Compare the first (“‘Courage!’ he said, and pointed towards the land”) and last line (“Oh rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more.”) and decide which attitude typified imperial England in 1833. Is the poem forward or backward looking?
The first line of the poem “’Courage!’ he said, and pointed towards the land,” is indeed typical of imperial England and looks forward in many respects. It looks forward as if going into battle. Soldiers of imperial England would have been proud to go into battle. Yet courage can also lead to pride which is a theme running through much of Tennyson’s work predicting the fall of the British Empire.
In contrast the last line of the poem “Oh rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more,” is contradictory to the statement of typical imperial England. In 1833 the British Empire was at its height with new discoveries everyday. Metaphorically though, this last line of the poem represents an end to exploration. This line is saying the growth of England is stunted and will not move forward. However, it could be conceived as forward looking but in a negative light because it could be seen as a prediction of the fall of the British Empire.