To remember and never forget

Essay by rozalin December 2004

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To Remember and Never Forget

(Analyzing the poem "Tears, Idle Tears" by Alfred Lord Tennyson)

"Tears, Idle Tears" is a passionate and loving poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in which the main theme refers not only to an old passion from the past, but also mentions

past pain and suffering by thinking of "the days that are no more". In this poem, Tennyson is talking about the old men thinking about their youth, in which the beloved had died. This poem does not express real sadness, but rather the desire that people experience for some thing that has passed away from them for ever. This poem is written in open form with an unrhymed pattern. There are five lines in each stanza and every single stanza closes with the phrase "the days that are no more." This poem is a lyrical poem in which the poet is thinking about the past emotionally.

He uses a literary device of assonance in this poem which is the repetition of vowel "I"; such as: idle, divine, rise, eyes, pipe, dying, wild and life. In this poem we mostly see the use of simile and metaphor.

In the first stanza Tennyson is talking about the tears that are strange and lazy, but he doesn't know what they mean. These idle tears are separated from their source and are gathered to his eyes in some way that (the tears) make him to think about the past. In fact, in Fall, when he looks out on the gorgeous, beautiful and happy fields, the tears rise in his hurt and transfer to his eyes, and that is what makes him think of the past; To "the days that are no more". The poet describes his tears as "idle tears" to suggest that...