Lord Alfred Tennyson

I think all you Romantic writers are forgetting who the true juggernaut of British literature is...me! Have any of you had audiences with the Queen, eh? And William, you don’t count since weren’t you in your sixties before you were recognized? Anyways, you might be thinking that one normally doesn’t think about environmentalism when you think about Tennyson. Well, let me refer you to a couple of my poems (I wrote so many that I was bound to cover “green” issues at least once or twice).

My poem, “Break, Break, Break” really brings home the power of nature (and life), and thus reminds us humans of our role to protect and appreciate our surroundings. I think the ENGL 2252 student Ryan Trainor said it best when he described the first two lines as being an allusion to life. Ryan writes,

“The story that is told in the poem 'Break, Break, Break' by Lord Tennyson is one of both introspection as well as observation - looking both inward and outward. With the opening lines, 'Break, break, break, \ On they cold gray stones, O, Sea!’ With these fist two lines the voice of this poem references the sea's waves as they break against the sharp and stony cliffs of England. There also, in these first few lines, is an allusion to life with the waves continuous rhythmic motion symbolizing the continuality of life and the actions that constitute it” (Trainor).

Ryan speaks to how my poetry connects to the universal force running through nature and all through our lives. Maybe my poetry touches on some Buddhist philosophy (of us all being one) without me even realizing I put those parts in. Pretty sweet, huh?

“Break, Break, Break” isn’t the only poem where I speak to the importance of nature. I also use poetic devices, like similes, to elevate nature and get my readers to see things in a new light. For example in my poem, “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal”, I write,

The firefly wakens; waken thou with me.
Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me (Tennyson 1136, ll. 4-6)

Do you all see how I’m comparing the peacock to a ghost? I mean, who else has my poetic prowess? I don’t think there’s any doubt that I’m the greenest writer in British literature, plus I am also the most intelligent writer, the most prolific, the most connected, the best looking, the…