National University of Modern languages Islamabad

Assignment: Tears, Idle Tears

Subject: R&V poetry

BS English 4A (Afternoon)

Submitted by: Faizan Amin & Nafeesa Kanwal

Submitted to: Mam Sumera

Date of submission: 8th December,2022

Alfred Tennyson most representative poet of victorian age. In 1850, appointed as poet laureate of
England during Queen Victoria's reign after the success of his 1852 poem. Being a student of
science and philosophy he was deeply impressed by the new discoveries and speculations. His
poetry reflects the restless spirit of England and its faith in science, commerce and the progress
of mankind. Also dealt with an important problem of the day, such as the higher education of
women and their place in the fast changing conditions of Modern society. (The
Princess).Tennyson reflects in his love poems that true love can be only found in married life.
(The Miller's daughter) In short Tennyson was a moralist giving his readers the proper guidance
for the wise conduct of Life.

This poem is actually the part of long narrative poem "The Princess" where this poem "idle
tears" is sung by one of the court maidens on the command of princess IDA.But the fact is that
this poem tears idle tears is written by Tennyson after his visit to Tintern Abbey, where there's a
grave of Tennyson close friends Arthur Helen.The poem is an emotionally intense meditation on
the passing of time , the loss of friends and loved ones.

SUMMARY
The speaker wonders why her eyes are tearing up as she looks on autumn fields. They seem to
come from a divine source. She realizes the tears come from thinking about “the days that are no
more" This past, (“the days that are no more”) is described as fresh and strange. It is as fresh as
the first beam of sunlight that sparkles on the sail of a boat bringing the dead back from the
underworld, and it is sad as the last red beam of sunlight that shines on a boat that carries the
dead down to this underworld. The days also are “sad and strange,” like dawn in the summer
when birds are singing so early and a dying person hears them with sadness, or like a window
growing into a “glimmering square” that dying eyes gaze upon in the transition from dark to one
more dawn. The lost days are thus “so sad, so strange.”The lost days, too, are dear as the kisses
of a loved one who has died, and they are as sweet as the hopes that one has to kiss someone who
has lips meant for others. The lost days are as “deep as love,” and they had the excitement of
“first love” as well as the “wild … regret” that goes with frustrated hopes. These days are a kind
of “Death in Life.”

THEMES
DEATH:
Tears, Idle Tears’ contains the theme of death, love, and sadness. The major theme of the poem
is death. The poet mourn the loss of his beloved friend and presents his mental state in the poem.
The poet sees death as a detrimental factor in life. It changes everything, even the perception of
beauty in a person’s life.

LOVE :

The theme of love is what compelled the poet to express his sense of grief. It is not an erotic kind
of love. It is love for a friend whose presence makes the poet happy and satisfied. That’s why the
poet uses the image of the ship which can bring his friend from the dismal abyss of death.

SADNESS :

The theme of sadness is an exceptional aspect of the poem. The poet is sad but he has not lost his
senses. He knows the beautiful things of nature which once gave pleasure to the poet, remain the
same. What changed is the absence of his friend. The poet is sorrowful because the “autumn-
fields” and the twittering of birds at dawn remind him of the friend he has lost.

Critical Analysis
Tears, Idle Tears is a famous poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson. In the poem, speaker talks about
idle tears but he don't know the source of these idle tears. Actually the source of these idle tears
is the remembrance of past and lost friends. Speaker says that past is fresh, sad, strange, wild and
deep. In this poem, the author reveals the mood of sadness with the special structure.

The utilization of imagery and similies is one way in which how the sadness is revealed in the
poem.The fact that it is written in blank verse helps because it is the only verse form that is able
to convey the natural rhythm of spoken English, therefore making the poem more realistic. The
images are described very vividly and are used to represent the feelings of the speaker.The
speaker is saying that as well as he being sad, he finds it strange not to be able to go b

ack to the “days that are no more”. He 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
‘wild’ is a very powerful one that Tennyson uses to describe the regret that the speaker feels. The
last line is powerful because he compares life and death and says that his memories of the past
feel like a death to him. There is a sense of mystery in the poem as it seems that the speaker
knows more than what he is telling us. It seems as if he has deep regrets about the past that are
haunting him. Also, Tennyson does not make it clear who the speaker is as regards the
gender.The speaker is sentimentalising about the past, and Tennyson sentimentalises in the way
that he writes the poem. He deals with many different emotions such as despair, sadness,
happiness,love and regret, which he qualifies with images to help the reader understand them. It
is the last stanza of the poem where there is most emotion and sentimentality; a great yearning
for something that will never happen again and about lost time. “Dear as remembered kisses after
death”, 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.

Symbols
Autumn Fields:

By using this symbol he talks about beauty of nature which makes him happy and which is a
source of pleasure for him. But is also makes him sad because it reminds him of his beloved one
whi is died.

Underworld:

In Christianity, Underworld is a symbol of place or state of departed spirits. It means the land of
dead people.

Sinking Sun:

Sinking sun is a symbol of pessimism. It symbolizes negative thoughts and sadness where the
person is at the worst of his mental illness.

Dark summer:

It represents the poet's state of mind. As he was sad and he was feeling various emotions at a
same time so he uses the word dark summer.

Conclusion:
Tears, idle Tears combines beauty with sadness in a way that causes a reader to feel empathy for
the speaker. In particular, the speaker mourns over the days that are gone and will never return.
Speaker introduces the poem without a clear understanding of what his tears mean. He comes up
with adjectives to explain how lost days are sad, fresh and strange thus calls them death in life. In
Conclusion, Tears, Idle Tears bring feelings to associate with aging such as regret and despair.