Found to be the most famous poet of the Victorian Age At the age of 14, he composed a play called, The Devil and the Lady Composed a 6,000 line epic poem, while being taught by his father Wrote “In Memoriam”, an elegy morning the death of his lost friend, Arthur Hallam His poem Tears, Idle, Tears, was taken from one of his major works entitled, The Princess.

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy Autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more. Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That brings our friends up from the underworld, Sad as the last which reddens over one That sinks with all we love below the verge; So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds To dying ears, when unto dying eyes The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. Dear as remembered kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned On lips that are for others; deep as love, Deep as first love, and wild with all regret; O Death in Life, the days that are no more.

"This song came to me on the yellowing autumn- tide at Tintern Abbey, full for me of its bygone memories... It is what I have always felt even from a boy, and what as a boy I called the `passion of the past.' And it is so always with me now; it is the distance that charms me in the landscape, the picture and the past, and not the immediate today in which I move." ~Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy Autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more. Alfred Tennyson is thinking of his past. He has feelings that confuse him and make him mourn of his earlier memories. Further study of Tennyson's life shows that he misses his friend Arthur Hallum. This takes place in Autumn to represent the memories he had in the Spring and Summer that have passed, now nothing to look forward to but a cold and dark winter.

Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That brings our friends up from the underworld, Sad as the last which reddens over one That sinks with all we love below the verge; So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. He goes on to say that his memories of friends are well remembered. But the only problem is that as soon as he reflects such great events in his life, they slip away just as fast. The boat is to represent Charon, a boat man, who ferries a ship of the dead to Hades.

Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds To dying ears, when unto dying eyes The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. It seems that Tennyson is lying on his death bed hearing the birds chirp for the final time. He finds it sad that his days are coming to an end yet strange that as his final day ends, a new one is beginning, never to hear the birds sing again.

Dear as remembered kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned On lips that are for others; deep as love, Deep as first love, and wild with all regret; O Death in Life, the days that are no more. The word deep is repeatedly used to show that this is where his tears from the first stanza are coming from. We find Tennyson "wild with all regret" because of the days he will never get back and make someting of them. When refering to the "death in life", he goes back to the second stanza of his lost friends, as well as the rebirth in the morning from the thrid stanza.

What is Tennyson thinking about as he says “looking on the happy autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more”. What is the tone/mood of the poem? Why do you think Tennyson incorporates the different seasons into the poem, starting with fall?

A poem that tells a story –Tennyson tells us a story about how he feels about growing older and reminiscing his past Repeating verse –“The days that are no more” Oldest genre of poetry Example: –Canterbury Tales –Beowulf Narrative Poem

Ricks, Christopher. "Tears,Idle, Tears by Alfred Lord Tennyson." British-poetry.Suite101.com. 24/1/ May "Lord Alfred Tennyson." Online-literature.com May "The Coffee-Stained Writer." Coffee-Stained Writer.blogspot.com May 2009.