This essay shows that anticipations of the “art for art’s sake” theory can be found in Tennyson’s poetry which is in line with the tenets of aestheticism, and to show that Tennyson’s lyricism is a “palace of art” in which his tragic emotions―sadness, sorrow, despair, and melancholic sensibility―were built into beauty. It is my intention to give him a new significance in the history of literature by putting him in the line of aesthetes. His poetry expresses subjective states of feeling, and serves an aesthetic purpose. He accomplished this private purpose of poetry through the medium of a lyricism which is characterized by sorrow and melancholy. I support my argument by examining two poems “Mariana” in the 1830 volume and “The Palace of Art” in the 1832 volume. (Cheju National University)
키워드
Tennysonsorrow and aestheticismart for art’s sake“Mariana” “The Palace ofArt”