The first stanza of Tennyson's poem reeks of inanimate "intimacy" between objects. "Blackest moss" and " flower pots", "rusted nails" falling "from the knots", "Broken sheds" and "the clinking latch", the "weeded" ancient thatch. Each of these relationships are both unwanted and indicative of deterioration. The loss of Mariana is something akin to these. In the end of a relationship there is an elucidation of a beautiful space made dreadful.
Additionally it should be noted that each of these relationships is determined by stagnancy. Moss, rust, broken hinges, and weeds all stem from a lack of care for everyday things. Each of these effects of nature are rooted in a lack of synchronicity. Laying stagnant in nature is a death wish, and this stangancy is not at all foreign to Mariana.
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ReplyDeleteI think this your analysis makes a lot of sense. I think Mariana is done in by her own willful isolation, based on her assumption that she was nothing without her lover. One thing I liked about this poem was that it focused more on sound than visual imagery, and as a result I could hear a lot of the event of the poem in my head. What ideas do you have as to why he chose to focus on sound so much in this poem?
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