Mariana is a well-known poem by Tennyson.
Mariana Summary
The poem Mariana’s stanzas lead the reader through a sequence of pictures that externalise Mariana’s internal emotional struggle. Her feelings are projected into the bigger scene. The speaker depicts a crumbling home that is gloomy and deserted. It is in urgent need of repair, but nobody is around to take care of it. Mariana’s surroundings are changing just as her perspective is leaving behind hope, joy, and light.
A poplar tree, which is a crucial picture, appears in the poem’s centre. On the flat, featureless landscape that envelops the farmhouse, it is the only thing visible. This tree is frequently seen as a phallic symbol since it stands erect in a landscape that is otherwise flat. The shadow cast by the poplar tree at night on Mariana’s bed serves to accentuate this.
The speaker does not draw any conclusions about Mariana’s future, and Mariana does not depart from her mourning her beloved in any manner. Instead, the poem keeps repeating these menacing images and feelings. Mariana declares in the end that she has turned “dreary.”
Structure
Mariana is composed of seven twelve-line stanzas, each of which is broken down into three units of rhymed lines of four lines each using the rhyme scheme ABAB CDDC EFEF. Every stanza effectively repeats the lines ending in E and F, which creates a seductive, chant-like loop throughout the poem. Except for the trimeter of the tenth and twelfth lines, all of the lines in the poem are in iambic tetrameter.
Mariana Literary Devices
In “Mariana,” Tennyson employs a number of literary techniques. The first of them, alliteration, happens when words that start with the same sound are employed consecutively or at least near to one another. For instance, the first stanza’s line seven, “Weeded,” and the second stanza’s line two, “Dews,” and “Dried.”
Enjambment is a significant method frequently utilised in poetry. It happens when a line is terminated before it would naturally cease. A reader must swiftly go on to the next line and the following one because of enjambment. To easily resolve a phrase or sentence, one must proceed.
An accumulation of words or phrases with comparable, if not identical, meanings is a literary strategy. These words may be gathered together or dispersed over a poem, a tale, or a book. As they accumulate or stack up, a theme, picture, sensation, or deeper meaning becomes apparent. The whole poem serves as a demonstration of accumulation. It gives the reader information that helps create a physical picture of the main character’s emotional condition.
Accumulation is a literary device that relates to a list of words or phrases that have similar, if not the same, meanings. These words may be gathered together or dispersed over a poem, a tale, or a book. As they accumulate or stack up, a theme, picture, sensation, or deeper meaning becomes apparent. The whole poem serves as a demonstration of accumulation. It gives the reader information that helps create a physical picture of the main character’s emotional condition.
Detailed Analysis of Mariana Poem
This poem opens with a description of an abandoned farmhouse, or grange, where an ornamental pear tree swings from rusty hooks on the wall and the flower pots are covered with thick moss. The outbuildings are damaged and abandoned, and the straw used to cover the farmhouse’s roof is tattered and overgrown with weeds.
A four-line refrain appears at the end of each stanza of the poem, with small variations, and describes a woman who is probably standing close to the farmhouse: She just said the words, “My existence is gloomy / He cometh not,’ she muttered; “I am aweary, aweary, / I wish that I were dead!
The woman’s tears fall in the evening with the dew and then again in the morning, just as the dew is beginning to evaporate. She is unable to gaze upon the “beautiful paradise” in the morning or the evening. She lifts her window curtain at night after the bats have left and the sky is black, to gaze out at the vast landscape. The night is bleak, she says, adding her death-wish refrain.
The woman wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of a crow and remains up till an hour before sunrise when a rooster screams out. Until the morning’s chilly winds arrive, she appears to be walking while dozing off while hearing the oxen’s lowing. She repeats the death-wish refrain just as she did in the first verse, except this time it refers to “the day” rather than “my life.”
There is a man-made waterway nearby that is filled with murky waters and mossy chunks of rock. The sole contrast in the flat, level, grey landscape is a silver-green poplar tree that vibrates back and forth. The chorus from the opening verse is repeated by the woman.
The woman notices the poplar’s shadow moving in the wind while the moon is low in the sky and she glances at her white window curtain. However, when the moon is really low and the winds are particularly high, the poplar’s shadow instead casts a line over her bed and forehead instead of the curtain. The woman complains that “the night is dismal” and expresses her desire to pass away once more.
The doors squeak on their hinges throughout the day, a fly sings in the window, and a mouse calls out or peeps out from behind the wall lining. The woman repeats the refrain precisely as it appears in the first and fourth stanzas and claims that the farmhouse is haunted by ancient faces, old footsteps, and old voices.
The poplar tree mentioned in the fourth and fifth stanzas is one of the poem’s most significant symbols. On one level, the poplar might be seen as a kind of phallic symbol since it is the sole feature of a flat, even landscape that offers a break from it; and when Mariana is depressed and bedridden at night, the poplar’s shadow falls over it, implying her desire for the absent lover on a sexual level.
However, the poplar also serves as a significant representation of ancient mythology on another level. The poplar has developed into a well-known representation of the rebellious lover and his broken vow.
Even though there is no action or advancement throughout the whole poem, the final line still serves as a type of climax. The triple subject (chirrup, ticking, and sound) at the start of this verse builds in intensity as the verb is pushed further back in the line. As the predicate, “did all confound / Her sense,” is enjambed over two lines, it really causes Mariana’s thinking and the sentence’s logic to become perplexed because at first it appears that the object of “confound” is “all.”
The pause that follows this predicate is followed by the abrupt, energetic power of the climactic superlative phrase “but most she despised.” At this moment, the scene changes once more to the early evening as Mariana’s alternating optimism and disappointment are once again acted out by the cyclical nature of day and night. The refrain changes abruptly but subtly at the conclusion of the stanza from “He cometh not” to the firm and authoritative “He will not come.”
Mariana is stuck in an unending, reclusive state of gloom. Her mind moves in a cage of sorrow; she can only see the outside world through her despair. As a result, the poet’s descriptions of the physical world are all largely psychological categories; this woman’s mind has also been abandoned by her senses, just as the grange has been left behind.
FAQs
What is the theme of the poem ‘Mariana‘?
The poem adheres to a recurring subject of depressing solitude that appears in most of Tennyson’s writing. The protagonist of “Mariana” is a lady who frequently bemoans her isolation from society. She lives in isolation, and at the conclusion of each verse, she wishes for death because she yearns for a connection.
What is the main literary device used in Tennyson’s ‘Mariana‘?
In “Mariana,” Tennyson employs a number of literary techniques. These include accumulation, enjambment, and alliteration, among others. The first of them, alliteration, happens when words that start with the same sound are employed consecutively or at least near to one another.
What is the source of the poem ‘Mariana‘?
Shakespeare’s play Pericles, Prince of Tyre’s fifth act begins when Pericles learns that the dancer and singer in front of him is none other than his daughter.
Who is the Speaker in the ‘Mariana‘ poem?
As delivered by Pericles at the moment of realisation, the poem is a monologue. Shakespeare’s play Pericles’ reunion with his abducted daughter Marina is the setting for the title.