Tithonus by Lord Alfred Tennyson - Line-by-Line Easy Analysis
Lines 1–5
The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the fields and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Meaning: Nature follows the cycle of life and death, but Tithonus alone cannot die.
Lines 6–9
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms,
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
A white-haired shadow roaming like a dream
Meaning: Immortality without youth leaves him pale, ghost-like, and endlessly withering.
Lines 10–15
The ever-silent spaces of the East
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.
Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man—
So glorious in his beauty and thy choice,
Who madest him thy chosen, that he seemed
To his great heart none other than a God!
Meaning: He recalls his past beauty and feeling godlike in Aurora’s love.
Lines 16–21
Till now I waste and wither with her kiss.
Why should a man desire in any way
To vary from the kindly race of men,
Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance
Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?
Meaning: He regrets wishing to escape the natural human life cycle.
Lines 22–27
A soft air fans the cloud apart; there comes
A glimpse of that dark world where I was born.
Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals
From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure,
And bosom beating with a heart renewed.
Thy cheek begins to redden through the gloom,
Meaning: A view of his mortal world appears as Aurora’s eternal beauty renews each dawn.
Lines 28–33
Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine,
Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild team
Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise,
And shake the darkness from their loosen’d manes,
And beat the twilight into flakes of fire.
Meaning: Aurora’s divine horses scatter the darkness as she begins her daily journey.
Lines 34–39
Lo! ever thus thou growest beautiful
In silence, then before thine answer given
Departest, and the morning bear thee off,
And all day long I look at the level plains,
And wavering glimmer of the golden grain,
And sunlit waters of the world beyond.
Meaning: She departs each morning, leaving him to gaze at the mortal world he misses.
Lines 40–46
The nightingales are singing in the woods;
The master chords of all thou dost despise,
Because thine ear grows dull with utter joy.
Even thy beauty tires, my weary eyes;
Thee fair, yet cold, till hunger cloy desire,
And bliss is sometimes inmost melancholy.
Meaning: Eternal pleasure dulls the senses; even beauty can become tiresome.
Lines 47–53
Thy cheeks, like apples, which the sun hath rudded,
Thy plenteous hair a down of gold-dust sifted,
Thy voice, like eddying music in the wind,
Thy form, that floats upon the charmèd air,
Fair creature, all thy life is in thine arms;
And I must die here by thy side
Meaning: Her beauty is vivid and alive, but he is trapped in endless decay beside her.
Lines 54–60
Of thy strong youth and glorious life,
Thine, thine the immortal morn,
But mine the dark, the chill, the unending night;
The old, that should die, but never can;
The frost, that binds me like a spell;
The weary ages that creep on for ever.
Meaning: Her eternal youth contrasts with his endless night and aging.
Lines 61–65
Release me, and restore me to the ground;
Thou seest all things, thou wilt see my grave:
Thou wilt renew thy beauty morn by morn;
I earth in earth forget these empty courts,
And thee returning on thy silver wheels.
Meaning: He begs for release into death, so he can rest while she continues her eternal cycle.
