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buddhafish's review
4.0
117th book of 2020.
My hometown has a great number of roads named after writers, and namely, poets. Not far from my home are Tennyson Road, Byron Road, Shelley Road, Wordsworth Road, Milton Street, Chaucer Road, Browning Road, Longfellow Road, Shakespeare Road… All gathered in a labyrinth of residential roads just before the seafront. Here is the Tennyson Road sign, photographed by me:
The poems that stood out among the rest were “Ulysses”, “The Song of the Brook”, “The Lotos-Eaters”… and the two greatest poems in there, which deserve five, even six stars, were “Locksley Hall” and “Enoch Arden”. These are up there with some of the truly greatest poems I’ve read recently, especially the former.
Though not the final poem in the collection, I actually read “Enoch Arden” last. It is a long and moving narrative poem, not unlike the story of Homer’s ODYSSEY. A man goes to work at sea and does not return for 10 years. His wife believes he is dead, and has children to raise. To comfort her, their childhood friend comes to aid. I will say no more, the story is tragic – and Tennyson is a brilliant poet, no doubt about that. This poem was still on my mind as I wandered along Richmond Road in my hometown to take the photograph of Tennyson Street road sign. Then, returning home, back along Wykeham Road, there were papers everywhere – strewn across the pavement and road, fluttering about like leaves. There was something both eerie and poetic about them, floating about. As I progressed down the road I saw some caught up in the bushes and some drifted up to front doors, as if they meant to knock. As soon as I reached the end of Wykeham Road and passed under the stone heads of Park Crescent and began up Clifton Road, the papers were gone, left behind.
My hometown has a great number of roads named after writers, and namely, poets. Not far from my home are Tennyson Road, Byron Road, Shelley Road, Wordsworth Road, Milton Street, Chaucer Road, Browning Road, Longfellow Road, Shakespeare Road… All gathered in a labyrinth of residential roads just before the seafront. Here is the Tennyson Road sign, photographed by me:
The poems that stood out among the rest were “Ulysses”, “The Song of the Brook”, “The Lotos-Eaters”… and the two greatest poems in there, which deserve five, even six stars, were “Locksley Hall” and “Enoch Arden”. These are up there with some of the truly greatest poems I’ve read recently, especially the former.
Though not the final poem in the collection, I actually read “Enoch Arden” last. It is a long and moving narrative poem, not unlike the story of Homer’s ODYSSEY. A man goes to work at sea and does not return for 10 years. His wife believes he is dead, and has children to raise. To comfort her, their childhood friend comes to aid. I will say no more, the story is tragic – and Tennyson is a brilliant poet, no doubt about that. This poem was still on my mind as I wandered along Richmond Road in my hometown to take the photograph of Tennyson Street road sign. Then, returning home, back along Wykeham Road, there were papers everywhere – strewn across the pavement and road, fluttering about like leaves. There was something both eerie and poetic about them, floating about. As I progressed down the road I saw some caught up in the bushes and some drifted up to front doors, as if they meant to knock. As soon as I reached the end of Wykeham Road and passed under the stone heads of Park Crescent and began up Clifton Road, the papers were gone, left behind.
maisiehall's review
5.0
I love Tennyson, I have had to read his poems in English atm and I surprisingly like his works. Tithonus is my favourite, I think, along with The Lotus Eaters
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