SI

Directions: (1) Links on single words take the reader to documents containing lists of those and related words in other sections of the poem. (2) Links to phrases contain explanatory com- mentary, which, depending upon the length of the section, appears in the left-hand column or below the poem (3) Longer commentaries and discussion questions appear as separate linked documents.

Principal motifs: death, dream, tears, yew

Notes

roots are wrapt about the bones: Job 8: 17: "His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones." [Ricks 865]. Assuming that Ricks correctly identifies an allusion here, can you explain why T. alluded to Job? What does such allusion do as a form of characterization of the speaker? as a religious statement? [SML]

Old Yew, which graspest at the stones
That name the under-lying dead,
Thy fibres net the dreamless head,
Thy roots are wrapt about the bones.

The seasons bring the flower again,
And bring the firstling to the flock;
And in the dusk of thee, the clock
Beats out the little lives of men.

O, not for thee the glow, the bloom,
Who changest not in any gale,
Nor branding summer suns avail
To touch thy thousand years of gloom:

And gazing on thee, sullen tree,
Sick for thy stubborn hardihood,
I seem to fail from out my blood
And grow incorporate into thee.

Last modified 11 February 2010

II [“ Old Yew, which graspest at the stones”]

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Notes