Morte D Arthur - Analysis

Introduction and tone

“Morte d’Arthur” closes Tennyson’s Idylls of the King with a solemn, elegiac tone that shifts between mournful resignation and transcendent hope. The poem moves from the grim battlefield and the intimacy of a dying king to the mystical departure by barge, ending with a communal, almost redemptive evocation of Arthur’s possible return. Mood alternates from bitter reproach (Arthur’s anger at Bedivere) to tender farewell and finally to a quiet, consoling faith.

Relevant background

Tennyson, writing in Victorian England, reworked Arthurian legend to address loss, social change, and moral duty amid industrial and cultural upheaval. His meditation on a fading chivalric order reflects anxieties about tradition giving way to modernity and the need for moral renewal in a changing age.

Theme: Decline of an ideal

The poem centers on the dissolution of the Round Table as a symbol of a high moral order. Arthur’s line “The sequel of to-day unsolders all / The goodliest fellowship of famous knights” directly states the collapse. Bedivere’s lament—“now I see the true old times are dead”—extends this into personal and cultural loss, portraying the end of an idealized communal purpose.

Theme: Duty, failure, and forgiveness

Duty is tested in Bedivere’s repeated refusals to cast away Excalibur. Arthur’s rebukes—“Unknightly, traitor-hearted!”—expose human weakness; yet the poem allows for redemption: Bedivere finally obeys, and Arthur responds with counsel and prayer rather than only vengeance, urging prayer and moral continuity—“More things are wrought by prayer / Than this world dreams of.”

Theme: Death, mystery, and hope

Death is depicted as both ending and passage. The mystical barge and the three Queens transform Arthur’s death into a liminal voyage to Avilion, a healing place beyond ordinary suffering. Arthur’s last words—“The old order changeth, yielding place to new”—acknowledge mortality while offering hope that change can be purposeful and divinely governed.

Symbols and images

Excalibur functions as a complex symbol of kingship, sacred trust, and worldly treasure. Bedivere’s temptation to keep the hilt (“a precious thing…one worthy note”) shows how beauty and fame can corrupt fidelity. The lake and the white-samite arm are supernatural signs of transcendent authority; the barge with black-hooded figures and the three Queens evokes funeral ritual and otherworldly rescue. The image of the barge moving “like some full-breasted swan” merges death with poetic beauty, suggesting dignified departure rather than mere annihilation.

Final insight

Tennyson’s poem mourns a lost moral community while refusing simple nostalgia: through ritual, miracle, and counsel it proposes that endings can presage renewal. The narrative holds both human frailty and spiritual possibility in tension, making Arthur’s passing a moral parable about duty, faith, and the necessity of change.