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"THE SPLENDOR FALLS ON CASTLE WALLS" (ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON).
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Critiques poem's lyrics, music, rhyme, meaning, theme of death & eternal life.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Critiques poem's lyrics, music, rhyme, meaning, theme of death & eternal life.

Paper Introduction:
OUTLINE I. Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Splendor Falls on Castle Walls" uses elements of song (lyrics), music, and rhyme to convey the suggestion or feeling that human life seems to end with death, but in fact continues through the "echoes" of love and longing shared by individuals. A. The use of the bugle as the central image gives the poem a musical basis, for the bugle denotes both death, as in "Taps," and the longing of the living to remain connected to the dead. II. The poem qualifies as a song in its brevity, its expression of the feelings or thoughts of an individual speaker, and in the absence of narrative. The song conveys a mood or feeling rather than a story, and gives to the reader not a philosophical

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The poem, then, can be seen as a product of song and music emanatingfrom nature through the human mind and senses. The lyrics of this poemexpress feelings and thoughts having to do with the transitory nature oflife and with the speaker's sense that despite this transitoriness there issomething which remains, which is shared by human beings, not only in thislife but in eternity. The music and rhyme of the poem are intertwined, as James Kissanewrites: "An examination of the three forms of the refrain in the famous"Bugle Song" . The use of the bugle as the central image gives the poem a musical basis, for the bugle denotes both death, as in "Taps," and the longing of the living to remain connected to the dead.II. In thissense, the bugle signifies the speaker's recognition that all human life istemporary. Life does inevitably lead todeath, the speaker acknowledges, but death itself is transcended in thecontinuity of the "echoes" of human life which survive that life in thelove and longing individuals share as they pass their time in nature. OUTLINEI. . . The song conveys a mood or feeling rather than a story, andgives to the reader not a philosophical statement but a series of images inword which come together to form that feeling, specifically about thetransitoriness, poignancy, and at the same time the continuity of humanlife in some form.III. The presence of the bugle, in fact, the central role of thatinstrument in the poem, suggests that, indeed, the poem is to be heard as alyrical work, a song, without, of course, accompanying music in the literalsense. In this case, sense is not so muchthought as it is feeling. However, whatever human beings do--build castles, blow bugles, love--in the end all is "dying, dying, dying."Again, however, the optimism of "our echoes roll[ing] from soul to soul"suggests some form of eternal survival. A "song," says J.A. These rhymes and the music they create show Tennyson's "fondness forrepetition" (Kissane 33), but more importantly they show the intimateconnection between song and sense. Tennyson effectively creates a realm in which the poem uniteswith the speaker's emotions and thoughts and produces a consciousness ofthe transcendent qualities of humanity in time and nature. reveals the intimacy with which Tennyson could combinereiteration and variation" (Kissane 33). The rhyme scheme of the poem is abcbdd abcbdd abcbdd, although theoff-rhyme of "river" and "ever" in the third stanza deviates somewhat. Or,considering the fact that the speaker addresses a "love" and uses thepronoun "our," could it simply be that Tennyson is saying the love we giveto one another survives and moves from individual to individual. Cuddon, is the designation used to denote such apoem and "distinguish it from narrative or dramatic verse of any kind"(Cuddon 372). Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying (Tennyson, lines 13- 18). "The Splendor Falls on Castle Walls."----------------------- 7 In other words, Tennyson's poem can be called a song in thatit does not tell a story or present dramatic events. The argument of the study will be that Tennyson's useof these literary devices successfully conveys the conclusion that there isboth a dying and an eternal life at work in both nature and in the life ofhuman beings. The poem certainly has its religious elements, or at least wordswhich suggest transcendence--"splendor," "glory," "soul to soul." The poem,then, is not pessimistic, although its three stanzas each end with thewords "dying, dying, dying." The speaker accepts death as the end of humanlife in the natural world, but confidently suggests that after death theessence of life and love remain and pass from soul to soul. representingthe longing of the living for eternal connection with the dead: O love, they die in yon rich sky, They faint on hill or field or river; Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow for ever and for ever. Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying, Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.... Tennyson wants the reader totake his or her time reading the poem, just as the speaker is entering asense of the vastness of nature, the timelessness of the mysteries beingscrutinized. A. These musical and literary elements createan organization and an internal unity in the work which connect with theperceived organization and unity in nature. Reading the poem aloud makes the reader aware that the poet has madeit difficult to read the work quickly, forcing one to take up that slowchant or march through the lines. This study will critique Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The SplendorFalls on Castle Walls," also known as "Bugle Song," focusing on the lyrics,music, and rhyme, and the ways these elements suggest and support themeaning of the poem. The lyrical and musicalelements are used to produce a poem which is, in fact, one of those"echoes" of love and longing and faith in some sort of transcendence. Alfred Tennyson. The comparisonbetween "castle walls" and "snowy summits old in story" suggests aconnection between the world of humanity and the world on nature, bothrecipients of the "splendor" of falling light which might symbolize thebeneficence of God. The poem is not necessarily philosophical, but it is concerned withmortality, with the place of humanity in the world and in nature, and withthe question if not the fact of immortality. Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Splendor Falls on Castle Walls" useselements of song (lyrics), music, and rhyme to convey the suggestion orfeeling that human life seems to end with death, but in fact continuesthrough the "echoes" of love and longing shared by individuals. . New York: Penguin, 1979.Kissane, James. In fact, Tennyson clearly means to offer a contradiction, theapparently irreconcilable paradox of life which dies, and yet continues"for ever and for ever." Could he be writing about reincarnation? A Dictionary of Literary Terms. Boston: Twayne, 197 .Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. Instead, it createsimages and a mood which flows those images through the use of words, rhymeand music in the poetic sense. The internal rhymes of "falls"and "walls," "shakes" and "wakes," "hear" and "clear," "far" and "scar,""die" and "sky," and "grow" and "blow" all add to the sense of music andsong in the poem. Again, as with the lyrics and the music, Tennyson's use of rhymesupports the "sense" of the poem, or the suggestion and feeling that thereis indeed a structure and a significance behind the sometimes random-appearing nature of human life. However, the bugle played in such a vast natural setting asdescribed by the poem also brings echoes of the notes played. Kissane refers to the followinglines: Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.... Works CitedCuddon, J.A. The sounds of the bugle are significant because thisinstrument is used to express the poignancy and sorrow of life, as in"Taps," especially with respect to the death of an individual. Clearly, these lines are open to various interpretations, as is thewhole poem. The poem qualifies as a song in its brevity, its expression of thefeelings or thoughts of an individual speaker, and in the absence ofnarrative. in apersonal and subjective fashion" (Cuddon 372). One imagines the speaker sitting on a high rock overlooking agreat landscape of mountains, lakes, waterfalls (cataracts), valleys(glens), and sky, and the poem rising to his mind and lips as if beingtransmitted to him by the grand natural rhythms and music of nature. . Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. The "castle walls" also might represent humanenterprise, especially in terms of human effort to stave off threats to itsexistence, especially death. Inaddition, one might argue for the off-rhyme of "clear" and "scar" in thefirst and third lines of the second stanza. The music and rhyme of the poem unite to help create the sense that inthe subjects under scrutiny--human life and death, the natural world, andsome form of transcendence--there exists a structure and an organization.IV. "Elfland" suggests again a human-natureconnection and a realm where creatures exist which are both human-like andyet fully a part of the natural world. Even with the optimistic image of "our echoes"(of love?) rolling from soul to soul forever, the "sense" of the poem is aprofound sadness, emphasized by the refrain "dying, dying, dying." The almost chant-like rhythms of the lines create a stately music, asif the words were marching slowly to the mournful call and echo of thebugle. The poem merely presents a portrait of anatural setting which is punctuated by the sounds of a bugle (representingthe presence of humanity, its longings and its losses) which are in turnreflected back from nature in echoes which reverberate through eternityfrom "soul to soul." The poem qualifies as a lyric as well in its brevity and in the factthat it "expresses the feelings and thoughts of a single speaker . Given these contradictions, or mysteries, it seems likely thatTennyson wanted the poem to give to the reader an irrational, or at leastnon-rational, intuitive sense of life and death, rather than a rationalphilosophical or religious system of thought.

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