The primary target of Tennysons poetry Essay Example for Free

The primary target of Tennysons poetry Essay â€Å"The primary target of Tennyson’s poetry is Victorian greed and materialism. † How far do you agree with this view of Tennyson’s poetry? In your answer you should either refer to two or three poems in detail or range more widely through the whole selection. Tennyson throughout his poetry focuses on greed and materialism when reflecting on the changing times in society and the growing of ‘the work of the days of man’ and the golden age. He does this particularly in ‘Maud’ In ‘Morte D’Arthur’. ‘Maud’ is poem written about a man who loses his father after he is murdered by a business friend . Tennyson uses this as the basis to explore the mental instability of the speaker which he uses to explore other issues such as Victorian greed and materialism. In ‘Maud’ Tennyson undertakes a psychological exploration of the speaker ‘maud’ who seems to have gone mad after losing his father . He focuses on the greed and materialism on how the speaker’s father was unjustly killed by his fellow business partner . He says : ‘ gorged scheme that had left us flaccid and drain’d’ This literally translates as sucked us dry which shows how selfish the business partner was so on the whole reflects society’s greediness . Then Tennyson goes on to criticise the actions of society and you can see this clearly when the speaker talks of how ‘blessings of Peace? ’ have been ‘made into a curse’ by society. This implies to the reader that society has become so corrupt , greedy and selfish that even positive things , ‘blessings’ have been turned into bad things ‘curses’. The speaker muses on how no there are ‘pickpockets’ , ‘each hand lusting for all that is not its own’. There is now so much greediness in society that people want to own what is not theirs. Throughout the Victorian era there was a radical change with the advance of science for example Darwin and his evolution of species which went against Religious beliefs that God created Everything . Tennyson having strong faith in Christianity highlights how this new age ‘the golden age’ despite it’s breakthroughs poses danger to society and humanity through the speaker. The speaker says ‘these are the days of advance , the works of men of mind,’ . Tennyson using satire because he is mocking the idea of the works of men are and can be better than the the works of God and the substation of works ‘of God ’ with ‘of men of mind’ makes this very obvious to the reader.