Mariana

"Mariana" takes the form of 7 12 line stanzas, each of which is divided into 3 4 line rhyme units ABAB CDDC EFEF. The EF lines remain essentially the same in each stanza. serving as a chant-like, bewitching refrain throughout the poem.
The subject of the poem is frawn from a line in Shakespeare's "Measure for measure" describing a woman who has been abandoned by her lover.
The poem lacks action or narrative movement, serving entirely as an extended visual depiction of melancholy isolation.
One of the most interesting symbols of the poem is the poplar tree of the 4th and 5th stanzas.
On one level, this could be a phallic symbol - when she is lovesick at night its shadow falls on Mariana's bed, suggesting her sexual hunger for her absent lover.
The Poplar tree was also an image from classical mythology, when Paris carved his promise to never deser his love on one such tree.
Stanzas 1,4 and 6 can be grouped together as they take place during the day, and they come between descriptions of forlorn and restless nights in which Mariana neither sleeps nor wakes but inhabits a dreamy in-between state.
She cries in the morning and evening alike (13,14) and awakens in the night (25,26). The affect of this alternation between flat day and sleepness night is to create a sense of tormented, confused time, unordered by natural patterns and cycles of life.
There is a kind of climax in the final stanza and the realisation "he will not come". The refrain of the poem acts like and incantation, contributing to the atmosphere of enchantment. The abandones grange seems to be under a spell or curse and Mariana is locked in a state of perpetual, introverted brooding. She can perceive the world only through her dejection so all of the poet's descriptions of the physical world serve as primarily psychological categories - it is not the grange but the person who has been abandoned, as has this woman's mind been abandoned by her sense.
This is the "poetic fallacy" of the 19th century - when our emotional and psuchological states of mind were attributed or linked to the natural world. So, because Mariana is so forlorn, her farmhouse also seems dejected and depressed.
This helps give the poem great emotional force.

Mariana’ is based on a fictional character. Written in 1830 this poem portrays the feelings, thoughts and actions of the lonely ‘Mariana’. Like the other poems, Tennyson uses pathetic fallacy to show her mood thought the poem. As the poem is written in 3rd person narrative it makes the reader feel even more sympathetic toward ‘Mariana’. Written in the omniscient viewpoint it also gives the feeling of sadness and isolation. The rythem of the poem is worth considering as it takes the form of 7 12-line stanzas, each divided into 3 4-line rhyme units ABAB CDDC EFEF this gives the reader the impression that it is ordinary speech and

The Pathetic fallacy is used in the first stanza as ‘Mariana’ is said to be living in a ‘Moated grange’. This gives the impression of self-inflicted isolation. However this could also be interpreted as her tears filling up this moat and cutting her off from normality. There are also many references to evil as Tennyson uses alliteration when using the words ‘sad and strange’, these words sound like hissing sounds, this could be seen as the devil and may be seen as sinister. By describing the shed as ‘broken’ Tennyson symbolises ‘Mariana’ as a broken woman. The word ‘dreary’ is used which gives the impression of a dull uninteresting scene. Repetition of the word ‘aweary’ gives the reader a sense of tiredness as she wishes that she wasn’t weary. The final line of then first stanza is a shocking admission and frighten the reader as ‘Mariana’ says that she ‘would that I were dead!’ The explanation mark sums up the importance of this line, as it is a clear reference to suicide.

In the second stanza Pathos is used to evoke pity and sorrow toward ‘Mariana’. There are again references to self-imposed isolation as ‘she drew her casement-curtain’. Tennyson also shows the reader that she is still crying as ‘the dews were dried’. The reader also notices that ‘Mariana’ may be scared of the day, as this may be the reason for drawing her ‘casement curtain’. In the distance Tennyson depicts the horizon as he says ‘ the glooming flats’, this gives the reader a sense of distance and shows how far away she is from reality. The last four lines of the stanza’s are repeated however there is a slight change from the first stanza as the word life is changed for night. Darkness symbolises despair and sadness.

The Third stanza uses personification to portray Mariana’s feelings ‘ till cold winds woke the grey eyed morn’; this shows that wind is made to seem to have the intent. By using the words ‘grey eyed’ it shows the reader that ‘Mariana’ has had restless nights and as the ‘cold winds’ wake the morn it again points out her isolation. The winds are shown to have intent. Tennyson also shows the restlessness of The winds are shown to have intent as he says ‘In sleep she seem’d to walk forlorn’, this again shows her lack of sleep and may be a reference to sleep walking as sleepwalking has connotations of unease and tension. By using the words ‘moated grange’ again it further emphasises the isolation that ‘Mariana’ is feeling.

