Question

Maud

Accepted Answer

Maud and other poems was Alfred Tennyson's first collection after becoming poet laureate in 1850, published in 1855.

Among the "other poems" was "The Charge of the Light Brigade", which had already been published in the Examiner a few months before. It was considered a disgrace to society in the early days of its release and was banned for eight and a half years, until popular demand made it available to read once more. The ban was reportedly commissioned due to suggestive themes and supposedly biased opinions toward the current government opposition, which were later confirmed false by Tennyson, while also expressing his own judgement on the whole event as "a bit of a joke".

The poem was inspired by Charlotte Rosa Baring, younger daughter of William Baring (1779–1820) and Frances Poulett-Thomson (d. 1877). Frances Baring married, secondly, Arthur Eden (1793–1874), Assistant-Comptroller of the Exchequer, and they lived at Harrington Hall, Spilsby, Lincolnshire, which is the garden of the poem (also referred to as "the Eden where she dwelt" in Tennyson's poem "The Gardener's Daughter").

Narrative
The first part of the poem dwells on the funeral of the protagonist's father, and a feeling of loss and lament prevails; then Maud is the prevailing theme. At first the narrator is somewhat antagonistic towards Maud and is unsure whether she is teasing him; he feels Maud is unfit to be a wife. Later the narrator falls passionately in love with Maud and this transforms the narrative into a pastoral, dwelling on her beauty.

The appearance of Maud's brother causes conflict. Maud's brother favours a collier who is seen as an upstart as his family have been rich for only three generations, and forbids Maud to contact the narrator. The brother goes to London for a week, giving the narrator a chance to court Maud, but on his return he arranges a ball, invites the collier and leaves the narrator out. During the ball the poet waits for Maud in the garden, leading to the famous line "Come into the garden, Maud". Early in the morning Maud comes out. Shortly afterwards Maud's brother also appears and strikes the narrator, who kills him in an unnarrated duel.

The narrator is forced to flee to France where he learns later that Maud has also died. Maud's death impacts on the psychological state of the protagonist, and an emotional longing for contact with the deceased echoes the tones of In Memoriam. The distressed narrator loses his sanity for a while and imagines that he himself is dead.

The poem ends in Part III, with the narrator, apparently restored to sanity, leaving to fight in the Crimean War; parallels may be drawn between the death of Maud's brother, and the apparently justified killing of soldiers in war

Maud Narrator Poem Maud's Brother Tennyson's Published Early