Write on the Treatment of Nature in Tennyson’s Poetry

Alfred Tennyson was a great English poet of the nineteenth century. One of the factors that lie at the root of his greatness is his treatment of nature. His treatment of nature is characterized by realism and accuracy. He describes natural scenery as setting of his poem and as an aid to heighten a mood or feelings.

‘The Lotos Eaters’ is a noted poem by Tennyson. In it the poet tries to convey the mood of lethargy and drowsiness. The poem is about the feelings of a group of soldiers who are returning home with their leader Ulysses after the war of Troy. They come to a land where its inhabitants eat a fruit called lotos and lead a life of melancholy. The poet describes the landscape as a reflection of this mood. There ‘it seemed always afternoon’. In this poem the poet shows his skill in describing nature. He marks every detail of a wood, its trees, fruits, flowers and the colour they assume in different parts of the year. Such description provides setting of the poem adorns the piece and helps to reflect the feelings. It appears that the whole poem is a painted picture. But it is more than a picture. It is a speaking picture. Here the description of nature more detailed. It creates monotony in the reader’s mind. But the poet’s intention is to make such a feeling in the reader’s mind.

Similarly, in ‘Locksley Hall’, he describes great Orion, the curlew and the moor land to give an impression that Locksley Hall stands in the lap of nature. The poet excellently describes the beauty of nature in the following lines:

‘In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast

In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets another crest..’

The poet seems to say that the rejuvenation of spring itself arouses love in the heart of the speaker and his cousin Amy. This same sense of the interaction between man and nature is evident in ‘The Lotos Eater’. The lotos fruit, itself an object of nature, intoxicates the sailors. The mariners are so much impressed by the beauty of the island that they intend to stop their journey and live in the island permanently. The poet here very skillfully portrays the beauty of nature with a few words, such as ‘A land of streams’, ‘a slumberous sheet of foam’, ‘the charmed sunset’ etc.

Thus, we see that as a poet of nature Tennyson has distinctness. In photographic portrayal of nature he is almost unsurpassed. For delineating nature with all of its aspects and decorating his poetry with lovely descriptions of nature his poetry has a universal appeal.