Buonoparte - Analysis

Introduction and tone

This short poem registers a triumphant, scornful tone toward the eponymous Buonoparte, mixing mockery with patriotic pride. The speaker moves from contemptuous address—calling him Madman!—to celebratory recounting of British naval victories, ending in a sardonic, biblical simile. The mood shifts from derision to vigorous remembrance of conflict and finally to a lesson-learned note of forced humility.

Historical backdrop

Tennyson invokes Napoleon Buonaparte and the British naval responses—explicitly Trafalgar and the seaborne clashes that troubled coasts from the Mediterranean to India. References such as Elsinore and Coptic sands position the struggle as global, and the Gideon simile ties the modern conflict to an Old Testament narrative of humbling the proud.

Theme: Imperial rivalry and sea power

The poem’s central theme is the supremacy of British naval might against imperial ambition. Images of "wooden walls" and "Peal after peal" of battle present the navy as an elemental force that "broke" the enemy’s attempts to dominate "Ind to Ind." The sea is both theater and agent of British resistance, calming ("Lulling the brine") only after victory.

Theme: Pride, hubris, and humiliation

Tennyson frames Buonaparte’s plans as arrogant and deluded—he would "chain" an "island queen"—and shows how experience taught him "humility / Perforce." The closing Gideon allusion, to being schooled "with briers," underscores the idea that pride is punished and corrective suffering is deserved.

Imagery and symbols

Recurring images—thunder, lightning, smoke, and "shatter'd spars"—evoke the violence and spectacle of naval warfare, while the wooden walls symbolize Britain’s naval defenses and national identity. The Coptic sands and Elsinore extend the poem’s reach, suggesting that British power is felt across diverse shores. The Gideon reference functions as a moral symbol, converting military defeat into spiritual chastening.

Conclusion

Tennyson compresses patriotic vindication and moralizing contempt into a compact address: an overreaching conqueror is defeated by a sea-faring people and taught humility. By fusing vivid maritime imagery with historical and biblical allusion, the poem asserts both Britain’s naval dominance and the moral order that humbles the proud.