The Princess Part Z Conclusion - Analysis

Introduction

This concluding section of Tennyson's long poem closes with a reflective, slightly playful tone that shifts into calm solemnity. The narrator frames the tale as a composite compromise between mock-heroic banter and sincere idealism, ending in communal conviviality and a contemplative night. Mood moves from debating and convivial dispute to pastoral peace and spiritual quiet.

Relevant context

Written by Alfred Lord Tennyson, a leading Victorian poet, the piece reflects mid-19th-century concerns about social order, reform, and the role of imagination versus practical politics. The poem’s debate between mockery and seriousness mirrors Victorian tensions between tradition and reform, and between public spectacle and private faith.

Main themes

Compromise between art and audience: the narrator explicitly describes reconciling "mock-heroic" with "true-heroic" demands, showing how storytelling must balance tones and expectations. This metapoetic self-awareness exposes how form is negotiated with readers.

Social order and political anxiety: the Tory friend’s speech—blessing the "narrow sea" that keeps Britain intact—expresses fear of sudden upheaval and parody of revolutions "Too comic for the serious things they are." The poem contrasts cautious patriotism with the narrator’s patient optimism about social change.

Communal harmony and spiritual consolation: the closing pastoral scene—valleys, gray halls, seas, and a joyful shout—culminates in peaceful reverie and a vision of night breaking into the "Heaven of Heavens," suggesting consolation beyond political dispute.

Recurring images and symbols

The garden and landscape recur as symbols of ordered, domestic peace and national integrity: "a land of peace," "trim hamlets," and the "narrow sea" marking separation from continental chaos. The rural tableau functions as an emblem of continuity and rootedness.

Mock-heroic versus true-heroic operates as symbolic poles: burlesque (banter, "little Lilia") versus earnestness (a "noble princess"). This binary symbolizes conflicting responses to social change—satire and serious reform—and the narrator’s diagonal movement suggests art’s hybrid possibility.

Night and the heavenly image close the poem: as "the powers of the night" deepen, human disputation yields to an expansive, spiritual silence. Night here symbolizes both contemplative ending and a transcendent order beyond temporal worries.

Open-ended observation

By ending with a gentle communal act—Lilia unveiling the statue and the company dispersing—Tennyson leaves ambiguous whether poetic synthesis truly resolves the tensions he narrates or simply shelters them beneath shared ritual and reverie.

Conclusion

The conclusion balances metapoetic reflection, political commentary, and pastoral consolation. Tennyson acknowledges conflict between irony and earnestness, affirms patient social hope, and finally relocates meaning in communal ritual and transcendent night, offering a modest faith in narrative’s and society’s capacity to hold contradictions.