Death comes to all, regardless of wealth, fame, or age. In Tennyson’s Poem, “The Sands of Dee”, a young woman venturing by the seaside encounters an early demise at the hands of the waves, and is discovered by fishermen who give her a respectful burial upon the beach. Though it may be quite dismal, Tennyson truly reveals to us a sweet attribute of human nature: we as people recognize that everyone, whether we know them or not, was loved once and is owed respect in death. In the portrayal of this somber theme, Tennyson employs a number of methods that make his poem like a song: he includes a drastic change of emotion between stanzas, a repetition that repeats itself and returns the reader to the location of question, and he utilizes visceral imagery to visually engrain the gruesome yet tranquil situation into the mind of the reader.
As in most poems of the Victorian era, Tennyson uses clear imagery to reveal the central theme of the poem. Imagery is commonly used to portray a situation or event and can therefore provoke robust emotions from the reader. Using the word “burning” to indicate the temperature of the weather or using “soak” to reveal a person’s clothes are wet are all examples of imagery. In the poem, the phrase “they rowed her in across the rolling foam” gives a clear picture of these fishermen collecting the dead woman’s remains with the fish-net, not only enabling the readers to better understand the context of the poem, but also allowing the readers to show some sympathy toward this woman, which is exactly what Tennyson wants, to let readers become deeply invested in the brief narrative.
Furthermore, Tennyson evokes emotions among readers using intentional word choices and receives help from metrical subtleties and allusions. Also during the plot, he creates a climax or a decisive twist to fluently change the emotion. The author starts this poem as a love song to Mary, who might be an imaginary character. “O Mary” (line 1) reflects the author’s affection for the girl and evokes a sense of peacefulness among the reader. Then the author creates a climax by writing the verse “is it weed, or fish, or floating hair” (line 3), to slowly evoke an extreme fear and sadness within the readers by depicting Mary’s death. Finally, the author draws us back from the sadness of her death as he sailors reel her in, and respectfully bury her. This shows the reader the truth, the good and beauty residing in human nature. The author uses such a drastic emotion change to compare and contrast the tragic death of the girl and the enthusiastic action by fish men, in order to further emphasize the respectfulness and unselfishness of the human nature.
As previously mentioned, one of the main components used in the poem was consistent repetition. At the end of each stanza, Tennyson repeats certain phrases—the purpose here is to give certain concepts/places particular emphasis, perhaps to remind the reader of the geographical location of each stanza or keep in their mind a constant thought as they read. For example, the word “home” was frequently repeated in the first stanza, telling the reader time and time again that Mary was leaving home, to danger and demise. Later on, in lines 7-9, Tennyson repeats the word sand, as on the beach: “The western tide crept along the sand, /And o’er and o’er the sand, /And round and round the sand, /As far as eye could see” (Tennyson, 7-9). As Tennyson continually includes these phrases, he accomplishes his theme by actually assisting the other devices we have mentioned. Notice the phrases both contain imagery and evoke an emotional response among the reader—both elements we have discussed as having a particular poignant role in Tennyson’s primary purpose. These repeated phrases add emphasis which accentuates both the imagery as well as the poles of emotion present within the text.
All in all, Tennyson uses repetition, imagery and drastic change of emotion to tragically point out the girl’s death, but on the other hand, he reveals the sweetness of human nature--that we are capable of being selfless and respectful. In such a short passage of prose, Tennyson truly does convey to us a sweet truth that provides at least some hope as the breakers crash upon us in the seas of turmoil created by man’s other myriad faults.
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