Introduction: “Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
“Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson first appeared in 1842 in his poetry collection Poems, which marked a major milestone in his career. This dramatic monologue, spoken by a disillusioned young man, explores themes of lost love, societal constraints, personal anguish, scientific progress, and the fate of civilization. It reflects Tennyson’s characteristic blend of romantic longing and futuristic vision—seen in lines such as “For I dipt into the future far as human eye could see / Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.” The poem is rich with emotional intensity and philosophical meditation, ranging from bitterness toward a former lover, Amy, to a visionary hope for a unified global society, “the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.” These elements contributed to its widespread popularity, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries, making it a frequent selection in school textbooks. Its lyrical beauty, memorable aphorisms (e.g., “In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love”), and its sweeping reflections on love, progress, and despair ensured its pedagogical value, offering students a rich text for literary, historical, and moral analysis.
Text: “Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet ‘t is early morn:
Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the bugle-horn.
‘T is the place, and all around it, as of old, the curlews call,
Dreary gleams about the moorland flying over Locksley Hall;
Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts,
And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts.
Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest,
Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the West.
Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro’ the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.
Here about the beach I wander’d, nourishing a youth sublime
With the fairy tales of science, and the long result of Time;
When the centuries behind me like a fruitful land reposed;
When I clung to all the present for the promise that it closed:
When I dipt into the future far as human eye could see;
Saw the Vision of the world and all the wonder that would be.—
In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast;
In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;
In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove;
In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
Then her cheek was pale and thinner than should be for one so young,
And her eyes on all my motions with a mute observance hung.
And I said, “My cousin Amy, speak, and speak the truth to me,
Trust me, cousin, all the current of my being sets to thee.”
On her pallid cheek and forehead came a colour and a light,
As I have seen the rosy red flushing in the northern night.
And she turn’d—her bosom shaken with a sudden storm of sighs—
All the spirit deeply dawning in the dark of hazel eyes—
Saying, “I have hid my feelings, fearing they should do me wrong”;
Saying, “Dost thou love me, cousin?” weeping, “I have loved thee long.”
Love took up the glass of Time, and turn’d it in his glowing hands;
Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands.
Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might;
Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass’d in music out of sight.
Many a morning on the moorland did we hear the copses ring,
And her whisper throng’d my pulses with the fulness of the Spring.
Many an evening by the waters did we watch the stately ships,
And our spirits rush’d together at the touching of the lips.
O my cousin, shallow-hearted! O my Amy, mine no more!
O the dreary, dreary moorland! O the barren, barren shore!
Falser than all fancy fathoms, falser than all songs have sung,
Puppet to a father’s threat, and servile to a shrewish tongue!
Is it well to wish thee happy?—having known me—to decline
On a range of lower feelings and a narrower heart than mine!
Yet it shall be; thou shalt lower to his level day by day,
What is fine within thee growing coarse to sympathize with clay.
As the husband is, the wife is: thou art mated with a clown,
And the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down.
He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel force,
Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.
What is this? his eyes are heavy; think not they are glazed with wine.
Go to him, it is thy duty, kiss him, take his hand in thine.
It may be my lord is weary, that his brain is overwrought:
Soothe him with thy finer fancies, touch him with thy lighter thought.
He will answer to the purpose, easy things to understand—
Better thou wert dead before me, tho’ I slew thee with my hand!
Better thou and I were lying, hidden from the heart’s disgrace,
Roll’d in one another’s arms, and silent in a last embrace.
Cursed be the social wants that sin against the strength of youth!
Cursed be the social lies that warp us from the living truth!
Cursed be the sickly forms that err from honest Nature’s rule!
Cursed be the gold that gilds the straiten’d forehead of the fool!
Well—’t is well that I should bluster!—Hadst thou less unworthy proved—
Would to God—for I had loved thee more than ever wife was loved.
Am I mad, that I should cherish that which bears but bitter fruit?
I will pluck it from my bosom, tho’ my heart be at the root.
Never, tho’ my mortal summers to such length of years should come
As the many-winter’d crow that leads the clanging rookery home.
Where is comfort? in division of the records of the mind?
Can I part her from herself, and love her, as I knew her, kind?
I remember one that perish’d; sweetly did she speak and move;
Such a one do I remember, whom to look at was to love.
Can I think of her as dead, and love her for the love she bore?