Thought the poem Tennyson focuses on isolation and how this affects mental stability. The use of personification in the third stanza shows Mariana’s increased insanity ‘blacken'd waters slept’. The first use of the poplar tree is seen in stanza 4 as ‘a hard poplar shook’ this tree symbolises her one hope, her ex-fiancée. As Tennyson describes the scene; ‘No other tree did mark the land’ this tree is taunting her and reinforces the isolation and loneliness of ‘Mariana’.

In the Fifth stanza Tennyson again writes about the poplar tree using it as a Phallic Symbol. In this poem the poplar tree stands for love and fertility (everything that Mariana misses). The shadows are shown to taunt ‘Mariana’ as the ‘moon was low’. Mariana is also shown to be haunted by shadows as ‘the shadow of the poplar fell’. The shadow of the poplar had previously been used to symbolise her lover and as the ‘poplar fell upon her bed’ it may show the reader that she still misses the sexual element of her relationship.

The sixth stanza is based on the obsession as ‘Mariana’ is shown to be increasing in insanity. The house is described as ‘dreamy’, this shows that her life is becoming surreal and she does not now what to believe. As the hinges ‘creak’d’ it may be hinting toward the lack of use that the door is getting because of the lack of visitors or it may be referring to ghosts that are haunting not just her house but her mind. However Mariana shows that she misses society as she misses the ‘old faces’ although this could be interpreted as another reference to ghosts taunting her and playing with her mind.

The main theme of this poem is despair because mariana has lost the person she loves. ‘Mariana’ has a very dark mood to it and this mood continues the whole way through the poem. Alfred Lord Tennyson may have made it so upsetting to show how much Mariana loved the man who left her. By making the poem as dark as it is could be a way to show that she has become extremely depressed.

‘Mariana’ is set in Somersby, Lincolnshire, as this is where Tennyson, the poet, was born. In ‘Mariana’ the main character, a woman, sits in her lonely, neglected house all day mourning her lost lover.

In ‘Mariana’ there is a definite syllable pattern, iambic pentameter. The long lines of ‘Mariana’ make the poem slow to say, which makes it sound depressing and sad. The use of a chorus in ‘Mariana’ is there because Alfred Lord Tennyson wants you to empathise with Mariana. Repetition of the chorus after each of the seven stanzas is meant to put emphasis on her mood, which isn’t very happy. Throughout the poem the chorus changes slightly as it is direct speech, used to make the reader feel closer to the character, but by the last verse the meaning of the chorus has changed ‘’’I am very dreary, / He will not come,’’’ This quote shows that her lover won’t return and is a way of her ending the poem instead of it ending her (her dying). ‘Mariana’ is very well structured. Tennyson uses iambic tetrameter because he didn’t want his poem to be a typical ballad, he wanted to have more freedom with his writing and it means that he can put more stress on how she is feeling.

Everything is dark, dead and alone. “blackest moss the flower-pots/ Were thickly crusted”. This quote is taken from ‘Mariana’ and shows neglect of the garden. The writer could have used it to show the man has been gone a while as during the period that the poem is set it would typically have been the mans job. By saying “blackest” Alfred Lord Tennyson is using emotive language and pathetic fallacy. This is used to help the reader to understand what a broken woman Mariana has become since her love has been gone. The tone is omniscient as Tennyson shows awareness of Mariana’s viewpoint, to her everything is sad and isolated, and her world is dead and empty without her true love. This also shows that Tennyson is disconnected to Mariana. He also uses personification “sheds look’d sad and strange”. The alliteration that is used emphasizes the words “sad” and “strange”.

‘Mariana’ uses repetition in the second stanza. “her tears fell” is said on the first line of the stanza and then repeated on the second. The writer may have done this to show that Mariana cries constantly over her lover as a way to grieve. In this stanza you realise that Mariana is far from reality “drew her casement-curtain”. She does this in the middle of the night when everyone else would already be asleep; this again shows that she is unable to rest. Tennyson says this to try to show the reader that she is shutting herself away from the rest of the world and causing her own isolation. The tone here is very emotionless and slow as a way of showing how Mariana is acting, she does everything without much thought as her mind is elsewhere so what she does never takes much effort.

‘Mariana’ is wrote in a linear style. ‘Mariana’ uses a quick passage of time “In sleep she seem’d to walk forlorn, / Till cold winds woke the grey-eyed morn”. In each stanza there can be many days and nights passing to create confused time unordered by natural life. This makes the reader aware that Mariana is so tormented by her grief that she cannot sleep and has entered a dream like state. She can’t sleep but she isn’t fully awake either. Alfred Lord Tennyson uses a lot of personification “Till cold winds woke the grey-eyed morn” Here the tone is uneasy as it makes the reader feel chilly by using the words “cold” and “grey”. In this quote two devices are used, pathetic fallacy to make the weather echo Mariana’s mood, making the reader feel a similar way. This is a very effective method as different weathers generally make people feel a certain way, like rain causes annoyance most of the time.

