Hendecasyllabics - Analysis

Overall impression

This poem addresses critics with a playful, self-conscious tone that mixes anxiety and wit. The speaker both brags and begs, presenting his short piece as a careful exercise in a classical metre while fearing ridicule. Mood shifts subtly from anxious performance to coquettish appeal by the end.

Context and voice

Written by Alfred Lord Tennyson, the poem plays with classical forms—specifically the Catullan hendecasyllable—so knowledge of Victorian literary circles and reverence for classical imitation helps explain its ironic stance. The voice is conversational and theatrical, directly addressing a public of reviewers and magazines.

Main theme: performance and anxiety

The poem foregrounds the difficulty of poetic performance: phrases like hard, hard, hard is it, only not to tumble and the skater image emphasize precarious technical effort. The repetition of indolent reviewers frames the speaker’s fear of external judgment, making anxiety a driving force.

Main theme: self-presentation and modesty

There is a staged modesty—an ostensible plea for mercy that doubles as self-promotion. Calling the poem a tiny poem and asking not to be thought too presumptuous reveals a calculated humility that seeks praise while appearing diffident.

Imagery and symbols

Key images include the skater on ice, the chorus of indolent reviewers, and the rare little rose. The skater evokes balance and risk; the chorus suggests collective judgment and laziness; the rose and coquette metaphors transform the poem into an object of careful cultivation and flirtation, inviting gentle reception rather than scorn.

Form supporting meaning

While not analyzed in technical detail, the poem’s claim to be written in Catullan metre and its self-conscious meter-related lines reinforce the theme of technical bravado mixed with vulnerability: form and content mirror the speaker’s tightrope act.

Concluding insight

Tennyson’s piece is a witty self-defense that dramatizes the poet’s uneasy relation to critics: through playful imagery and rhetorical modesty it converts fear of ridicule into a charming appeal for kindly attention, while also showcasing the craft it asks to be judged on.