No—she never loved me truly; love is love for evermore.
Comfort? comfort scorn’d of devils! this is truth the poet sings,
That a sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.
Drug thy memories, lest thou learn it, lest thy heart be put to proof,
In the dead unhappy night, and when the rain is on the roof.
Like a dog, he hunts in dreams, and thou art staring at the wall,
Where the dying night-lamp flickers, and the shadows rise and fall.
Then a hand shall pass before thee, pointing to his drunken sleep,
To thy widow’d marriage-pillows, to the tears that thou wilt weep.
Thou shalt hear the “Never, never,” whisper’d by the phantom years,
And a song from out the distance in the ringing of thine ears;
And an eye shall vex thee, looking ancient kindness on thy pain.
Turn thee, turn thee on thy pillow; get thee to thy rest again.
Nay, but Nature brings thee solace; for a tender voice will cry.
‘T is a purer life than thine, a lip to drain thy trouble dry.
Baby lips will laugh me down; my latest rival brings thee rest.
Baby fingers, waxen touches, press me from the mother’s breast.
O, the child too clothes the father with a dearness not his due.
Half is thine and half is his: it will be worthy of the two.
O, I see thee old and formal, fitted to thy petty part,
With a little hoard of maxims preaching down a daughter’s heart.
“They were dangerous guides the feelings—she herself was not exempt—
Truly, she herself had suffer’d”—Perish in thy self-contempt!
Overlive it—lower yet—be happy! wherefore should I care?
I myself must mix with action, lest I wither by despair.
What is that which I should turn to, lighting upon days like these?
Every door is barr’d with gold, and opens but to golden keys.
Every gate is throng’d with suitors, all the markets overflow.
I have but an angry fancy; what is that which I should do?
I had been content to perish, falling on the foeman’s ground,
When the ranks are roll’d in vapour, and the winds are laid with sound.
But the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that Honour feels,
And the nations do but murmur, snarling at each other’s heels.
Can I but relive in sadness? I will turn that earlier page.
Hide me from my deep emotion, O thou wondrous Mother-Age!
Make me feel the wild pulsation that I felt before the strife,
When I heard my days before me, and the tumult of my life;
Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield,
Eager-hearted as a boy when first he leaves his father’s field,
And at night along the dusky highway near and nearer drawn,
Sees in heaven the light of London flaring like a dreary dawn;
And his spirit leaps within him to be gone before him then,
Underneath the light he looks at, in among the throngs of men:
Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new:
That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do:
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain’d a ghastly dew
From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue;
Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro’ the thunder-storm;
Till the war-drum throbb’d no longer, and the battle-flags were furl’d
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.
There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.
So I triumph’d ere my passion sweeping thro’ me left me dry,
Left me with the palsied heart, and left me with the jaundiced eye;
Eye, to which all order festers, all things here are out of joint:
Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point:
Slowly comes a hungry people, as a lion, creeping nigher,
Glares at one that nods and winks behind a slowly-dying fire.
Yet I doubt not thro’ the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widen’d with the process of the suns.
What is that to him that reaps not harvest of his youthful joys,
Tho’ the deep heart of existence beat for ever like a boy’s?
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore,
And the individual withers, and the world is more and more.
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and he bears a laden breast,
Full of sad experience, moving toward the stillness of his rest.
Hark, my merry comrades call me, sounding on the bugle-horn,
They to whom my foolish passion were a target for their scorn:
Shall it not be scorn to me to harp on such a moulder’d string?
I am shamed thro’ all my nature to have loved so slight a thing.
Weakness to be wroth with weakness! woman’s pleasure, woman’s pain—
Nature made them blinder motions bounded in a shallower brain:
Woman is the lesser man, and all thy passions, match’d with mine,
Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine—
Here at least, where nature sickens, nothing. Ah, for some retreat
Deep in yonder shining Orient, where my life began to beat;
Where in wild Mahratta-battle fell my father evil-starr’d,—
I was left a trampled orphan, and a selfish uncle’s ward.
Or to burst all links of habit—there to wander far away,
On from island unto island at the gateways of the day.
Larger constellations burning, mellow moons and happy skies,
Breadths of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise.
Never comes the trader, never floats an European flag,
Slides the bird o’er lustrous woodland, swings the trailer from the crag;
Droops the heavy-blossom’d bower, hangs the heavy-fruited tree—
Summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea.
