After one has read The Holy Grail by Alfred Lord Tennyson and watched the movie The Fisher King directed by Terry Gilliam, the question about the identity of the Fisher King in the movie naturally arises. In The Holy Grail, the Fisher King is...

For centuries, nature in literature has been used as a means to reflect both our society and humanity. Both Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Christina Rossetti’s selected poems use nature as both a tool of oppression and a support, challenging the...

When we think about author and reader in tandem, a question or issue often comes immediately to a head: should the reader’s interpretation of a text take precedence over authorial authority? This question seems particularly pertinent with regards...

The relationship between art and the self is a reoccurring theme in Tennyson’s poetry; indeed in The Palace of Art the narrator declares “I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house”[i]; bridging the gap between the interior (soul) and exterior...

Alfred Tennyson’s In Memoriam, a poem of substantial length that he wrote in mourning of his best friend Arthur Henry Hallum, has withstood the test of time into the 21st century as a celebrated work that explores how humans work through trauma...

Instability, in its most basic sense, is something not likely to change or fail, this is a feeling or fear explored across various themes in Maud. Across the private and public spheres, instability is recognized in the mind, politics, existence,...

In « Tears, Idle tears », the victorian poet, Lord Alfred Tennyson gives through his poem a retrospective glance back at what he has lost in the past, but also the way people might feel when faced with loss. Lord Tennyson wrote this poem after...

When Jesus’s disciples asked him about the greatest in Heaven, they were likely expecting him to speak of great religious figures or historical leaders. However, Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children,...

Idylls of the King reflects the nature and dangers of Victorian idealism through an Arthurian lens. Victorian poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, portrays the unsustainability of extreme Christian values in his twelve narrative poems depicting the rise...