Analysis of Mariana In The South
Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809 – 1892
With one black shadow at its feet,
The house thro' all the level shines,
Close-latticed to the brooding heat,
And silent in its dusty vines:
A faint-blue ridge upon the right,
An empty river-bed before,
And shallows on a distant shore,
In glaring sand and inlets bright.
But "Aye Mary," made she moan,
And "Aye Mary," night and morn,
And "Ah," she sang, "to be all alone,
To live forgotten, and love forlorn."
She, as her carol sadder grew,
From brow and bosom slowly down
Thro' rosy taper fingers drew
Her streaming curls of deepest brown
To left and right, and made appear,
Still-lighted in a secret shrine,
Her melancholy eyes divine,
The home of woe without a tear.
And "Aye Mary," was her moan,
"Madonna, sad is night and morn;"
And "Ah," she sang, "to be all alone,
To live forgotten, and love forlorn."
Till all the crimson changed, and past
Into deep orange o'er the sea,
Low on her knees herself she cast,
Before Our Lady murmur'd she:
Complaining, "Mother, give me grace
To help me of my weary load."
And on the liquid mirror glow'd
The clear perfection of her face.
"Is this the form," she made her moan,
"That won his praises night and morn?"
And "Ah," she said, "but I wake alone,
I sleep forgotten, I wake forlorn."
Nor bird would sing, nor lamb would bleat,
Nor any cloud would cross the vault,
But day increased from heat to heat,
On stony drought and steaming salt;
Till now at noon she slept again,
And seem'd knee-deep in mountain grass,
And heard her native breezes pass,
And runlets babbling down the glen.
She breathed in sleep a lower moan,
And murmuring, as at night and morn
She thought, "My spirit is here alone,
Walks forgotten, and is forlorn."
Dreaming, she knew it was a dream:
She felt he was and was not there.
She woke: the babble of the stream
Fell, and, without, the steady glare
Shrank one sick willow sere and small.
The river-bed was dusty-white;
And all the furnace of the light
Struck up against the blinding wall.
She whisper'd, with a stifled moan
More inward than at night or morn,
"Sweet Mother, let me not here alone
Live forgotten and die forlorn."
And, rising, from her bosom drew
Old letters, breathing of her worth,
For "Love", they said, "must needs be true,
To what is loveliest upon earth."
An image seem'd to pass the door,
To look at her with slight, and say,
"But now thy beauty flows away,
So be alone for evermore."
"O cruel heart," she changed her tone,
"And cruel love, whose end is scorn,
Is this the end to be left alone,
To live forgotten, and die forlorn?"
But sometimes in the falling day
An image seem'd to pass the door,
To look into her eyes and say,
"But thou shalt be alone no more."
And flaming downward over all
From heat to heat the day decreased,
And slowly rounded to the east
The one black shadow from the wall.
"The day to night," she made her moan,
"The day to night, the night to morn,
And day and night I am left alone
To live forgotten, and love forlorn."
At eve a dry cicala sung,
There came a sound as of the sea;
Backward the lattice-blind she flung,
And lean'd upon the balcony.
There all in spaces rosy-bright
Large Hesper glitter'd on her tears,
And deepening thro' the silent spheres
Heaven over Heaven rose the night.
And weeping then she made her moan,
"The night comes on that knows not morn,
When I shall cease to be all alone,
To live forgotten, and love forlorn."
Scheme | ababcddcefEF ghghxiijefEF klklmnnmefef aoaopqqpefef rjrjsccsefef gtgtDuudefef uDudsvvsefeF wlwlcxxcefeF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111 01110101 1110101 01001101 01110101 11010101 0110101 0101011 1110111 0110101 011111101 110100101 11010101 11010101 11010101 01011101 11010101 11000101 0100101 01110101 0110101 01011101 011111101 110100101 11010101 011101001 11010111 011010101 01010111 11111101 01010101 01010101 11011101 11110101 011111101 110101101 11111111 11011101 11011111 11010101 11111101 01110101 01010101 01100101 11010101 010011101 111101101 10100101 10111101 11110111 11010101 10010101 1111101 01011101 01010101 11010101 11010101 11011111 110111101 10100101 01010101 11010101 11111111 1111011 11011101 11101101 11110101 1101110 11011101 01011111 110111101 110100101 10100101 11011101 11010101 11110111 01010101 11110101 01010101 0111101 01111101 01110111 010111101 110100101 11010101 11011101 10010111 01010100 11010101 11010101 010010101 101010101 01011101 01111111 111111101 110100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,916 |
Words | 642 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12 |
Lines Amount | 96 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 319 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 77 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:08 min read
- 62 Views
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"Mariana In The South" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1041/mariana-in-the-south>.
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