Mariana (poem)

"Mariana" is a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published in 1830. The poem follows a common theme in much of Tennyson's work—that of despondent isolation. The subject of Mariana is a woman who continuously laments her lack of connection with society. The isolation defines her existence, and her longing for a connection leaves her wishing for death at the end of every stanza. The premise of Mariana originates in William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, but the poem ends before Mariana's lover returns. Tennyson's version was adapted by others, including John Everett Millais and Elizabeth Gaskell, for use in their own works. The poem was well received by critics, and it is described by critics as an example of Tennyson's skill at poetry.

Tennyson wrote Mariana in 1830 and printed it within his early collection Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. Previously, he contributed poems to the work Poems by Two Brothers (1827), where his early poems dealing with isolation and memory can be found. The theme was continued in the later collection, with poems like Mariana, Ode to Memory, and others representing the earlier poems.

During a visit to the Pyrenees during the summer of 1830, Tennyson sought to give aid to Spanish rebels. During that time, he was affected by his experience and the influence appears in Mariana in the South, which was published in 1832; it is a later version that follows the idea of The Lady of Shalott.

Many of Tennyson's poems are in the form of a dramatic monologue. However, Mariana, like The Lady of Shallott, is more accurately a lyrical narrative. It contains elements of dramatic monologies in that it contains a refrain that carries through the poem as found in Oriana and other poems. Oriana is completely a dramatic monologue and Mariana is not because Tennyson represents how the title figure is unable to linguistically control her own poem, which reinforces the themes of the poem. This technique is used again in Tennyson's later poem, The Two Voices. The rhyme scheme of the poem, abab cddc efef, is different than the standard ballad rhyme that serves to contain the poem then allow a free expression. The middle quatrain of the stanzas returns in theme to the beginning in a cyclical pattern while the last quatrain's lines contain the same words.

Within the poem, Tennyson does not teach the audience what melancholy means. Instead, he describes its various aspects as he begins:

The narrator of the poem is disconnected from Mariana, and he is able to see what she cannot. In particular, he is able to describe the "sweet heaven" whereas Mariana refuses to take in the scene as well as she is unable to understand the movement of time:

...
Wikipedia