124 & 130 in mem

so i was part of the group that discussed sections 124 and 130 (devon has already posted, but i figured i could share a bit more)

edit: i apologize. i didn't realize how long this was when i posted it.

we spent most of our time discussing section 124. it seems like tennyson is meditating on how one seems to know, or can claim to know God. there's definitely an implicit condemnation of the false ways one gets to know God, but perhaps the most confusing part is simply identifying what it is that tennyson is describing as his road to clarity-- his path to spiritual satisfaction. i use the word spiritual here because i think those lines "and like a man in wrath. . ." are kind of a refutation of conventional Christianity.

so, what happened to him? "no, like a child in doubt and fear:/ but that blind clamour made me wise;" what is this blind clamour? what does he mean by blind? these are all questions our group came up against, and we didn't really reach a cohesive answer. but i thought about it walking out of class, and i basically asked myself what met the criteria for blind clamour? i've only given it some thought, but i think tennyson may be talking about personal intuition-- a compulsion so powerful that we cannot ignore it, hence clamorous, but, simultaneously, somewhat devoid of experiential (read: empirical) justification, hence blind. just a thought, though.

but then i bumped up against these last lines. admittedly, im not satisfied with my understanding of the lines. but if we accept that the power which calmed him in the previous stanza is born from intuition, then what are these ". . .hands/ that reach thro' nature, moulding men." well, the molding men part kind of makes sense if we're talking about intuition. but the hands reaching through nature are a bit too grand and divine in their imagery to totally reconcile. or, perhaps, is that the entire point?

this could be completely wrong, but it was just something that i kind of fell upon, and decided to run with. and, even if it's completely off base, i think it's an interesting way to read a couple lines, whatever that's worth.

section 130 was a bit more straightforward-- for the group, at least. he touches on the actual sensory intake of the deceased's voice, persona, through nature. so, though the man's dead, he's not only alive through memory, but actually in the manifestations of Nature's power--wind, water, the sun on the horizon-- those majestic moments and feelings which are the frequent poetic fuel for a nature more important than it may seem. and with these reminders, his love grows. it becomes not only a love for the deceased man, but for everything else he's a part of. and of course, the final line "I shall not lose thee tho' i die" is a bit confusing, as it does hint at some sort of afterlife. but, i think the afterlife it implies is one that's already been discussed a bit in the section-- the kind of continued existence through the air, the water, the sun, etc.