ESTIMATE TENNYSON AS A PICTORIAL ARTIST WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE
POEMS PRESCRIBED FOR YOUR STUDY.
Tennyson has something colourful
in his poetry. One of his famous poems “Lady of Shallot” unfolds before our
eyes with full of myriad colours and paintings. His imagination is vivid. It is
one of his qualities as a poet which adds a new dimension to Tennyson’s work.
When we consider Tennyson as a
pictorial poet we cannot separate him from the tradition of Spenserian poetry.
It is Spenser; the fancy’s child exercised a spell on Tennyson. Being an ardent
follower of Spenser, he imbibed from his master the art of verbal painting. We
find the rich and abundant colour in Tennyson’s poetry. His sketches are sharp
and graphic, full of vibrant colours. Tennyson appeals to us as a painter of
landscape. By words and subtle strokes of his pen he could enliven a picture.
Going through The Lady of Shallot
is a thrilling experience. Apart from its enchanting melody it provides the
readers a feast of visual pleasure. So in a sense, The Lady of Shallot, as
worked out by Tennyson provides the readers a session of audio-visual pleasure.
We are here more concerned with the visual delight as provided Tennyson.
He was not a painter by
profession. But it is a wonder how his imagination is dipped in colours. His poetry
especially, The Lady of Shallot has a mist of colours spread out in it. It is
an intriguing game, no doubt, to go on picking out the colours in which the
poet has dabbled in gay abundant:
“Four gray walls and four grey towers
Over looked a space of flower”
