Poetry Synthesis Essay
Poetry can be used as a way of transforming experience and emotions into words, which often details personal and intimate feelings that allow the reader to have a taste of what the poet felt in that vulnerable moment. However, being a poet often means your work is published and open to the scrutiny and opinions of the public. Thereby turning a once personal experience into a public spectacle. This can either unify reader and author in the comfort that someone else has gone through the same experiences you have, such as In Memoriam by Tennyson, or it could polarise readers and expose truths that both reader and poet didn’t expect to manifest. Poetry can also be used as a tool to gain reactions from the public in the hopes of inciting social
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‘119’ mimics that of a romantic poem, it focuses on the subject’s physical features, such as eyes, lips and hands. Subjects similar to John Clare’s ‘First Love’ and Lord Byron’s ‘She Walks in Beauty’, which both address female love interests. For example, this focus on physical features can be seen in the final stanza of ‘119’, “thy lips are bland”, “the friendship of thine eye”, and “I take the pressure of thine hand”. This use of language could therefore cause readers speculate on the possible homoerotic nature of Tennyson and Hallam’s relationship, which is one of risks of making poetry public, as it’s true intentions and meaning can be misconstrued. This focus on the typically romantic features of the human body can be seen through the use of the “heart”, which is often a symbol of love, throughout Tennyson’s poems, for example, the heart is mentioned in poems ‘19’, ‘50’, ‘95’, and of course ‘119’. He often describes it as though it’s in anguish or no longer beating, for example, in ‘95’ “a hunger seized my heart” (Tennyson, p.1002, line 21), and in ‘119’ “where my heart used to beat so quickly” (Tennyson, p.1003, lines 1-2). This could imply that Hallam had Tennyson’s heart and love, and when he died, a little bit of Tennyson’s died with him. As a result of publishing such emotive and personal poems about his grief, Tennyson opened himself up to the scrutiny of not only his work, but also his
‘119’ mimics that of a romantic poem, it focuses on the subject’s physical features, such as eyes, lips and hands. Subjects similar to John Clare’s ‘First Love’ and Lord Byron’s ‘She Walks in Beauty’, which both address female love interests. For example, this focus on physical features can be seen in the final stanza of ‘119’, “thy lips are bland”, “the friendship of thine eye”, and “I take the pressure of thine hand”. This use of language could therefore cause readers speculate on the possible homoerotic nature of Tennyson and Hallam’s relationship, which is one of risks of making poetry public, as it’s true intentions and meaning can be misconstrued. This focus on the typically romantic features of the human body can be seen through the use of the “heart”, which is often a symbol of love, throughout Tennyson’s poems, for example, the heart is mentioned in poems ‘19’, ‘50’, ‘95’, and of course ‘119’. He often describes it as though it’s in anguish or no longer beating, for example, in ‘95’ “a hunger seized my heart” (Tennyson, p.1002, line 21), and in ‘119’ “where my heart used to beat so quickly” (Tennyson, p.1003, lines 1-2). This could imply that Hallam had Tennyson’s heart and love, and when he died, a little bit of Tennyson’s died with him. As a result of publishing such emotive and personal poems about his grief, Tennyson opened himself up to the scrutiny of not only his work, but also his