What is indicated by the fact that Arthur did not die, but was taken away by the three Queens?
What is indicated by the uncertainty of Bedivere and even of Arthur himself as to where he was going and whether he would ever return?
Show how the "war between Sense and Soul" is manifest in the war between the King and his enemies; in the struggle of Bedivere between obedience and disobedience; and in the conversation of Arthur and Bedivere as the barge is coming.
FORM.--Compare the meter of the part of the poem published in 1842 (ll. 170-440), with that of _Gareth and Lynette_ published in 1872, to note the difference in the poet's variations from the normal line, and, in general, the difference in effect.
Compare this Idyll with the other two in respect to language, beauty of description, etc. Study especially such passages as ll. 95-117, 129-135, 349-360. Find others worthy to be learned for their sentiment or beauty of description.
THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE AUTHOR.--What do we know of Tennyson's parentage? his boyhood? his early love of poetry? his favorite poets? his college life? his employment after leaving college? his early volumes of poems? the importance of his 1842 volume? the significance to him of the death of Arthur Henry Hallam? the three principal events of his life in 1850? his great and continued popularity? the honors conferred upon him? his two estates? his peaceful death?
Did Tennyson ever pursue any profession other than that of a poet? Did he write prose literature? Did he hold public office? Compare him with other famous poets in each of these three particulars.
Point out, by reference to his best known poems, Tennyson's three successive impulses: æsthetic, personal and religious, social and patriotic. (See Introduction to _Idylls of the King_ pp. 11-15.) Show how all these are blended together in the _Idylls of the King_. Was he equally successful in all the kinds of poetry that he undertook? Discriminate.
What three successive attempts did Tennyson make with the Arthurian legends? in what periods of his poetic development?
The lyric is a poem which voices the personal feeling, sentiment, or passion of the poet. The poet's feelings are the feelings of human nature, but purified and intensified by his genius. So they are as varied as human nature, but nobler and more beautiful. Lyric poetry, then, appeals to our various moods and often expresses that of which we have been vaguely conscious in ourselves. Sometimes, too, it inspires us to nobler and purer feeling and to higher conceptions of life.