(no subject)

[ricardienne]

Why doesn't anyone ever talk about Tennyson's "Isabel"?* It's on the facing page to "Mariana" in all the editions (I assume since the first collection); it's all about "the clear-pointed flame of chastity" and "the intuitive decision of a bright/ and thorough-edged intellect to art/ Error from crime," with the rather telling analogy of absorbing "the vexed eddies of its wayward brother;" the whole thing generally screams "reader, she married him" re: the end of Measure for Measure. But the only comment I find says nothing except that it probably is an homage to the poet's mother (and, in context, that's a little disturbing, I think.)

*Because it's less compelling than "Mariana", either version, I know.

Comments

[perulovesyou.livejournal.com]

Its because most people havent even heard of Mariana, much less whats facing her, or Tennyson.



If its the guy with Albatross, then I have heard of him.

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

No but the point is that people (at least a few) do talk about the Mariana poem in connection with the play; no one talks about the Isabel poem, which obviously also connects to the play, even if it doesn't have a little epigram at the top.

(Coleridge is the Albatross; Tennyson is Idylls of the King.)

[perulovesyou.livejournal.com]

I confused my Iron Maiden song sources Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner inspired the Iron Maiden song by the same name, and Tennyson wrote The Charge of the Light Brigade, which inspired The Trooper, Iron Maiden's most famous song.