Blow Bugle Blow

Blow Bugle Blow is a poem composed by Alfred Tennyson, and narrates a story full of nostalgic feelings and strong sounds. Using something so simple as nature itself as a backdrop for the real intention of the poet.

The poem starts us with an alliteration of the "b" sound. The bugle, is commonly used at war, during the medieval times.
This title is already introducing us to the era of war. the era that Alfred Tennyson wrote poems about. His era.
This poem is about a landscape full of nature's wonders, light falling on the lakes and snow. However this scenery is mixed with the sounds of the bugle and the echoes that end up dying in the sky. A beautiful scenery , and the strong bugle.
When the lyrical speaker starts mentioning the strong bugle, after speaking about a warm, calm scenery, we know there's a meaning beyond just a beautiful landscape. The bugle stands for a war and for a calling. The echoes are voices that end up dying and getting lost. Maybe the speaker remembers the ones who died, when he looks at this calm place. Remembering the ones who he has lost. The nature is a simple  backdrop used to reflect about the deaths that the speaker has suffered.
The speaker uses a nostalgic tone in which he dresses to the memory of those who died. He remembers all these when he observes the scenery. He even refers to his "love" to which he laments all this deaths in "yon rich sky". He isn't sad though, but he is reflexive about what he feels.
This poem consists of two shifts in my opinion. The first one goes from line 1 to line 4. It tells us about the nature in the scenery, as we can see here:

"And snowy summits old in story:

The long light shakes across the lakes,"

This introduce us to the background of what is about to be said.
The second shift goes from line 5 to 18, which is all the rest. This shift is the one who goes beyond the nature and maeks us tremble. The bugle that blows and breaks the tranquility, setting the wild echoes flying. This shift is more dinamic and tells us about the echoes of the people that the lyrical speaker mentions. All this lines consist of the sound of the bugle and the echoes going around, just to end up dying in the same place.
Now we know that the title stands for setting wild echoes flying, which will go along with us since the fifth line. Even telling us alittle about what the poem is gonng to be.
The theme of the poem is the remembering of this echoes that are called by the bugle. The echoes of people that probably died in battle or personal deaths of friends of the speaker who died as well.
The metre in this poem changes throughout it. The first four lines of each stanza follows an iambic tetrameter style, but on the last two lines of each stanzas there is a repetition that changes the structure. The poet uses this to emphasize this lines, from which he tells us about the remainance of the bugle and the echoes. Reminding us that they are there.
This poem consist of a sestet by each stanza. The first four lines of each stanza consist of a rhyme "abcb". For example,

"THE SPLENDOUR falls on castle walls

And snowy summits old in story:

The long light shakes across the lakes,

And the wild cataract leaps in glory."

And this verses are usually actions that are natural and usually happen. However, the last two lines of each stanza have a different pattern. They rhyme with each other. Also this verses consist of actions that are happening right now. For example,

"Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,

Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying."

Actions that are important and emphasized in the poem.
There are many rethorical devices in this poem, for example, the title itself, "Blow Bugle Blow",
which is an alliteration of the "b" sound. As we know, Tennyson was known for his use of sounds in his poems, probably to make for a more dinamic and interesting poem. There is also a repetition in every last line of each stanza. The words "dying, dying, dying" create a sense of importance in this words and restates the fact that these are echoes that are getting lost, so the repetition is the same as an echo fading away.

This poem is full of sounds that one should really pay attention to. A work of art that reflects the nostalgic sense of death we as humans suffer for the lost of someone or someones. The beauty of nature is such, that it makes the lyrical speaker experience this feelings when he sees this magnificent scenery. Truly a beautiful example of the classic victorian poetry.


823 words.