Saturday, December 3, 2011
Thou madest Life in man and brute
In line 6 of the whole poem, Tennyson wrote "Thou madest Life in man and brute". What is the "brute"? Is it an unintelligent, aggressive man or a species subpar to humans, such as chimpanzees or dogs? If we assume the former definition of "brute", it is somewhat elitist of Tennyson to make such a distinction between a normal man and a man of below average intelligence with a naturally aggressive tendencies. If it is the latter definition, what exactly does this contemplation have to do with the emotion of sorrow and mourning?
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I'd say it is the latter definition. I think that Tennyson is using that stanza to show that God has given life to all things, but the natural compliment to life is death. All things which live must die. I really like the next two lines, "Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot / Is on the skull which thou hast made."
ReplyDeleteI don't think that, this early in the poem, he's focusing on sorrow and mourning. He's just contemplating the nature of death.
i see where you're coming from, but i'm not entirely convinced that there's any elitism going on here. i think jim is right in his interpretation-- that tennyson is opening the poem with this dichotomy (life, death) to demonstrate their complementary nature, or their definitions/how we conceive/experience them as deeply related. you're right to notice that brute and man are separated, and there's something fundamentally unequal about that. but, tennyson's point in this opening stanza, about how life and death affect all of us, both man and brute, kind of outweighs any elitism that could be read into the lines.
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