Tears, Idle Tears.
from "The Princess"
Alfred Lord Tennyson
1847
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth 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.
Fresh as the first beam 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.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remember'd kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!
Why did Holman Hunt reference this poem in Awakening Conscience?
Like Oft in the Stilly Night, the narrator regrets the passing of friends who gave such pleasure.
But the narrator goes on to make comparisons. What is the sweetness of those memories like?
sweet as those [kisses] by hopeless fancy feign'd / on lips that are for others;
In Awakening Conscience, who has 'lips that are for others'? Not the woman. She has no wedding or engagement ring. That only leaves the man. He must be the one who is given to someone else.
So, is the artist putting this regret of the lost past on the lips of the woman? If so, in doing that is he judging her to be the one who has seduced someone who belongs to another?