Lucretius: His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance

“Half buried…/Or fancy-bourne”: Unearthed Desires and the Failure of Transcendence in Tennyson’s ‘Lucretius’

Vincent Bissonette 73 “Half buried … / Or fancy-bourne”: Unearthed Desires and the Failure of Transcendence in Tennyson’s “Lucretius” Vincent Bissonette In December of 1865, Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892) had dinner with the politician William Gladstone, the Pre-Raphaelite artists William Holman Hunt and Thomas Woolner, and the senior John Addington Symonds. After dinner, Symonds’s son, also John Addington, joined them. Finding the company still seated around the dining table and finishing dessert, the young critic, then in his 20s, “relapsed into an armchair between Woolner and my father” (Symonds, Letters, 1).1 In his journal account of the evening, he writes that he “was like a man hearing a concerto”, the main players being Gladstone (“first violin”) and Tennyson (“violincello”) (4). The conversation ranged from the recent and brutal suppression of rebellion in Jamaica and the imminent Reform Bill of 1867 to Huxley’s claim that humans descend from monkeys and questions on the relation between morality and immortality. Throughout his account Symonds focuses on the disagreements between Tennyson and Gladstone: Gladstone arguing, Tennyson putting in a prejudice; Gladstone asserting rashly, Tennyson denying with a bald negative ; Gladstone full of facts, Tennyson relying on impressions; both of them humorous, but the one polished and delicate in repartee, the other broad and coarse and grotesque. Gladstone ’s hands are white and not remarkable. Tennyson’s are huge, unwieldy, fit for moulding clay or dough. Gladstone is in some sort a man of the world; Tennyson a child, and treated by him like a child. [4] Tennyson’s political positions repeatedly shock: For example, he excuses brutality in Jamaica against the “savage mob” and grimly suggests, “If they shot paupers, perhaps they wouldn’t tear up their clothes” (4). Then, when the extension of the franchise comes up, he disclaims any knowledge about it, professes that “a state in which every man would have a vote is the ideal”, and dismisses the whole thing by asking, “But how to do it?” Never mind the contradiction between these democratic ideals and the earlier remark about shooting paupers. Symonds simply comments, “This was the mere reflector. The man of practice [Gladstone] said nothing” (3–4). 1 Complete bibliographic information for all sources can be found in the Select Bibliography at the end of this essay. 74 lucretius: his continuing influence and contemporary relevance Symonds is obviously troubled by Tennyson’s prejudice and ignorance, but what’s most interesting is that he connects it to the poet’s status as a “reflector”. One of the definitions of reflection is “the action of turning (back) or fixing the thoughts on some subject; meditation, deep or serious consideration”.2 When we reflect on something we take the time to judge carefully. Tennyson, however, hardly seems to think but rather to reflect passively contemporary contradictions and prejudices.3 Symonds would later describe the “power of reflection” as a way to “amuse ourselves here [on earth?] with manifold toys”, the value of which is “in regard to the comfort and well-being of the individual” (172). Conspicuously absent from this definition is the notion that reflection does or can lead to truth. Rather, it is a way of getting along in the world; it helps us to cope. That, however, seems ill-suited to Tennyson, the poet-laureate of England who pronounces on national matters and mingles with ministers of state. Gladstone’s practical knowledge is by far superior. However, Symonds does not always view Tennyson’s reflections as “mere”, especially as they turn to more philosophical questions. He still refers to Tennyson’s “metaphysical vagueness” as “almost childish” (6). It is the stuff that undergraduates talk about late into the night: Would I show courage in war? In a sudden panic? What if I had an hour to think about it?4 What is a brick? Do I really have a clear idea of a brick? Can I sympathize with a brick and all its atoms 2 Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. “reflection”, def. 8. Note also in Lockean epistemology, reflection, along with sensation, is one of the two sources of all ideas (Locke, Essay, Book 2, Chapter 1, Section 2; 104). 3 In The Victorian Age in Literature, G. K. Chesterton refers to these contradictions and prejudices as the Victorian Compromise, and explains that “Tennyson did sincerely believe in the Victorian compromise; and sincerity is never undignified. […] Tennyson is the exquisitely ornamental extinguisher of the flame of the first revolutionary poets. England has...