TITHONUS

Alfred Tennyson
TITHONUS
MYTH
 OVERVIEW OF ‘TITHONUS’
In Greek mythology, Tithonus was a Trojan
by birth, the son of King Laomedon of Troy by a
water nymph named Strymo ("harsh"). Eos, the
Greek goddess of the dawn, abducted Ganymede
and Tithonus from the royal house of Troy to be
her consorts. When Zeus stole Ganymede from
her to be his cup-bearer, as a repayment, Eos
asked for Tithonus to be made immortal, but
forgot to ask for eternal youth. Tithonus indeed
lived forever but grew ever older. In later
tellings, Eos eventually turned him into a cricket
to relieve him of such an existence. In the poem
however, it is Eos, and not Zeus, who grants
Tithonus immortality.
 OVERVIEW OF ‘TITHONUS’

In the poem, Tithonus asks Eos for the gift of immortality, which
she readily grants him, but forgets to ask for eternal youth along with
it. As time wears on, age catches up with him. Wasted and withered,
Tithonus is reduced to a mere shadow of himself. But since he is
immortal, he cannot die and is destined to live forever, growing older
and older with each passing day.
The main classical source that Tennyson draws upon is from the
story of Aphrodite's relationship with Anchises in the ancient Homeric
Hymn to Aphrodite. In this Aphrodite briefly tells of Eos's foolishness in
neglecting to ask Zeus for immortal youth for Tithonus along with his
immortality.
 OVERVIEW OF ‘TITHONUS’

The original version of the poem,

named "Tithon", was written in 1833 shortly
after Tennyson's friend Arthur Henry Hallam's
death but was not published. When William
Makepeace Thackeray asked him for a
submission to the Cornhill Magazine to be
issued in January 1860 which he was editing,
Tennyson made some substantial revisions to
the text of the poem and submitted it under
the title "Tithonus". It was published in the
February edition. It was finally published by
Tennyson in an anthology in the Enoch Arden
volume in 1864.
 TITHONUS

The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,

The vapours weep their burthen to the ground, Metaphor
Both an idea Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
of ageing
and passing And after many a summer dies the swan.
away.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes: I wither slowly in thine arms,
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
Aurora, the goddess of the dawn.
A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream
The ever-silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.
 Deterioration and death are two prominent ideas in the
opening line of the poem. The speaker tells us that the woods
decay, contributing to the idea of ageing and, eventually, passing
away. Decay suggests that, over time, things become less vibrant
and this is an idea that is central to Tennyson’s Tithonus in which
the main character himself fades over time.
A poet might choose to describe a swan as a beautiful
creature that represents purity but, in this case, the imagery is dark
and pessimistic. The swan becomes a shade, haunting the pond, and
helps to establish the sense of melancholy that permeates the
poem.
The speaker, Tithonus, is cursed to live forever. Tithonus tells
Aurora, goddess of the dawn, that he grows old slowly in her arms
like a “white-hair’d shadow” roaming in the east.
 TITHONUS
An exclamation to
express sorrow,
Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man—
The source of
grief, pity and So glorious in his beauty and thy choice, suffering in the poem
concern.
Who madest him thy chosen, that he seem'd is not Aurora’s
forgetfulness in
To his great heart none other than a God! formulating her
I ask'd thee, 'Give me immortality.' request to Zeus, but
rather the goddesses
Then didst thou grant mine asking with a smile, referred to as “strong
Like wealthy men, who care not how they give. Hours” who resent
But thy strong Hours indignant work'd their wills, Tithonus’s
immortality and
Both Aurora’s
helpers and
And beat me down and marr'd and wasted me, subject him to the
time itself. And tho' they could not end me, left me maim'd ravages of time.
 COMMENTARY

Tithonus laments that while he is now a “gray

shadow” he was once a beautiful man chosen as Aurora’s
lover. He remembers that he long ago asked Aurora to
grant him eternal life: “Give me immortality!” Aurora
granted his wish generously, like a rich philanthropist
who has so much money that he gives charity without
thinking twice. However, the Hours, the goddesses who
accompany Aurora, were angry that Tithonus was able to
resist death, so they took their revenge by battering him
until he grew old and withered.
 TITHONUS
There are no heroic (rhyming) couplets, unless one
To dwell in presence of immortal youth,
counts the two lines ending with the same word
Immortal age beside immortal youth, which emphasizes the contrast between them.
And all I was, in ashes. Can thy love,
Thy beauty, make amends, tho' even now,
The Silver Star guiding Aurora is the morning star.
Close over us, the silver star, thy guide,
Shines in those tremulous eyes that fill with tears
To hear me? Let me go: take back thy gift: The speaker shows regret and anger.

