Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892 -- Friends and associates
The Nature for which Wordsworth stirred our feelings was Nature as
known by simple observation and interpreted by religious and
sympathetic intuition.
--an attitude which left Science unregarded. But, for Tennyson,
the physical world is always the world as known to us through physical
science; the scientific view of it dominates his thought about it, and
his general acceptance of this view is real and sincere, even when he
utters the intensest feeling of its inadequacy to satisfy our deepest
needs.
It is probable that what was then written is now a commonplace of letters,
and requires no emphasizing, but as a professed Student of Science, whose
life has extended over the greater part of the time which has elapsed
since "In Memoriam" was published, I welcome the opportunity of adding my
testimony in continued support of the estimate made by Professor Sidgwick
half a century ago.
It is generally admitted, and has been recently emphasized, that wherever
reference is made to facts of nature in the poems or the fringe of
Science touched on,--as it so often is,--the reference is satisfying and
the touch precise. Observers of Nature have often called attention to the
beautiful accuracy with which natural phenomena are described, with every
mark of first-hand personal experience, as distinct from merely remembered
conventional modes of expression; and the same sort of feeling is aroused
in the mind of a Student of Science as he comes across one after another
of the subjects which have kindled discussion during the Victorian
epoch,--he is inevitably struck with the clear comprehension of the
fundamental aspects of the themes treated which the poems display, he sees
that the Poet is never led into misrepresentation or sacrifice of
precision in the quest for beauty of form. The two are wedded together
"like noble music unto perfect words."
To quote examples might only be tedious, and would assuredly be
misleading. It is not that the bare facts of Science are recorded,--such
record could not constitute poetry--certainly not high poetry,--it is not
merely his acquaintance with contemporary scientific discovery, natural to
a man who numbered leading men of Science among his friends;--it is not
any of this that arouses our feeling of admiring fellowship, but it is
that with all his lordship of language and power of expression so
immensely superior to our own, he yet moves in the atmosphere of Science
not as an alien, but as an understanding and sympathetic friend.
Look back upon the epoch in which he lived--what a materialistic welter it
seems! The mind of man was going through a period of storm; antiquated
beliefs were being jettisoned and everything spiritual seemed to be going
by the board; the point of view of man was rapidly changing and the whole
of existence appeared capable of reducing itself to refined and intricate
mechanism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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