The Oak - Tennyson

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The Oak

 

Live thy life,

   Young and old,

Like yon oak,

Bright in spring,

   Living gold;

 

Summer-rich

   Then; and then

Autumn-changed,

Soberer-hued

   Gold again.

 

All his leaves

   Fall’n at length,

Look he stands,

Trunk and bough,

   Naked strength.

 

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 – 1892)

 

Stanza 1 – young and old should live like the oak in springtime … be bright

Stanza 2 – then in summer be rich in life like the full foliage of summertime, followed by the autumn gold but in more sober fashion please

Stanza 3 – then in winter when all foliage is gone be pure naked strength – what is left of you after living a full life – what is spiritually left when all the superficiality falls away?

 

Looking at the meter …

Iambic = unaccented then accented syllables e.g. today

Trochee = the reverse – e.g. daily

Both iambic and trochee are double meters … each bar is of two syllables

 

Triple meters involve three syllables to the bar

Anapest = unaccented, unaccented then accented e.g. beauti ful

Dactyl = accented, unaccented then unaccented e.g. sugar loaf

 

Laurence Perrine in his book Structure Sound and Sense asks whether the double meter for Tennyson’s poem The Oak should be iambic or trochee – or does it matter?

He suggests it is more important to distinguish between double and triple meter.

 

Gabriel Oak is a famous character in a novel … the name fitting the nature of the character if you excuse the pun.

Here is a link to another Blog Site giving analysis of the above poem.