There methinks would be enjoyment more than in this march of mind,
In the steamship, in the railway, in the thoughts that shake mankind.
There the passions cramp’d no longer shall have scope and breathing space;
I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.
Iron-jointed, supple-sinew’d, they shall dive, and they shall run,
Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hurl their lances in the sun;
Whistle back the parrot’s call, and leap the rainbows of the brooks,
Not with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books—
Fool, again the dream, the fancy! but I know my words are wild,
But I count the gray barbarian lower than the Christian child.
I, to herd with narrow foreheads, vacant of our glorious gains,
Like a beast with lower pleasures, like a beast with lower pains!
Mated with a squalid savage—what to me were sun or clime?
I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time—
I that rather held it better men should perish one by one,
Than that earth should stand at gaze like Joshua’s moon in Ajalon!
Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range,
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
Thro’ the shadow of the globe we sweep into the younger day;
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
Mother-Age (for mine I knew not) help me as when life begun:
Rift the hills, and roll the waters, flash the lightnings, weigh the Sun.
O, I see the crescent promise of my spirit hath not set.
Ancient founts of inspiration well thro’ all my fancy yet.
Howsoever these things be, a long farewell to Locksley Hall!
Now for me the woods may wither, now for me the roof-tree fall.
Comes a vapour from the margin, blackening over heath and holt,
Cramming all the blast before it, in its breast a thunderbolt.
Let it fall on Locksley Hall, with rain or hail, or fire or snow;
For the mighty wind arises, roaring seaward, and I go.
Annotations: “Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
| Line 1 | Line 2 | Annotation (Simple English) |
| Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet ’tis early morn: | Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the bugle-horn. | He asks his friends to leave him alone in the morning, calling him back with a horn if needed. |
| ‘T is the place, and all around it, as of old, the curlews call, | Dreary gleams about the moorland flying over Locksley Hall; | The landscape and bird sounds are the same as before, but now feel gloomy. |
| Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts, | And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts. | The Hall stands over sand and roaring ocean waves. |
| Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest, | Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the West. | He used to watch the Orion constellation from the window before sleeping. |
| Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro’ the mellow shade, | Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid. | The Pleiades looked like glowing fireflies in the night sky. |
| Here about the beach I wander’d, nourishing a youth sublime | With the fairy tales of science, and the long result of Time; | As a youth, he walked the beach dreaming about science and history. |
| When the centuries behind me like a fruitful land reposed; | When I clung to all the present for the promise that it closed: | He saw the past as rich and held onto the present with hope. |
| When I dipt into the future far as human eye could see; | Saw the Vision of the world and all the wonder that would be.— | He imagined a great, hopeful future full of progress. |
| In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast; | In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest; | Spring brings colorful change and renewal in birds. |
| In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove; | In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. | Spring inspires romantic feelings in young men. |
| Then her cheek was pale and thinner than should be for one so young, | And her eyes on all my motions with a mute observance hung. | Amy looked sickly and watched him silently with emotion. |
| And I said, “My cousin Amy, speak, and speak the truth to me, | Trust me, cousin, all the current of my being sets to thee.” | He confessed his deep love for Amy and asked her to be honest. |
| On her pallid cheek and forehead came a colour and a light, | As I have seen the rosy red flushing in the northern night. | She blushed like a northern sky glowing red. |
| And she turn’d—her bosom shaken with a sudden storm of sighs— | All the spirit deeply dawning in the dark of hazel eyes— | She sighed deeply, showing emotions in her expressive eyes. |
| Saying, “I have hid my feelings, fearing they should do me wrong”; | Saying, “Dost thou love me, cousin?” weeping, “I have loved thee long.” | Amy confessed she had hidden her love for him out of fear. |
| Line 1 | Line 2 | Annotation (Simple English) |
| Love took up the glass of Time, and turn’d it in his glowing hands; | Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands. | Love made time feel precious, like golden sand slipping through an hourglass. |
| Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might; | Smote the chord of Self… | Love made life full of passion and made selfishness disappear. |
