 Hello dear learners, I am Chanika Rai from Krishnakanta Handik State Open University. Welcome to the second part of the video lecture on the Poem Tears Ideal Tears by Lord Alfred Tennyson. In the previous video, we have got an idea on the life and works of the poet. In this video, we shall try to read the poem in a detailed manner. Published in 1847 as part of the Princess a Medley, Tears Ideal Tears deals with the subject of women in the modern world and presents the theme of higher education of women. The princess who rejects marriage wishes to educate women, keeping them entirely free from male influence and thus the subject of the poem is of great contemporary interest. After a day's hard work, Princess Ida asks one of her maidens to sing a song to offer the much needed relaxation. The poem is the resultant song sung by the maiden. Let us reflect on the title of the poem. The title is Tears Ideal Tears. The tears are actually described as ideal. So, the title of the poem is suggestive of the feeling of sadness, that is tears. But the cause of the sorrow is difficult to define and hence the tears are ideal tears. The poem consists of four stanzas and in the four stanzas the poet has tried to particularly reflect on past and present. Let us try to understand what the poet is trying to reflect through the poem by dealing stanza wise. The first stanza goes thus. Tears ideal tears. I know not what they mean. Tears from the depths of some divine despair rise in the heart and gather to the eyes in looking on the happy autumn fields and thinking of the days that are no more. So, these are the opening lines of the poem Tears Ideal Tears. And you can see that the words are simple without any ambiguity. The poet speaks of the tears whose meaning and significance is unable to define or understand. They are however caused by some divine despair, that is the hopeless yearning of man for complete fulfillment in the world. So, man has a divine origin. This is believed by the poet narrator and here he refers to the despair which is perhaps given by God because man are unable to achieve joy and happiness. So, until Darwin's discovery of evolution, the biblical story of man's origin and fall from paradise had dominated the Christian mind. So, it must be noted that the tears are perhaps due to this inevitable depth of mortal man. The sense of longing for the poet is also futile and there is despair which is an essential part of human existence. The last line of this stanza mentions the sadness of remembering the days that are no more. So, both the occasions are apt to bring tears to our eyes so they are both sweet and sad. Coming to the second stanza, fresh as the first film glittering on a sail that brings our friends up from the underworld. Sad as the last which reddens over one that sinks with all we love below the verge. So sad, so fresh the days that are no more. So, here we can see that the second stanza continues this duality in the image of the ship that emerges before our eyes with the light of the morning sun glittering on its sail. Tennyson says, fresh as the first film glittering on a sail that brings our friends up from the underworld. So, the recollection of past days can be both sweet and bitter. It is sweet to remember the joys of the past but very bitter or painful to think that it brings to our mind a sense of loss. The image of the ship brings out this spatial mixture very clearly. The ship emerges from and returns to the land of that is over the horizon. As the poem is essentially concerned with the memory of the past the poet appropriately compares this feeling about bygone days to the experience one has when anticipating the arrival of friends from afar and then seeing them sail away beyond the horizon as they return to far away places or lands. Let us look at the third stanza of the poem. Sad and strange as in dark summer dawns the earliest pipe of half awakened birds to dying years when unto dying eyes the casement slowly grows a glimmering square so sad so strange the days that are no more. In the third stanza we can notice the image of the dying man you may have noticed the word ah at the beginning of this stanza which suggests a sense of pain it says ah sad and strange as in dark summer dawns so here the speaker likens his emotions to those of a dying man who sees a summer dawn and hears birds piping outside his window you can also notice the essential duality of life and death the man is dying but the birds are chirping at the time is dawn the moment of the first appearing of light in the morning sky and hence the sedation is that of a beginning so it is kind of a mixture or mixed feeling so the emotions are both sad and sweet involving both life and death the birds in the lines are half awakened so we can see that tenison says the earliest pipe of half awakened birds to dying years unto dying eyes that is the birds in the lines are half awakened means they are not fully awake but you can find the dying man is fully awake you can also note the dying years and dying eyes so both refer to a dying man being placed in the same line the two phrases emphasize the gloom associated with death the dying man's side is failing but the casement that means the window seems to be glittering with the morning light the memory of the past the point concludes is similarly sad and strange let us now look at the last stanza dear as remembered kisses after death and sweet as those by hopeless fancy faint on lips that are for others deep as love deep as first love and wild with all regret oh death in life the days that are no more in the last stanza we find that the speaker compares his feeling for the past to death of the remembered kisses after death it is not clear however who dies and who leaves but the memory of the remembered kisses in the past becomes sweet because of the distance in time even when the beloved is no more the memories of the past lies deep in our heart like love in general or the first love which lasts the longest thus memory is as deep as first love and as wild as the passionate sadness that the days have become and we can no longer get them back the bygone days as is evident or that is suggested by the word death it is tinged with sadness with the realization that those days are no more so you must have noticed that in all the four stanzas the expression is there the days that are no more so it is a common refrain that ends all the stanzas so we have to mark this when we read the style of the poem so here since this is mainly about the theme or the idea that the poem deals with we have to remember that this is a poem about memory of the past days so let us remember that this point is a part of the princess where the maiden sings this lyric titled tears ideal tears as a song the song's purpose is to tell the listeners about sadness which comes from reflecting on the past and the major theme as I have already noted is the sadness that accompanies our reflections on the past days this sadness comes from the realization that the joyful experiences of the past will never come back and can never be enjoyed again so in short we can say that this is a poem that mixes joy with sorrow or sadness with sweetness I am sure that you have got an idea about the point in this video in the next video that is part three on the topic we shall look into the poetic style and language employed by alfred lock tenison thank you for watching this video