"What are the poetic skills Tennyson uses in his narrative poems?"

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“What are the poetic skills Tennyson uses in his narrative poems?”

To finally come to a conclusion on this question we will be referring to 3 narrative poems which are, ‘The Lady of Shalott’, ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Mariana.’

    A narrative poem is a poem that tells a story such as ‘Mariana’ which tells us a story of a girl who is waiting for her lover who would not return to her. The poetic skills that can be used in such poems are techniques such as description, use of mood and atmosphere, use of words, structure (stanzas, rhythm, rhyme scheme) and style (repetition, imagery, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, metaphor, contrast, simile), also narrative skills, e.g. suspense and tension (created within the story).

   In 'The Lady of Shalott', Tennyson divides the poem into 4 parts. The first part (part 1) sets the scene and consists of 4 stanzas. The second part (part 2) also consists of 4 stanzas. In this part we are inside the tower and we meet the lady, we also learn the she has a curse on her and that she must not look out of the window. In part 3 there are 5 stanzas. Here Sir Lancelot is introduced riding and singing on his way to Camelot. The lady can not resist and goes to look at him. The curse is broken and it is upon her,

                 

                  “‘The curse is come upon me,’ cried

                                      The lady of Shalott” (part 3 stanza 5 lines 8-9)

Part 4 is the climax to the story and the poem. This part consists of 6 stanzas. Here she leaves the castle, goes out into the storm and finds a boat. The river takes her far. She sings her last song and dies. She is now seen by the people and Sir Lancelot for the first time.

    The second poem 'Mariana' is made up of 7 stanzas. At the start of each stanza there is a narrative voice and Mariana’s voice at the end. Each stanza describes a different area of her life. In the first stanza we see everything falling apart,

         “The rusted nails fell from the knots” (Stanza 1 line 3)

This is a comparison to how her life is falling apart. At the end of each of the first six stanzas there are three lines which are always the same,

 

                                 “He cometh not, she said,’ she said;

                                       She said, ‘I am aweary, aweary,

                                       I would that I were dead!’ ” (stanza 1 2 3 4 5 6 lines 10-11-12)

The effect could be that we start to feel sorry for this poor, wretched woman as she always says that she wants to be dead. These three lines show that Mariana is waiting for someone but he never arrives. She wishes she was dead. The whole poem is about a woman alone in her house with everything falling apart. Time changes in the poem, everything decomposes but she stays their still waiting for her love. She finally realises her love will not come and wishes she was dead,

                         

                            “He will not come,’ she said;

                             She wept, ‘I am aweary, aweary,

                             Oh God, that I were dead!’”(Stanza 7 lines 10-11-12)

Here she emphasises that she wants to be dead.

    The third and final poem is ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’. This poem consists of 6 stanzas each telling a different part of the story. This poem tells the story of a heroic but pointless charge by the light brigade. The first stanza tells us that the light brigade is ordered to charge at the enemy. The second stanza says that it was all a mistake,

                                 

                             “Some one had blunder’d” (stanza 2 line 4)

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In stanza 3 it says that they cannot escape as they are surrounded,

                                 “Cannon to the right of them,

                                  Cannon to the left of them,

                                  Cannon in front of them,” (Stanza 3 lines 1-3)

Nevertheless they are not scared and ride boldly into the enemies,

   

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Throughout, the writer addresses the reader relatively personally, using “we” and “I” instead of the 3rd person, which makes the essay seem more informal and less like an academic essay. Grammar is adequate but flawed throughout – for instance, he writes, “The line lengths are long this is a comparison with 'Mariana'”, which does not make much grammatical sense. In this way the essay does not meet expectations for A Level, but overall the analysis covers a wide range of devices (from language to form and structure) and thus redeems the essay.

Analysis is generally quote-driven, which is good as it shows that the writer has used the texts themselves as a basis for points. However, at times the analysis is a little superficial: “making the reader remember these words as definite and most important.” Why are these particular words important? Why would Tennyson want the number “six hundred” to be remembered by the reader? What is it about six hundred that is striking? This analysis and the evaluative “why” would open the essay up for a deeper consideration of meaning; the writer does often say “this may be /this could be” (such as when discussing the rhythm and structure of the three poems), showing that he has considered a range of interpretations. To extend this he could evaluate which interpretation seems the most likely given other poetic devices, and compare the importance of different devices used. Comparison between texts is done throughout; such intertextuality meets expectations for written work at A Level as it shows that the writer doesn't just consider a poem as a static text within a literary vacuum. The conclusion is appropriate and concurs with the introduction and the main body of the essay, and the writer both summarises and adds an extra element of final comparative analysis to the essay, which is good; a conclusion should not just summarise the main points of an essay, but bring the points together in a new way.

The writer focuses throughout on poetic skills, making references to metaphors, onomatopoeia and other devices used by Tennyson. In the first two paragraphs his response is extremely explicit, as he simply lists different poetic devices. To an extent this is a good guide for the reader as to what is to be discussed, but it feels more like a long list of generic skills that a poet can use to emphasis a point, which isn't focused enough on Tennyson and the three poems at hand.