| Many a morning on the moorland did we hear the copses ring, | And her whisper throng’d my pulses with the fulness of the Spring. | Her voice filled him with joy and passion, like springtime itself. |
| Many an evening by the waters did we watch the stately ships, | And our spirits rush’d together at the touching of the lips. | They shared tender moments by the water, kissing and feeling spiritually united. |
| O my cousin, shallow-hearted! O my Amy, mine no more! | O the dreary, dreary moorland! O the barren, barren shore! | He grieves that Amy is no longer his, and the world feels empty now. |
| Falser than all fancy fathoms, falser than all songs have sung, | Puppet to a father’s threat… | He calls Amy a puppet, controlled by her father’s threats and her mother’s nagging. |
| Is it well to wish thee happy?—having known me—to decline | On a range of lower feelings… | He doubts she can be truly happy with a man emotionally below her. |
| Yet it shall be; thou shalt lower to his level day by day, | What is fine within thee growing coarse to sympathize with clay. | Her noble traits will be lost as she adapts to her husband’s crude personality. |
| As the husband is, the wife is: thou art mated with a clown, | And the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down. | Her lowly husband will influence her and make her worse over time. |
| He will hold thee… spent its novel force, | Something better than his dog… | After the initial passion fades, he will treat her like a pet—barely more valuable than a dog. |
| Line 1 | Line 2 | Annotation (Simple English) |
| What is this? his eyes are heavy; think not they are glazed with wine. | Go to him, it is thy duty, kiss him, take his hand in thine. | He imagines Amy’s husband as tired, not drunk, and sarcastically tells her to act like a dutiful wife. |
| It may be my lord is weary, that his brain is overwrought: | Soothe him with thy finer fancies, touch him with thy lighter thought. | He mocks her new life, telling her to calm her husband with gentle words. |
| He will answer to the purpose, easy things to understand— | Better thou wert dead before me, tho’ I slew thee with my hand! | He says he’d rather see her dead than trapped in a hollow relationship. |
| Better thou and I were lying, hidden from the heart’s disgrace, | Roll’d in one another’s arms, and silent in a last embrace. | He wishes they had died together in a final loving embrace. |
| Cursed be the social wants that sin against the strength of youth! | Cursed be the social lies that warp us from the living truth! | He condemns society for suppressing genuine youthful love. |
| Cursed be the sickly forms that err from honest Nature’s rule! | Cursed be the gold that gilds the straiten’d forehead of the fool! | He criticizes fake traditions and wealth that empowers foolish people. |
| Well—’t is well that I should bluster!—Hadst thou less unworthy proved— | Would to God—for I had loved thee more than ever wife was loved. | He acknowledges his rant but insists he loved her deeply. |
| Am I mad, that I should cherish that which bears but bitter fruit? | I will pluck it from my bosom, tho’ my heart be at the root. | He compares his love to bitter fruit he must tear from his heart. |
| Never, tho’ my mortal summers to such length of years should come | As the many-winter’d crow that leads the clanging rookery home. | Even if he lives for decades, he will never forget the pain of losing her. |
| Where is comfort? in division of the records of the mind? | Can I part her from herself, and love her, as I knew her, kind? | He wonders if he can separate her past kind image from her current reality. |
| Line 1 | Line 2 | Annotation (Simple English) |
| I remember one that perish’d; sweetly did she speak and move; | Such a one do I remember, whom to look at was to love. | He recalls a woman who died, whose grace and charm inspired love. |
| Can I think of her as dead, and love her for the love she bore? | No—she never loved me truly; love is love for evermore. | He doubts her past love was real, since true love never dies. |
| Comfort? comfort scorn’d of devils! this is truth the poet sings, | That a sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things. | Remembering joy during sorrow only makes pain worse. |
| Drug thy memories, lest thou learn it… | In the dead unhappy night, and when the rain is on the roof. | He warns her to forget the past or it will torment her on rainy, lonely nights. |
| Like a dog, he hunts in dreams… | Where the dying night-lamp flickers, and the shadows rise and fall. | Amy lies awake while her husband sleeps and dreams like an animal. |
| Then a hand shall pass before thee… | To thy widow’d marriage-pillows, to the tears that thou wilt weep. | She will cry in bed, emotionally alone even while married. |
| Thou shalt hear the “Never, never,” whisper’d by the phantom years, | And a song from out the distance in the ringing of thine ears; | She will be haunted by lost dreams and old songs. |
| And an eye shall vex thee… | Turn thee, turn thee on thy pillow; get thee to thy rest again. | Memories of past love will disturb her, and she will try to find peace in sleep. |
| Nay, but Nature brings thee solace; for a tender voice will cry. | ‘T is a purer life than thine, a lip to drain thy trouble dry. | He admits she may find comfort in the voice and love of her child. |
| Baby lips will laugh me down… | Baby fingers, waxen touches, press me from the mother’s breast. | Her child will replace him in her heart and affections. |
| Line 1 | Line 2 | Annotation (Simple English) |
| O, the child too clothes the father with a dearness not his due. | Half is thine and half is his: it will be worthy of the two. | The child makes the father seem dear, simply because the child is part of both parents. |
| O, I see thee old and formal, fitted to thy petty part, | With a little hoard of maxims preaching down a daughter’s heart. | He imagines Amy becoming strict and moralistic, stifling her daughter’s emotions. |
| “They were dangerous guides the feelings—she herself was not exempt—” | “Truly, she herself had suffer’d”—Perish in thy self-contempt! | He mocks Amy’s future advice to her daughter as hypocritical and self-loathing. |
| Overlive it—lower yet—be happy! wherefore should I care? | I myself must mix with action, lest I wither by despair. | He tells himself to stop caring and get active to avoid falling into sadness. |
| What is that which I should turn to, lighting upon days like these? | Every door is barr’d with gold, and opens but to golden keys. | He laments how money controls access and opportunity in society. |
| Every gate is throng’d with suitors, all the markets overflow. | I have but an angry fancy; what is that which I should do? | The world is overcrowded with greedy people, while he is left with only his frustrated dreams. |
| I had been content to perish, falling on the foeman’s ground, | When the ranks are roll’d in vapour, and the winds are laid with sound. | He would have preferred to die heroically in battle than suffer through emotional pain. |
| But the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that Honour feels, | And the nations do but murmur, snarling at each other’s heels. | Money soothes wounded honor, while countries fight petty and constant battles. |
| Can I but relive in sadness? I will turn that earlier page. | Hide me from my deep emotion, O thou wondrous Mother-Age! | He seeks comfort in the modern world to escape his sorrow. |
| Make me feel the wild pulsation that I felt before the strife, | When I heard my days before me, and the tumult of my life; | He wants to feel the excitement and energy of his youthful ambition again. |
| Line 1 | Line 2 | Annotation (Simple English) |
| Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield, | Eager-hearted as a boy when first he leaves his father’s field, | He remembers his youthful excitement for life, like a boy leaving home for the first time. |
| And at night along the dusky highway near and nearer drawn, | Sees in heaven the light of London flaring like a dreary dawn; | He recalls approaching London at night, its lights a mix of hope and gloom. |
| And his spirit leaps within him to be gone before him then, | Underneath the light he looks at, in among the throngs of men: | His heart was eager to join the life of the city and its people. |
| Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new: | That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do: | He praises human progress and believes the future holds even more. |
| For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, | Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; | He saw an inspiring and advanced future for mankind. |
| Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, | Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales; | He imagined a future with flying ships trading goods across the skies. |
| Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain’d a ghastly dew | From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue; | He also foresaw terrible aerial wars between nations. |
| Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm, | With the standards of the peoples plunging thro’ the thunder-storm; | He envisions global conflict with nations battling under stormy skies. |
| Till the war-drum throbb’d no longer, and the battle-flags were furl’d | In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. | He dreams of world peace and unity through a global government. |
| There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, | And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law. | A peaceful, fair world ruled by reason and global law. |
| Line 1 | Line 2 | Annotation (Simple English) |
| So I triumph’d ere my passion sweeping thro’ me left me dry, | Left me with the palsied heart, and left me with the jaundiced eye; | He felt triumphant for a moment but was left emotionally exhausted and bitter. |
| Eye, to which all order festers, all things here are out of joint: | Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point: | He feels everything is broken and science progresses frustratingly slowly. |
| Slowly comes a hungry people, as a lion, creeping nigher, | Glares at one that nods and winks behind a slowly-dying fire. | He warns that the poor and oppressed are getting closer to revolt while the elite ignore them. |
| Yet I doubt not thro’ the ages one increasing purpose runs, | And the thoughts of men are widen’d with the process of the suns. | Despite all, he believes in historical progress and growing human awareness. |
