Unit 4- Tears Idle Tears (KKHSOU BA-PASS 1ST SEM 2023)
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Unit 4- Tears Idle Tears
2. Describe the images that Tennyson uses in the
poem to convey his sweet and sad feelings.
Ans: In the poem Tears Idle Tears the poet Tennyson
uses images very beautifully to convey his sweet and sad
feelings. The last line of the fist stanza mentions the sadness
of remembering the days that are no more. Both the occasions
are apt to bring tears to our eyes; so they are both sad and
sweet. The second stanza continues this duality in the image
of the ship that emerges before our eyes with the light of the
morning sun glittering on its sail. The recollection of the past
days can be both sweet and bitter. it is sweet to remember the
joys of the past but bitter or painful to think that it bring to our
mind a sense of loss. The image of the ship brings out this
special mixture very clearly. In the third stanza we can notice
the image of the dying man. The poet beautifully depicted the
essential duality of life and death the man is dying but the birds
are chirping and the time is dawn, the moment of the first
appearing of light in the morning sky and hence the suggestion
is that of a beginning. This way we can see the use of images
in the entire poem.
3. Tears from the depth of some divine despir/ Rise
in the heart and gather to the eyes. Explain with
reference to the context.
Ans: The above stanza has been taken from the poem
Tears Idle Tears composes by Lord Alfred Tennyson. The
poem is about the feeling of sadness but the couse of the sorrow
is difficult to define; hence the tears are “idle tears. The poet
speaks of the tears whose meaning and significance he is unable
to define or understand, They are caused by some divine despair
Man has a divine origin. The tears are perhaps due to the
invevitable death of mortal man. The sense of longing for the
poet is also futile and there is a despair which is an essential
part of human exitence. This despair may well up in our eyes
as tears but tears may also be caused by a happy moment
such as the happy Autumn fields. The above lines mentions
the sadness of remembering the days that are no more. Both
the occasions are apt to bring tears to our eyes, so they arc
both sad and sweet.
4. So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more’ what
“days” is the poet referring to?
Ans: The recollection of the past days can be both sweet
and bitter. It is sweet to remember the joys of the past but
bitter or painful to think that it brings to our mind a sense of
loss. As the poem is essentially concerned with the memory of
the past the poet appropriately compares this feeling about
bygone days to the experience one has when anticipating the
arrival of friends from afar and then seeing them sail away
beyond the horizon as they return to faraway lands. We may
also notice the meditative and conversational atmosphere and
that each stanza is connected to the previous one by the closing
phrase the days that are no more. The phrase is repeated to
remind the reader of the passing time.
So we can notice that the word day has a special emphasis
in the poem. Which specially referred the past days of sweet
and bitter memories
12. In which year was “In Memoriam” published?
Whose death is lamented in the poem?
Ans. “In Memoriam” was published in the year 185.
Tennyson’s friend Arthur Hallam’s death is lamented in the
poem.
13. What is dramatie monologue? Name a dramatic
monologue written by tennyson.
Ans. A dramatic monologue is a poetic form which consists
of a speech by a single character who reveals his inner most
thoughts and feelings to a listener. A dramatic monologue written
by Tennyson is “Maud.
14. Which period in Tennyson’s writing career is called
the Ten Years Silence’ and why?
Ans. From 1832 to 1842 these ten years are called the
Ten Years Silence’ period in Tennyson’s writing career.In
1832 he published a volume named as ‘Poems’. The volume
was received with savage criticism in the “Quarterly Review
He also suffered a great shock at the untimely death of his
friend Arthur Hallam. That is whe Tenny6son did not published
any thing in that ten years.
15. What brings tears to the poet’s eyes?
Ans. The inevitable death of mortal man brings tears to the
poet’s eyes. The sense of longing also brings tears. But a happy
moment can also brings tears to the poets’ eyes.
16. What does the poet mean by “happy Autumn
fields?
Ans. Thorugh “happy Autumn-fields” the poet wants to
Say that one feels happy to see the Autumn fields full of ripe
arvests. It signifies the beauty and splendour of the rich
harvest of Autumn fields
17. Which lines in the poem are most effective in
conveying to us the sadness of the poet?
