Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud
Learner Resource 3 ‘Come into the Garden Maud.’
Key Concepts: Pastoral, locus amoenus setting and love lyric.
Look at Part 1 Section XXII ‘Come into the Garden Maud’
In this section the speaker waits for Maud to come to him. He has interpreted a rose that has drifted downstream as a message that she will leave the ball given at the hall, to which he has not been invited, and join him in the garden.
Contextual note: The setting of this lyric is a garden, conventionally associated in literature with a lovers’ tryst. The use of this setting has links with the trope of the locus amoenus, an idealised natural setting often with pastoral qualities. The pastoral tradition is a mode of writing that idealises the natural world. Originally the genre celebrated the innocent bucolic life of shepherds and shepherdesses but it has come to mean writing that idealises the natural world. The setting of a garden can also have links with biblical Eden. The pastoral world was also becoming increasingly idealised due to the rapid industrialisation of Britain which in itself marked a stark contrast from the symbolic simplicity and innocence of rural life and the cynical and corrupt urban centres.
Tennyson plays with and subverts the conventions in several ways within his use of setting.
- In what ways do you find the setting idyllic and innocent?
- In what ways might the setting appear sinister?
- Why, and to what effect, does Tennyson subvert the conventions?
The speaker waits alone, although he is confident Maud will come, the reader is not quite so convinced.
- Can you identify reasons to doubt her coming?
The contrast with the natural garden and the world of the Hall seem a conventional contrast between the pure and natural and the corrupt and worldly.
- Does the writing hint that we may question the speaker’s attitude?
- Is there anything sinister in the speaker’s language and feelings?
Look at the first sestet. Explore the way natural description is used in these lines.
- What atmosphere is created?
Look at the second sestet. The word ‘faint’ is repeated three times. Explore the different senses of the word and its connotations in these lines.
Version 11© OCR 2016
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud
Look at the third sestet. Explore the way silence and sound are contrasted here.
- What impact do you feel this contrast has?
Look at lines 867-885. Explore the way music and dancing are presented in these lines.
- How do these lines reflect the speaker’s state of mind?
- Does the reader question his attitude?
Look at lines 886- 914.Explore the way flower imagery is used in these lines.
Look at lines 915-922. Explore the way the speaker presents Maud’s arrival. What does he mean by ‘My heart would hear her and beat’…… ‘Had I lain for a century dead’.
- Do you find this inspiring or morbid?
- What does this imply about the power of love?
The poem has often been read out of context as a love lyric. However critics of ‘Maud’ have also read it as further evidence of the speaker’s mental instability.
- What evidence do you find in this section of an unhealthy obsession?
- How do the rhythm, rhyme and use of repetition help reflect mental instability?
- The rhythm of this section has been compared to the rhythm of the polka or a ‘demented waltz’. What aspects of the rhythm support this view?
Look at the imagery associated with Maud.
- What qualities does the speaker emphasise?
- What does this suggest about his perception of her?
Extension work: A level.
Compare the way setting is used here and elsewhere in the poem to the way settings are used in your drama text.
Extension work: A level.
Compare the way male characters express their feelings for women in your drama text with the way the speaker of Maud expresses his feelings for her here and elsewhere in the text.
This web page has some interesting analysis of the form of this section, looking at its songlike qualities. The analysis puts forward an interesting argument that the song is more subversive than a conventional love lyric.
Version 11© OCR 2016
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud