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User Rating:
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7.4
/10
(44 votes)
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Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
Thy tribute wave deliver:
No more by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.
Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
A rivulet then a river;
No where by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.
But here will sigh thine alder tree,
And here thine aspen shiver;
And here by thee will hum the bee,
For ever and for ever.
A thousand suns will stream on thee,
A thousand moons will quiver;
But not by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
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Friday, January 03, 2003 |
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Read poems about / on: river, tree, sea, farewell
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Comments about this poem (A Farewell
by
Alfred Lord Tennyson
) |
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Kevin Straw (2/17/2011 1:21:00 PM)
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This poem is not to anyone! It is about the Poet feeling his mortality - he compares his limited time on earth with nature's apparent eternality. But for a Christian, as Tennyson was, the reverse is true: the bee is mortal, but he immortal. The bee will die; the trees will fall - even the seas will run dry. But T will go on forever in Heaven, hopefully.
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Joey Valenzuela (2/17/2010 9:21:00 PM)
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this poems is all about farewell...obviously...
but.....a farewell to who? ? ?
i think this is a farewell to a lover...
because if you read every 3rd and 4th lines in all the stanzes, you will find out that the narrator don't want to see the narratee anymore.....
1st
No more by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.
2nd
No where by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.
3rd
And here by thee will hum the bee,
For ever and for ever.
4th
But not by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.
then....
Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
Thy tribute wave deliver:
*********this obviously tells the narratee to go...away...
sea signifies the world..the open world where narratee will be meeting another environment, the salt sea, another man/lover, , , , ,
Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
A rivulet then a river;
*********it came to my mind.....its likely that the narrator is talking about the rain....that flows first on the grasses...lawn and lea...before reaching the river...rivulet.........a rain that passes by like a lover....
But here will sigh thine alder tree,
And here thine aspen shiver;
*********thine is the old english for 'your'...therefore: but here will sigh 'your' alder tree....
and here 'your tree' shiver.....
the tree signifies the left lover...the narrator....he was depressed (though he promised not to be with her again) and there he sighed...sigh signifies sadness/desperation....
A thousand suns will stream on thee,
A thousand moons will quiver;
**********this lines means that there would be a thousand lover for the narratee...suns and moons signifies lover(s) ...
******and soppurted
But not by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.
******he can't be with her again.....
this poem is not that hard to comprehend....for me....hehe
hope to make sense....
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John Oconnell (2/17/2010 5:02:00 PM)
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my and maybe everyones ideal death.
john
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Terence George Craddock (2/17/2010 10:48:00 AM)
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Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
Thy tribute wave deliver:
No more by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.
These are absolutely magical lines, with the beauty of the stream as a 'cold rivulet' delivering its wave tribute to the sea. But it raises a concern, the beautiful majestic alder and aspen will not be 'For ever and for ever', unless a genuine global environmental policy is soon enforced. The Amazon and third world rain forest is now being earth raped daily.
Should poets not be writing some poems now with a focus upon the concerns of this age? I wrote Bubbling Brook following the flow of a stream with a nuclear concern. Children Of Dust despite the persona, and Illegal Logging are both relative to issues today, or a farewell to a vast natural beauty is upon us. Voices are needed now.
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JOSEPH POEWHIT (2/17/2010 2:16:00 AM)
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Reminded me of Poem hunter. With all the poets like bee's, working in minuteness, making their poems. Flowing into the stream and ocean of the world for the growing of the tree.
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Ramesh T A (2/17/2010 1:30:00 AM)
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Rivulets becoming river move on benefiting lawn and trees and mingle with the sea. Before their wave movement it is not possible to make our steps at par indeed says Tennyson enjoying their incompatibility! Technically a nice poem to read!
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Marieta Maglas (8/2/2009 12:15:00 PM)
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wonderful anaphora:
''by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.''
well embedded into this lovely poem, belonging to our dearest poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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Himaya Marinas (2/17/2009 7:10:00 PM)
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A FAREWELL what a sad word, saying goodbye is the hardest thing to do.
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Michael Pruchnicki (2/17/2009 1:01:00 PM)
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I'd congratulate the poet on his skill; that is to write a poem which uses rhyme and rhythm to enhance his metaphor of life as a river and to suggest in his choice of words the gentle flow of the river as it winds its way to the sea. Tennyson's apostrophe to the stream that nourishes the majestic alder and aspen trees that line its banks will stand long after the short-lived mortal who muses so eloquently on his own mortality. The earth and heavens will endure forever, as the last line of each quatrain explicitly repeats in a verbal repetition, lingering long after in the reader's mind, as gentle as the quiet and peace of the everlasting!
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Kevin Straw (2/17/2009 6:00:00 AM)
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What I like is this poem's sheer professionalism. It does what it sets out to do with a precise rhetoric. The rhythm and rhymes do not intrude on the sense of the poem, but quietly support it.
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