‘Tithonus’ by
Tennyson
Pages 15 and 16
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In Greek mythology, Tithonus was the
lover of Eos, of the dawn. He was a Trojan
by birth, the son of King Laomedon of Troy
by a water nymph named
Eos kidnapped Ganymede and Tithonus,
both from the royal house of Troy, to be
her lovers and Tithonus lives forever
because Eos forget to ask for eternal
youth. The Gods eventually take pity on
him and tun him into a grasshopper!
The poem is a dramatic monologue in
blank verse from the point-of-view of
Tithonus. Unlike the original myth, it is
Tithonus who asks for immortality, and it is
Aurora, not Zeus, who grants this
imperfect gift. As narrator, Tithonus
laments his unnatural longevity, which
separates him from the mortal world as
well as from the immortal but beautiful
Aurora.
Source - Wikipedia
The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes; I wither slowly in thine arms,
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream
The ever-silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.
Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man—
So glorious in his beauty and thy choice,
Who madest him thy chosen, that he seem'd
To his great heart none other than a God!
I ask'd thee, "Give me immortality."
Then didst thou grant mine asking with a smile,
Like wealthy men who care not how they give.
But thy strong Hours indignant work'd their wills,
And beat me down and marr'd and wasted me,
And tho' they could not end me left me maim'd
To dwell in presence of immortal youth,
Immortal age beside immortal youth,
And all I was in ashes. Can thy love
Thy beauty, make amends, tho' even now,
Close over us, the silver star, thy guide,
Shines in those tremulous eyes that fill with tears
To hear me? Let me go: take back thy gift:
Why should a man desire in any way
To vary from the kindly race of men,
Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance
Where all should pause, as if most meet for all?
• A soft air fans the cloud apart; there comes
A glimpse of that dark world where I was born.
Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals
From any pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure,
And bosom beating with a heart renew'd.
Thy cheek begins to redden thro' the gloom,
Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine,
Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild team
Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise,
And shake the darkness from their loosen'd manes,
And beat the twilight into flakes of fire.
Lo! ever thus thou growest beautiful
In silence, then before thine answer given
Departest, and thy tears are on my cheek.
Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears,
And make me tremble lest a saying learnt,
In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true?
"The Gods themselves cannot recall their
gifts."
• Ay me! ay me! with what another heart
In days far-off, and with what other eyes
I used to watch (if I be he that watch'd)
The lucid outline forming round thee; saw
The dim curls kindle into sunny rings;
Changed with thy mystic change, and felt my blood
Glow with the glow that slowly crimson'd all
Thy presence and thy portals, while I lay,
Mouth, forehead, eyelids, growing dewy-warm
With kisses balmier than half-opening buds
Of April, and could hear the lips that kiss'd
Whispering I knew not what of wild and sweet,
Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing,
While Ilion like a mist rose into towers.
Yet hold me not for ever in thine East;
How can my nature longer mix with thine?
Coldly thy rosy shadows bathe me, cold
Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet
Upon thy glimmering thresholds, when the steam
Floats up from those dim fields about the homes
Of happy men that have the power to die,
And grassy barrows of the happier dead.
Release me, and restore me to the ground;
Thou seest all things, thou wilt see my grave:
Thou wilt renew thy beauty morn by morn;
I earth in earth forget these empty courts ,
And thee returning on thy silver wheels.
Ideas and themes in the poem
• Weariness
• Regular pace – iambic pentameters
• End-stopped lines – need to pause
• Harmony/balance
• Contrasts between the mortal world of men and the
world of Eos/Aurora the goddess
• Past and present
• Use of colours to depict differences
• Tithonus is the counterpart or pendant to Ulysses
Poetic terms and examples.
Objective: to read and understand the three poetic terms
• Caesura – a pause within a line of verse
• e.g. ‘The woods decay, (pause) the woods decay and fall’
• Trochees- a foot consisting of a strongly stressed syllable
followed by a weekly stressed syllable
• e.g.
• Spondees – a metrical foot consisting of two long or stressed
syllables e.g. ‘Ay me! Ay me!’