| What is that to him that reaps not harvest of his youthful joys, | Tho’ the deep heart of existence beat for ever like a boy’s? | This progress feels empty to someone who missed out on love and youthful joy. |
| Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore, | And the individual withers, and the world is more and more. | Even as the world grows, individuals feel lost and wisdom lags behind knowledge. |
| Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and he bears a laden breast, | Full of sad experience, moving toward the stillness of his rest. | People grow old burdened with sadness, heading toward death. |
| Hark, my merry comrades call me, sounding on the bugle-horn, | They to whom my foolish passion were a target for their scorn: | His friends call him back, likely ready to mock his emotional rant. |
| Shall it not be scorn to me to harp on such a moulder’d string? | I am shamed thro’ all my nature to have loved so slight a thing. | He feels ashamed for obsessing over someone who didn’t deserve it. |
| Weakness to be wroth with weakness! woman’s pleasure, woman’s pain— | Nature made them blinder motions bounded in a shallower brain: | He expresses misogynistic resentment, blaming women for being emotionally and intellectually weak. |
Literary And Poetic Devices: “Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
| Device | Definition | Example from Poem | Explanation |
| Alliteration | Repetition of initial consonant sounds in close succession. | “When the ranks are roll’d in vapour” | Adds rhythm and musicality to the line. |
| Allusion | Reference to another text, myth, or event. | “Joshua’s moon in Ajalon” | Refers to biblical story, enriching meaning and context. |
| Anaphora | Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or clauses. | “Cursed be… Cursed be…” | Builds emphasis and emotional momentum. |
| Apostrophe | Direct address to an absent or imaginary person or object. | “O my cousin, shallow-hearted!” | Expresses strong personal emotion directly. |
| Assonance | Repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. | “Slides the bird o’er lustrous woodland” | Creates internal harmony and mood. |
| Consonance | Repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of words. | “Droops the heavy-blossom’d bower” | Enhances musical quality of verse. |
| Enjambment | The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond a line. | “Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield,” | Maintains flow and urgency of thought. |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration for effect. | “Loved thee more than ever wife was loved.” | Intensifies emotional impact. |
| Imagery | Use of vivid, descriptive language appealing to senses. | “Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid” | Helps the reader visualize scenes and emotions. |
| Irony | A contrast between expectations and reality. | “He will hold thee… better than his dog” | Highlights bitter criticism and sarcasm. |
| Juxtaposition | Placement of contrasting ideas side by side. | “Woman is the lesser man… moonlight unto sunlight” | Emphasizes gender inequality as perceived by speaker. |
| Metaphor | Implied comparison without “like” or “as.” | “Love took up the harp of Life” | Suggests love controls the music of life. |
| Metonymy | Substitution of a related term for the object meant. | “The bugle-horn” for military calling | Symbolizes the world of war and duty. |
| Onomatopoeia | Words that imitate sounds. | “Throbb’d no longer” | Adds sensory experience and realism. |
| Paradox | A statement that seems self-contradictory but reveals a truth. | “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers” | Emphasizes the gap between intellect and judgment. |
| Personification | Giving human qualities to non-human things. | “Science moves, but slowly, slowly” | Makes abstract concepts more vivid and relatable. |
| Repetition | Reuse of the same word or phrase for emphasis. | “Better… Better…” | Reinforces the speaker’s emotional state. |
| Rhetorical Question | A question asked for effect, not to get an answer. | “Can I part her from herself…?” | Shows inner conflict and emotional turmoil. |
| Simile | A comparison using “like” or “as.” | “Like a swarm of fire-flies” | Creates a vivid mental image. |
| Symbolism | Using objects or actions to represent deeper meanings. | “Locksley Hall” | Symbolizes lost youth, idealism, and disillusionment. |
Themes: “Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1. Love and Betrayal: One of the central themes in “Locksley Hall” is the speaker’s intense experience of love followed by emotional betrayal. The speaker recalls his youthful affection for his cousin Amy, describing how he “clung to all the present for the promise that it closed,” indicating that he once saw their love as filled with future hope. He vividly remembers moments of intimacy, such as when “our spirits rush’d together at the touching of the lips.” However, this deep romantic idealism turns to bitterness when Amy chooses to marry another man, not out of love but due to social pressure. He accuses her of being a “puppet to a father’s threat” and calls her husband “a clown,” showing his disillusionment. The tone shifts from nostalgic to scornful, underscoring how love, once sacred, becomes tainted by betrayal and social conformity.