Why should a man desire in any way

To vary from the kindly race of men
He desires to be mortal
Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance and lead a natural life.
Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?
 COMMENTARY

Now, though he cannot die, he remains forever

old; and he must dwell in the presence of Aurora,
who renews herself each morning and is thus
forever young. Tithonus appeals to Aurora to take
back the gift of immortality while the “silver star”
of Venus rises in the morning. He now realizes the
ruin in desiring to be different from all the rest of
mankind and in living beyond the “goal of
ordinance,” the normal human lifespan.
 TITHONUS

A soft air fans the cloud apart; there comes The air gives a brief glimpse into
the world of Tithonus’ [Link]
A glimpse of that dark world where I was born. heartbeat pulses beyond hearing;
Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals the hoofs of Aurora's team strike
silent sparks from the
From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure, unimaginable flint of the air,
And bosom beating with a heart renew'd. they convert sound into a glory
of sight.
Thy cheek begins to redden thro' the gloom,
Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine,
Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild team
Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise, Aurora’s team of horses
And shake the darkness from their loosen'd manes,
And beat the twilight into flakes of fire.
 COMMENTARY

Just before the sun rises,

Tithonus catches sight of the
“dark world” where he was
born a mortal. He witnesses the
coming of Aurora, the dawn:
her cheek begins to turn red
and her eyes grow so bright
that they overpower the light of
the stars. Aurora’s team of
horses awakes and converts the
twilight into fire.
 TITHONUS

Lo! ever thus thou growest beautiful The complaint of Tithonus to

dawn, made anew each day
In silence, then before thine answer given because he never gets an answer.
Departest, and thy tears are on my cheek.

Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears,

And make me tremble lest a saying learnt, Where 'recall' superbly suggests
not only 'call back' but 'recollect',
In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true? an infinite divine forgetfulness of
extreme old age.
'The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts.'
 COMMENTARY

The poet now addresses Aurora, telling

her that she always grows beautiful and then
leaves before she can answer his request. He
questions why she must “scare” him with her
tearful look of silent regret; her look makes
him fear that an old saying might be true—
that “The Gods themselves cannot recall
their gifts.”
 TITHONUS

Ay me! ay me! with what another heart In other days, with another heart and other eyes,
In days far-off, and with what other eyes another self watched Aurora's daily alterations and,
I used to watch—if I be he that watch'd— he tells her, "Changed with thy mystic change." He
The lucid outline forming round thee; saw oscillates in his memory from watching her
The dim curls kindle into sunny rings; extraordinary transformation to watching himself,
Changed with thy mystic change, and felt my blood marveling. "If I be that watched." Describing his
Glow with the glow that slowly crimson'd all conjugal pleasure, he speaks as one wholly divorced
from his former beautiful self.
Thy presence and thy portals, while I lay,
Mouth, forehead, eyelids, growing dewy-warm
With kisses balmier than half-opening buds
Of April, and could hear the lips that kiss'd
Whispering I knew not what of wild and sweet, This lover from his youth used to whisper to him “wild
Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing, and sweet” melodies, like the music of Apollo’s lyre,
While Ilion like a mist rose into towers. which accompanied the construction of Ilion (Troy).
 COMMENTARY

He remembers, as if from another life or

as another man, when he used to love the
experience of the dawn: the outline forming
around her, the “sunny rings” of hair, his own
blood glowing as the day would warm, the
feeling of the dawn kissing him. She would
whisper something otherworldly, like “that
strange song I heard Apollo sing / While Ilion
like a mist rose into towers.”
 TITHONUS
Yet hold me not for ever in thine East: He asks her to release him and restore him to
How can my nature longer mix with thine? mortality and the grave because his nature
Coldly thy rosy shadows bathe me, cold can never truly mix with hers. He experiences
Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet the coolness of her “rosy shadows” while the
Upon thy glimmering thresholds, when the steam men below are still warmed by the day. These
Floats up from those dim fields about the homes men are happy and possess “the power to
Of happy men that have the power to die, die,” and are even happier in death. By
And grassy barrows of the happier dead. letting him go, she would still be able to see
Release me, and restore me to the ground; his grave eternally. By returning to the Earth
Thou seëst all things, thou wilt see my grave: he would forget “these empty courts,” while
Thou wilt renew thy beauty morn by morn; she would continue to bring the dawn on her
I earth in earth forget these empty courts, silver wheels.
And thee returning on thy silver wheels.
BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
 COMMENTARY

Tithonus asks Aurora not to keep him imprisoned in

the east where she rises anew each morning, because his
eternal old age contrasts so painfully with her eternal
renewal. He cringes cold and wrinkled, whereas she rises
each morning to warm “happy men that have the power to
die” and men who are already dead in their burial mounds
(“grassy barrows”). Tithonus asks Aurora to release him
and let him die. This way, she can see his grave when she
rises and he, buried in the earth, will be able to forget the
emptiness of his present state, and her return “on silver
wheels” that stings him each morning.
-THE END-