here. Tennyson was also a great supporter of the British Empire, yet he does manage to write one beautifully tolerant and inspiring poem Akber's Dream, inspired by Abul Fazl's writing about the Indian ruler Akbar who welcomed subjects of all religions and took steps towards moderation for all. This was really interesting and surprisingly tasteful for a Colonialist's perspective. "The reign with dainty fingertips, A man had given all other bliss, And all his worldly worth for this, To waste his whole heart in one kiss Upon her perfect lips" The main reason that I read this collection was to explore Tennyson's Romantic-era depictions of the Arthurian stories. He was a major voice in re-establishing interest in these myths, and his work is evocative and puts what would have been a very modern slant on the legends for his readership. And he does do some interesting new things with the legends. For example, I really like his depiction of Camelot as both real and hallucination in his epic The Death of Arthur, and incorporation of Celtic and Grecian symbols "there is no city anywhere, but all a vision" Perhaps my favourite complete work is his short poem Sir Galahad which shows a child-like joy in the virtuous young knight "I yearn to breath the airs of heaven". Another highlight was the pained depiction of Lancelot's internal conflict demonstrated by this quote which is very reminiscent of my all-time favourite T.H. White's The Ill-Made Knight "The great and guilt love he bare the Queen, In battle with the love he bare his Lord, Had marred his face, and marked it ere his time." The other knights are often frightening in their primitive assumptions and violent thoughts, where Lancelot and Galahad are creatures of another more civilised age. There is a poignant moment when Sir Balin compares himself to Lancelot and "sigh'd as a boy lame-born beneath a height". The focus on court romance was often frustrating, but these are important works towards our contemporary notion of the Arthurian myths and I am glad that I have read them. Other works which stood out to me as particularly enjoyable in the collection included: The Talking Oak, in which a friendly Ent-ish tree facilitates courtship between two sweethearts; The Third of February 1852, a passionate defence of freedom of press in times of war; Maud, a paranoid bitter soliloquy of a jilted lover; and Rizpah a moving and grisly critique of the death penalty, viewing all humans as being loved and valued by someone in society. Tennyson's historical verse was relatively unknown to me until I started this collection, and much of it reads as surprisingly modern. For example, his historical play Queen Mary often rings of a sequel to Hilary Mantel's Chronicles of Thomas Cromwell ("The Tower, the Tower, always the Tower. I shall go to it - I shall be the Tower.") Additionally, there is Happy The Leper's Bride, a fascinating look at the funeral-like service offered to diagnosed lepers in the Middle Ages. The one Tennyson poem in the collection I wish was better known is The Voyage of Maeldune, a retelling of an Irish folk legend in which a chief's son is drawn on a quest for revenge which becomes a cautionary allegorical tale against excess in all its guises "remember the words of the Lord when he told us 'Vengeance is mine!'" A thoroughly educational volume!