2. Progress and Civilization: Tennyson explores the theme of technological and societal progress in “Locksley Hall” through the speaker’s contrasting visions of the past and future. Initially, the speaker reflects on his youthful fascination with “the fairy tales of science, and the long result of Time.” This is later magnified into a futuristic vision where he imagines the sky filled with “argosies of magic sails” and “nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue.” These images suggest not only technological advancement but also global conflict, as progress brings both opportunity and peril. Despite moments of cynicism—”science moves, but slowly, slowly”—the speaker ultimately affirms a belief in human progress: “I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs.” This theme aligns with Victorian optimism about industrial growth and expansion, albeit tempered by moral and emotional doubts.
3. Social Convention and Constraint: “Locksley Hall” critiques the oppressive nature of social expectations and their impact on personal happiness. The speaker laments that Amy’s marriage is not based on love but dictated by family pressure and societal norms. He curses “the social lies that warp us from the living truth” and “the gold that gilds the straiten’d forehead of the fool,” attacking the superficial standards that govern relationships. Amy’s choice reflects not individual will but conformity to these expectations, prompting the speaker’s bitter realization that genuine love is often sacrificed for status and security. Tennyson uses this theme to question the rigid class and gender roles of Victorian society and the emotional toll they exact on individuals.
4. Colonialism and the Exotic Other: The theme of colonial escapism and fascination with the “Orient” is prevalent in the latter part of “Locksley Hall.” Disillusioned by Western society, the speaker fantasizes about retreating to an untouched paradise, imagining a land “where in wild Mahratta-battle fell my father evil-starr’d.” He dreams of marrying a “savage woman” and raising a “dusky race” of wild, natural children who live freely—”not with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books.” This vision reflects the era’s colonial attitudes and the romanticization of the East as both primitive and pure. However, the speaker later dismisses this fantasy, calling himself a “fool,” and reaffirms his belief in Western superiority—”I the heir of all the ages.” The poem thus critiques and yet indulges in imperialist ideology, revealing the complexities of Victorian attitudes toward empire and identity.
Literary Theories and “Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
| Literary Theory | Application to “Locksley Hall” | Example/Reference from Poem |
| Psychoanalytic Criticism | Explores the speaker’s emotional turmoil, repression, and transformation from idealism to resentment. | The speaker oscillates between love and hatred: “I am shamed thro’ all my nature to have loved so slight a thing.” |
| Feminist Criticism | Highlights patriarchal views and gender bias, particularly the speaker’s view of women as inferior and passive. | “Woman is the lesser man… as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine.” |
| Postcolonial Criticism | Analyzes the speaker’s orientalist fantasy of escaping to the exotic East and his racialized view of “the other.” | “I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.” |
| New Historicism | Situates the poem within Victorian values on science, progress, empire, and social order. | “Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.” |
Critical Questions about “Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1. How does the speaker’s attitude toward love evolve throughout the poem?
The speaker’s attitude toward love shifts dramatically from idealistic admiration to bitter resentment. Initially, he recalls his romantic relationship with Amy as deeply fulfilling, stating that “Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might,” suggesting that love gave purpose and harmony to his life. However, when Amy chooses to marry another—motivated not by affection but by family and social pressures—his tone turns accusatory and scornful. He calls her “a puppet to a father’s threat” and imagines her husband treating her as “something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.” The transformation of his language—from musical metaphors to animalistic degradation—reveals the depth of his emotional betrayal. This progression demonstrates how love, once seen as transcendent, becomes a source of humiliation and inner turmoil for the speaker.
2. What role does the theme of progress and science play in the speaker’s worldview?
The speaker expresses both awe and frustration with the idea of progress. Early in the poem, he recalls how he nourished his youthful mind with “the fairy tales of science, and the long result of Time,” indicating a fascination with the promise of scientific discovery. He envisions a technologically advanced future where “argosies of magic sails” fill the skies and “nations’ airy navies” battle in the heavens. Yet, his optimism is laced with criticism: “Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point.” He is disillusioned by the pace of advancement and the moral cost of progress, especially when war and greed still dominate human behavior. Ultimately, he returns to an idealistic call: “Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change,” suggesting a conflicted yet enduring faith in the transformative power of progress.