In stanza 4 the idea that Mariana is trapped becomes obvious; this may be meant literally, as in she can’t lower the drawbridge, which is a physical barrier to the outside world or emotionally. “A sluice with blacken’d waters slept,” if this quote were claiming she feels emotionally trapped this would be a metaphor. This stanza also uses sibilance to make it sound rather sinister, as the softer sounds are heard as a hiss. It is used because it makes it sound as if Mariana is being unwilling forced to stay there and it can create a lot of different imagery in people’s minds. One image people may get is that she was kidnapped and is being kept from the outside world and her lover by her kidnappers. Mariana could also be losing her sanity, which would explain why she is over reacting to her lover’s absence. In ‘Mariana’ Alfred Lord Tennyson uses Phallic symbols for the first time. “Hard by a poplar shook always,” the idea behind this is a promise broken by a lover; the poplar tree is meant to represent her lost love.

Stanza five of ‘Mariana’ follows the same pattern as the rest of the poem. Throughout the poem figurative language is used a lot and there is usually a sub meaning in what Tennyson is saying “shadow of the poplar fell/ Upon her bed”. This is again using a phallic symbol that suggests sexual hunger for her absent lover. In comparison “The Despairing Lover” is very straightforward. “ a neck when once broken can never be set;” the meaning for this is plain for all to see; if a neck gets broken you will die and there isn’t much you can do to stop it. The tone of this is factual; it’s in no way positive but it’s not particularly negative either. It is not very negative because it is not saying that Damon is going to die simply that he would if he threw himself off a cliff. Both poems have been written in third person, as neither writer wanted the reader to get to close to the character and it also meant being able to describe the surroundings. Alfred Lord Tennyson uses lots of description and devices “wild wind bound within their cell”. This quote uses personification and pathetic fallacy. The writer has used this so that the poem sounds macabre and anti-Romantic. By using it everything becomes dead and lifeless and this represents what Mariana’s world has changed into. The impact on the reader is that it begins to make them feel one of two things; the reader may empathise with Mariana or get really annoyed and want to tell her to pull herself together. When the poem was written females would have been more likely to empathise with her because as she was a woman she had little importance so the man could make all the choices. By comparing the two poems you can see how both genders react to love, the male gender becomes very emotional and isn’t scared to show it but Mariana keeps it all bottled up inside and makes her slightly crazy. Both of them consider suicide but the man talks himself out of it and says he will live a normal life without his love By using writing like this Tennyson was purposefully trying to provoke some sort of emotion by the reader.

‘Mariana’ is a poem that rebel against normal poems of the time. Tennyson wanted to be different; Tennyson wrote anti-romantic work because the other poets were writing Romantic. “Old faces…Old footsteps…Old voices” Tripling is used in this quote and in the full part metaphors are also use. This gives the idea that Mariana is hallucinating or remembering something from the past. The imagery this creates is vague memories from the past walking around the grange and making Mariana seem mad and lost. If she is simply remembering something it could be of a time when she was happier and servants, family and friends walked around laughing and joking. It may also mean that her lover is dead, which is why he hasn’t returned to her. Tennyson uses it to show how lonely Mariana is by saying old, as in they are no longer there. It is the only mention in the poem of any other human life other tan Mariana or her lost love.
The last stanza of ‘Mariana, starts with a build up of noise “chirrup… ticking, and the sound”. This shows that Mariana has sensitive to sounds and it can show that she’s finally going to be tipped over the edge. This is written to increase the level of tension. Personification is again used in Mariana “When the thick- moted sunbeam lay/ Athwart the chambers” This may be a way for Tennyson to show how Mariana is to engrossed by grief that she has let everything rot and become derelict; it could also mean that she lives in the house alone with no servants to help her clean the house she can no longer cope with. This would mean that the quote is used to highlight the dust and portray Mariana’s loneliness. the poem shows acceptance by the end as mariana realises her lover has really gone. ‘“I am very dreary, / He will not come,’ she said” is part of stanza seven. The acceptance, although tinged by sadness, is a way of her to show that even though she wishes her death she will not be the one to cause it.

Alfred Lord Tennyson characteristically uses a depressed tone; he uses negative words to help him create it. “gusty shadow” shows some of this negative language. tennyson used contracted words. “shriek’d” The reason why Tennyson uses contracted words is because he works in a very strict manor and doesn’t allow the lines of his poem to exceed the amount of syllables in the pattern. ‘Mariana’ is serious because of it’s slow paced rhythm and rigid structure. Due to this ‘Mariana’ comes across as old fashioned, even the words used are not commonly known todayas Tennyson uses arcaic words like “eventide” and “athwart”. He does this so that the language fits in with the mood of the poem. Tennyson wrote ‘Mariana’the poem in 1830 not the 16th century.