Song: Tears, Idle Tears Flashcards
introduction
In this poem the poet explores the universal context of loss. He does not frame it in his personal experience but rather explores the various models of loss creating a sense that the loss is universal as opposed to specific.
paragraphs
1) theme of time
2) loss of family/friends
3) loss of life/ageing
4) loss of love
paragraph 1 on theme of time
1) “idle tears” - pointless and futile. Long vowel sounds sound mournful.
2) Coupled with the mellifluous sounds of the song, this sounds like a wail. Iambic pentameter occasionally halts/stutters, as stresses not always regular. Faulting + agitated mindset.
3) “I know not what they mean” - sense of indeterminacy and uncertainty. This is a universal as opposed to specific feeling.
4) “from the depths of some divine despair” - Divine suggests an intense, deep and wonderful feeling. Contrasts with despair which suggests an absence of hope. Idea of memories as both wonderful and painful to remember.
5) “happy autumn fields” - contradiction as wither plentiful harvest or dying as go into winter. Happiness will soon decline and die. Bridge between plenitude and decline also conveying the ambiguity of memory (bittersweet).
6) “the days that are no more” - central image of the poem, becomes refrain. Represents past, revealing how passage of time is the central cause of loss.
paragraph 2 on loss of family/friends
1) “fresh as the first beam…sad as the last” - Sun used as a metaphor for the peak and decline. Sunrise = symbol of hope and by contrast sun set = symbol of loss and departure, as family and friends die.
2) “underworld” - Allusion to the Aeneid book 6, in which Aeneas visits his dead father in the underworld. This is a fantasy of loss, to be able to visit the dead without being dead yourself.
3) “sinks with all we love below the verge” - horizon is a limitary image creating the impression that once loved ones die they become out of reach and unattainable, acknowledging the fantasy of visiting the dead as impossible - tragic irrevocability. Absolute all heightens tragic effect, as creates sense of isolation and complete abandonment.
4) “so sad, so fresh” - fresh implies loss never subsides, always vivid.
paragraph 3 on loss of life/ageing
1) “dark summer dawns” - Summer suggests peak, light and happiness. Dark contrasts strongly to this, subverting the typical association of summer which creates an ominous atmosphere. Furthermore, sibilance slows down the rhythm, creating the impression of the senses dulling and becoming less vivid.
2) “half-awakened birds” - qualified state between life and death.
3) “dying ears…dying eyes” - repetition emphasises decline. Syndoche for senses failing as ageing. False dawn if body dying.
4) “glimmering square” - sun rising cruelly juxtaposed with life ending
5) “so sad, so strange” - distortion of senses
paragraph 4 on loss of love
1) “remembered kisses” - lovers who have died
2) “lips that are for others” lovers who have gone to others
3) “first love” - young and naive
4) “dear…sweet…deep” - tenderness in memories
5) “wild with all regret” - wild is extreme emotion. First short sharp word ending line (previously long elongated vowels) creates climax. Sense of abandon and crazed grief.
6) “O Death in Life” - Rising scale of drama as move through poem. Shift from beginning (placid contemplation) to end (impassioned exclamation)
conclusion
“o death in life, the days that are no more” return to theme of time in final line. Death in life seems like memories. The dead times that stay with us and burden us. All pain brought about through passage of time and its irrevocable nature. Return to idea of the beginning of the poem, showing no development or progression just an entrapping cycle of gratuitous grief.