3. In what ways does the poem reflect Victorian concerns about gender roles and marriage?
“Locksley Hall” reflects Victorian anxieties around gender, marriage, and social expectations. The speaker’s resentment toward Amy stems not only from heartbreak but also from her perceived betrayal of ideal feminine virtue. He laments that she chose comfort over love, declaring, “Falser than all fancy fathoms, falser than all songs have sung.” His subsequent tirade includes deeply patriarchal views: “Woman is the lesser man,” he insists, reducing women’s passions to “blinder motions bounded in a shallower brain.” This essentialist view of gender underscores a belief that women lack depth and reason. Moreover, the speaker critiques marriage as a social contract devoid of love, imagining Amy’s husband treating her as property. Through these views, the poem interrogates the conflict between personal desire and Victorian social duty, revealing the era’s rigid gender ideologies.
4. How does the speaker’s colonial imagination shape his vision of escape and renewal?
The latter part of the poem reveals the speaker’s desire to escape Western civilization and its disappointments by retreating into a colonial fantasy. He imagines fleeing to the East, describing it as a land where “never comes the trader, never floats an European flag.” This imagined space is untouched by industry, war, or greed, and he envisions taking “some savage woman” to start a new, untamed life. His children, he says, would “whistle back the parrot’s call” and live freely in nature, unburdened by “miserable books.” However, this idealization of the Orient is short-lived; he calls himself a “fool” for indulging in it and reaffirms the superiority of Western civilization: “I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time.” This shift exposes the colonial mindset that simultaneously romanticizes and devalues non-Western cultures, offering rich ground for postcolonial critique.
Literary Works Similar to “Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- “Tithonus” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Similar in tone and theme, this dramatic monologue also explores disillusionment, lost love, and the burden of time. - “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” by Lord Byron
Shares the theme of personal melancholy, romantic disillusionment, and criticism of society through a reflective speaker. - “The Scholar-Gipsy” by Matthew Arnold
Both poems contrast the modern world’s corruption with a longing for purity, simplicity, and idealism. - “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot
Echoes Tennyson’s introspective, emotionally conflicted voice, meditating on lost opportunities and societal constraints. - “Maud” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Another poem by Tennyson, it similarly blends love, madness, and critique of Victorian values in a highly emotional narrative.
Representative Quotations of “Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
| Quotation | Context | Theoretical Perspective |
| “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” | Reflects the speaker’s romantic memory and the natural instinct of youth during springtime. | Psychoanalytic Criticism |
| “Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might;” | Love gave the speaker’s life energy and meaning before his emotional downfall. | Romanticism / Psychoanalytic Criticism |
| “O my cousin, shallow-hearted! O my Amy, mine no more!” | Expresses the speaker’s bitterness and sense of betrayal after Amy marries someone else. | Feminist Criticism |
| “Woman is the lesser man, and all thy passions, match’d with mine, Are as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine—” | Illustrates the speaker’s patriarchal views and emotional superiority complex. | Feminist Criticism |
| “Cursed be the social lies that warp us from the living truth!” | Condemns societal expectations and norms that destroy genuine love. | Marxist Criticism |
| “Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.” | Affirms belief in progress and the unstoppable momentum of industrial and scientific advancement. | New Historicism / Victorian Cultural Criticism |
| “I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.” | Reveals the speaker’s colonial fantasy and orientalist imagination of escape. | Postcolonial Criticism |
| “Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.” | Reflects imperialist pride in Western progress over Eastern tradition. | Postcolonial Criticism / New Historicism |
| “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers…” | Emphasizes the gap between intellectual advancement and emotional or moral maturity. | Philosophical Criticism / Psychoanalytic Criticism |
| “Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts…” | Sets the physical and emotional scene for the speaker’s introspection and memory. | Ecocriticism / Psychoanalytic Criticism |
Suggested Readings: “Locksley Hall” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Turnbull, Arthur. Life and Writings of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Vol. 45. Walter Scott Publishing Company, 1914.
- Lowell, Edward J. “Alfred, Lord Tennyson.” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. 28, 1892, pp. 420–32. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20020545. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.
- WALLACE, R. W. “TENNYSON.” The Journal of Education, vol. 70, no. 6 (1741), 1909, pp. 143–44. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42812092. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.
- Batchelor, John. “Alfred Tennyson: Problems of Biography.” The Yearbook of English Studies, vol. 36, no. 2, 2006, pp. 78–95. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/20479244. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.
