Circumstance - Analysis

Introduction and overall tone

This short lyric by Alfred Lord Tennyson presents a calm, cyclical view of human life. Its tone is gently observant, almost pastoral, with a steady movement from playful beginnings to mature union and finally to restful graves. There is a quiet acceptance rather than melodrama, and a slight shift from liveliness in the opening lines to serene finality in the closing image.

Relevant context

Written in the Victorian era, Tennyson often meditated on continuity, mortality, and social life. The poem’s rural images and emphasis on communal stages of life reflect Victorian interest in social order, the natural cycle, and consoling views of death popular in that period.

Main theme: the cycle of life

The poem’s dominant theme is the round of life, explicit in the last line. Tennyson traces successive stages in pairs: children, strangers, lovers, lives joined, and graves. The repeated use of "Two" and the compact sequence compress life into recognizable, recurrent episodes, suggesting inevitability and continuity.

Main theme: togetherness and unity

Pairing recurs as a moral and structural principle. Phrases like "Two lives bound fast in one with golden ease" and "Two graves grass-green" link intimacy and shared destiny. The poem frames human experience as essentially relational—people come and go in pairs, and union persists beyond life into burial.

Imagery and symbolism of place and nature

Pastoral images—the "healthy leas", festival, orchard wall, and daisy-blossomed graves—ground the poem in natural cycles. The gray church-tower and rain-wash'd graves symbolize calm ritual and the gentle cleansing of mortality. Nature here both stages human play and receives human ends, reinforcing continuity between life and death.

Ambiguity and open question

The poem is spare and elliptical, inviting questions about individual identity within the pairs. Are the repeated "Two" the same souls seen at different times, or archetypal roles across generations? This ambiguity lets the poem function as both specific vignette and universal pattern.

Conclusion and final insight

Circumstance offers a compact consolation: life moves in recognizable, paired stages, and human bonds carry through to a tranquil end. Tennyson’s calm imagery and steady repetition turn ordinary events into a comforting vision of continuity and shared fate.