Maud and other poems
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''Maud, and Other Poems'' (1855) was
Alfred Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...
's first published collection after becoming
poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...
in 1850. Among the "other poems" was "
The Charge of the Light Brigade The Charge of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan had intended to s ...
", which had already been published in the ''
Examiner Examiner or The Examiner may refer to: Occupations * Bank examiner, a kind of auditor * Examiner (Roman Catholicism), a type of office in the Roman Catholic Church * Examinership, a concept in Irish law * Medical examiner * Patent examiner * Tr ...
'' a few months earlier.


Contents

* Maud * The Brook; An Idyl * The Letters * Ode on the Death of the
Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...
* The Daisy * To the Rev.
F. D. Maurice John Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872), known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since the Second World War, interest in Maurice has expanded."Fre ...
* Will *
The Charge of the Light Brigade The Charge of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan had intended to s ...


"Maud"

The poem was inspired by Charlotte Rosa Baring, younger daughter of William Baring (1779–1820) and Frances Poulett-Thomson (d. 1877). Frances Baring married, secondly, Arthur Eden (1793–1874), Assistant-Comptroller of the Exchequer, and they lived at Harrington Hall, Spilsby, Lincolnshire, which is the garden of the poem (also referred to as "the Eden where she dwelt" in Tennyson's poem "The Gardener's Daughter").


Narrative

The first part of the poem dwells on the funeral of the protagonist's father, and a feeling of loss and lament prevails; then Maud is the prevailing theme. At first the narrator is somewhat antagonistic towards Maud and is unsure whether she is teasing him; he feels Maud is unfit to be a wife. Later the narrator falls passionately in love with Maud and this transforms the narrative into a pastoral, dwelling on her beauty. The appearance of Maud's brother causes conflict. Maud's brother favours a collier who is seen as an upstart as his family have been rich for only three generations, and forbids Maud to contact the narrator. The brother goes to London for a week, giving the narrator a chance to court Maud, but on his return he arranges a ball, invites the collier and leaves the narrator out. During the ball the poet waits for Maud in the garden, leading to the famous line "Come into the garden, Maud". Early in the morning Maud comes out. Shortly afterwards Maud's brother also appears and strikes the narrator, who kills him in an unnarrated
duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...
. The narrator is forced to flee to France where he learns later that Maud has also died. Maud's death impacts on the psychological state of the protagonist, and an emotional longing for contact with the deceased echoes the tones of '' In Memoriam''. The distressed narrator loses his sanity for a while and imagines that he himself is dead. The poem ends in Part III, with the narrator, ostensibly restored to sanity, leaving to fight in the
Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
; parallels may be drawn between the death of Maud's brother, and the apparently justified killing of soldiers in war.


Interpretation

The interpretation of "Maud" is complicated by the compromised position and the emotional instability of the narrator. This is expressed through a variety of poetic meters and forms as well as a proto-cinematic cycling of imagery. The puzzle of the outside sphere of "Maud", for example, the point of view of Maud herself, remains unresolved. The poem is a distorted view of a single reality, and the variation in meter can be seen to reflect the manic-depressive emotional tone of the speaker. While the poem was Tennyson's own favourite (he was known very willingly to have recited the poem in its entirety on social occasions), it was met with much criticism in contemporary circles. In "Maud", Tennyson returns to the poetry of sensation, and dwells on a consciousness constituted of fragments of feeling. He deliberately denies an autonomous voice, and the ending is deeply
ironic Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...
. The complex of feeling is ephemeral, and the culmination of these feelings ends in the unsatisfactory conclusion of the Crimean War. Tennyson is expressing the feelings of an age where identity, intellect and modernity were contentious issues. He does not offer a clear, linear answer. The
chivalric Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is an informal and varying code of conduct developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It was associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood; knights' and gentlemen's behaviours were governed by ...
style of the love-poem is combined with a contemporary cynicism, and so the Victorian tendency to look to remote cultures (here, medievalism) is insufficient. The interweaving of death and life images gives expression to the greater concern for the afterlife, and the movement of the human race into a different age from past monuments.


See also

*
Michael William Balfe Michael William Balfe (15 May 1808 – 20 October 1870) was an Irish composer, best remembered for his operas, especially ''The Bohemian Girl''. After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to co ...
, who set "Come into the garden, Maud" to music *
Marie Lloyd Matilda Alice Victoria Wood (12 February 1870 – 7 October 1922), professionally known as Marie Lloyd (), was an English music hall singer, comedian and musical theatre actress. She was best known for her performances of songs such as " T ...
, who sang "Come into the garden, Maud"


References


Bibliography

* Balfe, Michael William. ''Come into the Garden, Maud: A Cavatina''. London: Boosey & Sons, 1857. * Bennett, James R. "The Historical Abuse of Literature: Tennyson's 'Maud: A Monodrama' and the Crimean War". ''English Studies'' 62 (1981): 34–45 * Bennett, James R. "Maud, Part II: Maud's Battle-Song". ''Victorian Poetry'' 18 (1980): 35–49. * Bristow, Joseph. “Nation, Class, and Gender: Tennyson’s ‘Maud’ and War". ''Genders'' 9 (1990): 93–111. * Dransfield, Scott. “The Morbid Meters of Maud". ''Victorian Poetry'' 46.3 (2008). 279–297. * Inglesfield, Robert. "Tennyson's 'Come into the Garden, Maud' and the Song of Solomon". ''Victorian Poetry'' 37.1 (1999): 121–123. * Jalili, Duraid. "Lamenting Maud's Worth Becoming Maud" ''Crrritic!''. Ed. John Schad and Oliver Tearle. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2011. 232–250. * Markovits, Stefanie
"Giving Voice to the Crimean War: Tennyson's 'Charge' and Maud's Battle-song"
''Victorian Poetry'' 47.3 (2009): 481–504. * Rader, Ralph W. ''Tennyson's Maud: The Biographical Genesis''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963. * Shepherd, Richard Herne. "The Genesis of Tennyson’s 'Maud. ''The North American Review'' 139.335 (Oct 1884). 356–361. * Shires, Linda M. "Maud, Masculinity and Poetic Identity". ''Criticism'' XXIX.3 (Summer 1987). 269–290. * Smith, Goldwin. "The War Passages in Maud". ''Saturday Review'' 1 (Nov 1855). 14–15. Reprinted in ''Tennyson, The Critical Heritage''. Ed. John Jump. London: Routledge, 1967. 186-90. * Somervell, Arthur. ''Cycle of Songs from Tennyson's Maud''. London: Boosey & Co, 1898. * Tucker, Herbert F. "Maud and the Doom of Culture". ''Critical Essays on Alfred Lord Tennyson''. Ed. Herbert F. Tucker. New York: G. K. Hall, 1993. 174–194 * Vanden Bossche, Chris R. "Realism versus Romance: The War of Cultural Codes in Tennyons' "Maud. ''Victorian Poetry'' 24 (1986): 69–82.


External links

*
''Maud, and Other Poems''
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1855.
"Maud"
(Online text of the section of "Maud" starting "Come into the Garden Maud")
"Webster Booth – 'Come Into the Garden, Maud"
(Video of the song) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maud And Other Poems 1855 poems Poetry by Alfred, Lord Tennyson