Ans. The closing phrase of each stanza “the days that are
no more are most effective in conveying to us the sadness of
the poet.
18. What do you mean by “transferred epithet”?
Ans. “Transferred epithet” consists in the moving of an
adjective from the world to which it property belongs to another
with which it is associated such an epithet is said to be
transferred epithet.
19. “Ode to Autumn” is a poem by Keats / Shelley
Choose the right answer.
Ans. “Ode to Autumn” is a poem by Keats.
20. What does the poet mean by “Death in Life”?
Ans. Through the line “Death in life” the poet expresses
that a person’s experience that he is alive but his happy past
days are gone for ever. The poet compared the tears to these
in the eyes of the lover who remembers with joy and regret his
love affair that has ended without any hope of renewal.
21. What does the repetition of the word “tears” in
thepoem signify?
Ans. The word “tears” is very significant in the poem.
echoes the poet’s feeling of sadness that causes tears to come
to his eyes. The poet was acutely sensitive to sounds and had
the gift of appealing to our ears even more than to our senses
22. In which year was ‘In Memoriam published
Whose death is lamented in the poem?
Ans: ‘In Memoriam’ was published in 1850. Here the death
of Tennyson’s friend Arthur Hallam is lamented.
26. What do you mean by transferred epithet’?
Ans: An epithet is an adjective (or phrase containing an
adiective) or adverb, which modifies (describes) a noun. For
instance, in “dreamless sleep”, dreamless is the epithet.
In a transferred epithet (also known as hypallage; literally
“echange”) the adjective or adverb is transferred from the noun
it logically belongs with, to another one which fits it
grammatically but not logically. So in “dreamless night”,
dreamless is a transferred epithet. The exact meaning of the
sentence is “night whenI (or whoever) slept without dreaming,
since a night cannot actually dream anyway.
27. What does the poet mean by ‘happy Autumn
fields’?
Ans: The speaker states that he cries these tears while
“looking on the happy autumn-fields.” At first, it seems strange
that looking at something happy would elicit tears, but the fact
that these are fields of autumn suggests that they bear the
memories of a spring and summer that have vanished, leaving
the poet with nothing to look forward to except the dark and
cold of winter.
30. What is the effect of past memory on the poets
mind in Tears, Idle Tears’?
Ans: In the poem the poet expresses that the recollection
of the past days can be both sweet and bitter. It is sweet to
remember the joys of the past but bitter or painful to think it
brings to our mind a sense of loss. The image of the ship
brings out this mixture very clearly.The ship emerges from and
returns to the land over the horizon. As the poem is essentially
concerned with the memory of the past, the poet appropriately
compares this feeling about bygone days to the experience
one has when anticipating the arrival of friends from afar. We
can also notice the essential duality of life and death – the man
is dying but the birds are chiping and the time is dawn, the
moment of the first appearing of light in the morning sky, and
hence, the suggestion is that of a beginning. So the attended
emotions are sad and sweet, involving both death and life. Thus
memory is as deep as the first love and as wild as the passionate
sadenss that the days have become and we can do no longer
get them back.
31. What is a dramatic monologue? Name a dramatic
monologue written by Tennyson.
Ans: Dramatic monologue refers to a type of poetry. These
poems are dramatic in the sense that they have a theatrical
quality; that is, the poem is meant to be read to an audience. To
say that the poem is a monologue means that these are the
words of one solitary speaker with no dialogue coming from
any other characters.
The reason pocts cho0se to write poems like this is to express
noint of view through the words of a character. However,
e tricky part is that often the opinions stated by that character
e not the same as the views of the poet. Most of the time,
the speaker is trying to convince someone of something, and
may or may not be telling the whole truth. Sometimes what the
cpeaker does not say is just as revealing and interesting as
what he or she does say in the poem.
Ulysses is a famous dramatic monologue by Tennyson.
32. Which period in Tennyson’s writing career is
called the “Ten Years Stlence’ and why?
