To the Queen (1851)

To the Queen (1851)

Revered, beloved–O you that hold
A nobler office upon earth
Than arms, or power of brain, or birth
Could give the warrior kings of old,

Victoria,–since your Royal grace
To one of less desert allows
This laurel greener from the brows
Of him that utter’d nothing base;

And should your greatness, and the care
That yokes with empire, yield you time
To make demand of modern rhyme
If aught of ancient worth be there;

Then–while a sweeter music wakes,
And thro’ wild March the throstle calls,
Where all about your palace-walls
The sun-lit almond-blossom shakes–

Take, Madam, this poor book of song;
For tho’ the faults were thick as dust
In vacant chambers, I could trust
Your kindness. May you rule us long,

And leave us rulers of your blood
As noble till the latest day!
May children of our children say,
‘She wrought her people lasting good;

‘Her court was pure; her life serene;
God gave her peace; her land reposed;
A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen:

‘And statesmen at her council met
Who knew the seasons when to take
Occasion by the hand, and make
The bounds of freedom wider yet

‘By shaping some august decree
Which kept her throne unshaken still,
Broad-based upon her people’s will,
And compass’d by the inviolate sea.’

Source: http://home.att.net/%7ETennysonPoetry/ttq.htm

This paper is going to be focused on the analysis of the poem “To the Queen” by Tennyson, who was awarded in 1850 as Poet Laureate; this prize recognized him as the most popular poet of the Victorian Era. (Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate).What it is important to highlight is that Tennyson was between the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites, so it is a mid-Victorian poet; that’s the reason why he is compromised with the middle-class morality of the time (Tennyson, Victorian Web). The poet laureate is responsible for composing poems for court and national occasions. At the time of each laureate's death, it is the duty of the Prime Minister to nominate successors from which the reigning sovereign will choose (English Poet Laureates).

The next step is to comment and contextualize his work. This poem belongs to the Victorian period, i.e., the period that Queen Victoria reigned in England, from 1837 to 1901 (Life of Queen Victoria, Ilana Miller).The main characteristics of this period are: an important interest in all related with science especially with nature because of the publication On the Origin of Species in 1859 by Charles Darwin. Another field can be the philosophical thinking with non-fiction works. Religion was another important thing but instead of writing about it in a formal way, the authors criticized it.

To begin with the analysis of the poem, it is important to say that the poem has 9 stanzas of 8 syllables each verse and the verses rhyme the 1st with the 4^th and the 2^nd with the 3^rd whose structure is the following: nine quatrains; a-b-b-a, c-d-d-c, e-d-d-e, f-g-g-f, h-i-i-h, …

Tennyson starts addressing the poem to the Queen because of the start –“O you that…”With the words “power of brain, or birth, beloved and revered” the author wants to highlight the Queen’s work in order to name her as the most important person in the Era. In the 2^nd stanza, we observe that the author is again addressing the Queen to thank her for the prize he was given as a laureate poet, as he states in verse 7^th, “This laurel greener…”. Furthermore, Tennyson, in the 3^rd stanza, is praising the English Empire and Queen Victoria for the prize as the following words state, “your greatness” in the 9^th verse, “yokes with empire”, 10^th verse. The 4^th stanza is trying to define the atmosphere in which the Queen is involved every day in this March when the spring comes to earth to make it as beautiful as the Queen is. In the 5^th stanza, we observe that Tennyson is offering his book to the Queen as a sign of gratefulness: “Take, Madam this poor book of song” 17^th verse, and the author also is telling her “I could trust your kindness”19^th and 20^th verses, and is asking her to reign much more time, as this words say; “May you rule as long” in the 20^th verse.

Tennyson wishes her dynasty to continue; that’s the reason why the author says in the 6^th stanza, 21^st verse, “And leave us rulers of your blood…”Also in the same stanza Tennyson asserts that the Queen motivates people to be everlasting good as he says “She wrought her people lasting good” in verse 24.

It is important to highlight that Tennyson sees the Queen as a divine superior person, as if God had provided her with power to rule, as the 7^th stanza states; “Her court was pure, her life serene; God gave her peace”. In addition to this, the author wants to worship the Queen by making an enumeration, seeing her as “good Mother, a good Wife and a good Queen” as the 28^th and 29^th verses point out.

The 8^th and 9^th stanzas should be analysed together because both refer to the Queen’s goodness towards her people and her capability to rule statesmen and the council.

She is seen as a fair strong and everlasting Queen England has never had before and Tennyson expresses his hope to make her throne eternal as he says in verse 34 “which kept her throne unshaken still”. Queen Victoria is also thought to provide freedom to her kingdom’s inhabitants and conscious of their opinions when she has to shape a new decree as the words “broad-based upon her people’s will” that are stated in the 35^th verse when referring to line 33 “by shaping some august decree”.

Tennyson’s reward as conforming to the Victorian ideal of the poet, was the laureateship as Wordsworth’s successor. When he became laureate he was forced to find a more comprehensive and inclusive point of view for the official poems to make his poetry much more interesting and powerful (Tennyson, Biography). It is not a good idea to suggest immortality through fame, of course, but Tennyson gives it quite a special emphasis in the poem we are analysing when he asks for an eternal rule for Queen Victoria.

Like most modern comic poets, Tennyson almost always tried to show his ideal of social unit as the family, not the nation. That’s why he shows us in the poem “To the Queen”, in verses 33 to 36, that people trust, love and worship her as if she were a normal person or even a member of their family.

To conclude this essay, I think that Tennyson wanted to be exempt of taxes, having a privileged place in the English Court and in society and, of course to be a well-known writer around the world, but he probably admired the Queen for her gift to make a normal poet to become laureate and important forever.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

·Poet Laureates, Cool Fire Technology, 2004

http://www.cftech.com/BrainBank/OTHERREFERENCE/LITERATURE/PoetLaurt.html

21.04.06

·Victorian literature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, 2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_literaure

20.02.06

·Victorian morality – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, 2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_morality 15.02.06

·Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Brief Biography, Glenn Everett, 2004

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/tennybio.html 19.02.06

·Anglicanism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, 2006