Write about the views of nature in Tennyson's The Princess.
Write about the views of nature in Tennyson’s The Princess.
Talk about nature as renewal, immortality and as a temporary beauty and anything else you see fit.
Also write one paragraph on Rick’s interpretation of The Princess and another critic at the end of the essay.
Nature in Tennyson’s The Princess is presented to us in a variety of guises, each different but similar to the one seen in the previous verse. Nature is seen as a variety of things in the verses of The Princess, as being strong, beautiful, immortal, comforting and much more. In this essay I hope to convey the diversity and disposition of nature as shown by Tennyson in his poem The Princess.
In the verse ‘Sweet and Low’ it is ambiguous as to whether Tennyson is separated from him child by distance, or by mortality ‘sleep and rest, sleep and rest’ he tells his child ‘father will come to thee soon’. Now either way, the ‘Wind of the Western sea’ is comforting to Tennyson here, as it is this wind that is blowing him towards his child. So nature represented by the wind comforts the poet, as it is nature that will eventually take him back to his child. Notice also that a simple rhythmic ABAB rhyme transforms the verse into a lullaby, which of course is used by parents to comfort their children, and which Tennyson here uses to comfort his child be he dead or alive. This poem incidentally contrasts greatly with ‘Break Break Break’ where nature is uncaring and unmindful to Tennyson’s loss, breaking relentlessly against the rocks. So the verse ‘Sweet and Low’ could be used as an example of nature being a comfort to Tennyson.