Ans: Tennyson began publishing poetry at an early age. In
1827 he and his two brothers published what has been called
the “mistitled” Poems by Two Brothers, and this was soon
followed by two other volumes: Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830)
and Poems (1832). Both volumes reflect the influence of the
Apostles and his intense interest in the earlier Romantic poets,
especially Shelley and Keats
After these two volumes, which received unfavorable
reviews, Tennyson did not publish anything until 1842, but during
this ten year hiatus, which has been called the “ten years
silence,” many significant events occurred, both public and
personal. His close friend Arthur Hallam died suddenly in 1833,
and Tennyson was overwhelmed with grief. Tennyson also
sufered a severe financial setback during this period.
33. How does the poet combine the two different
feelings?
Ans: The poet describes his tears as “idle,” suggesting that
they are caused by no immediate, identifiable grief. However,
his tears are simultaneously the product of a “divine despair,”
suggesting that they do indeed have a source: they “rise in the
heart” and stem from a profoundly deep and universal cause.
This paradox is complicated by the difficulty of understanding
the phrase “divine despair”: Is it God who is despairing, or is
the despair itself divine? And how can despair be divine if
Christian doctrine considers it a sin? The speaker states that
he cries these tears while “looking on the happy autumn-fields.
At first, it seems strange that looking at something happy would
elicit tears, but the fact that these are fields of autumn suggests
that they bear the memories of a spring and summer that have
vanished, leaving the poet with nothing to look forward to except
the dark and cold of winter
Thus, the poet combines two different feelings.
34. What brings tears to the poet’s eyes?
Ans: Tears come when the poet looks on autumn fields
and thinks of the days that will never come again.
The speaker sings of the baseless and inexplicable tears
that rise in his heart and pour forth from his eyes when he
looks out on the fields in autumn and thinks of the past. The
poet describes his tears as “idle,” suggesting that they are
caused by no immediate, identifiable grief. However, his tears
are simultaneously the product of a “divine despair,” suggesting
that they do indeed havea source: they “rise in the heart” and
stem from a profoundly deep and universal cause.
37. Why does Tennyson call the tears idle”?
Ans: In the opening stanza, the poet describes his tears as
“idle,” suggesting that they are caused by no immediate
identifiable grief. However, his tears are simultaneously the
product of a “divine despair,” suggesting that they do indeed
have a source: they “rise in the heart” and stem from a
profoundly deep and universal cause.
38. What does the poet mean by Death in Life’?
Ans: The image of a “Death in Life” recalls the dead friends
of the second stanza who are like submerged memories that
rise to the surlace only to sink down once again. This “Death
in Life” also recalls the experience of dying in the midst of the
rebirth of life in the morning, described in the third stanza. The
poet’s climactic exclamation in the final line thus represents a
culmination of the images developed in the previous stanzas.
39. What does the repetition of the word ‘tears’ in
the poem signify?
Ans: The tears are supposed to be “idle” and they come
from a place the speaker does not know, but tears come from
a place of deep emotion -a physiological response to acute
psychological suffering. The speaker claims that they are from
a divine source, perhaps indicating that there is a spiritual
severance that has taken place. A loss of faith now exists, and
progress is impossible. The second stanza brings with it a
mournful image of dear friends coming up from the underworld
but being cruelly returned to it once more. In the third stanza
Nature also seems aflicted with melancholia, for the “dark
summer dawns” are filled with sleepy bird sounds and death
waits in the wings. In the fourth stanza the speaker indulges in
painful memories of kisses.
So, to bring out all these sense, the word ‘tears’ is repeated.
40. Describe the development of thought in the poem.
Ans: The speaker sings of the baseless and inexplicable
tears that rise in his heart and pour forth from his eyes when
he looks out on the fields in autumn and thinks of the past. The
past, (“the days that are no more”) is described as fresh and
strange. It is as fresh as the first beam of sunlight that sparkles
on the sail of a boat bringing the dead back from the underworld,
and it is sad as the last red beam of sunlight that shines on a
boat that carries the dead down to this underworld.
