Tithonus

Discussion Questions: Tithonus by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1. Close Reading | AQA AO2 / AP Close Reading: Tennyson begins Tithonus with a slow, repetitive catalogue of natural things that decay and renew. How does this structural choice — listing cycles of decay before introducing Tithonus himself — shape the reader's initial understanding of his predicament? What effect does the poem's blank verse form add to this opening movement?

1. Voice & Tone | IB Guiding Question / AP Tone: The tone of Tithonus has been described as mournful yet dignified — never frantic or bitter. How does Tennyson maintain a sense of calm, measured grief throughout the poem, and what does this restraint reveal about Tithonus as a speaker? How might the poem change if Tithonus expressed anger instead of sorrow?

1. Theme: Mortality | AQA AO3 / IB Contextual Reading: Tithonus comes to view the ability to die as a privilege rather than a tragedy. How does the poem present mortality as something to be desired instead of feared, and what does this inversion indicate about the Victorian cultural anxieties surrounding science, progress, and human nature that Tennyson was addressing?

1. Theme: Identity | AP Thematic Analysis: Tithonus describes himself in distanced, almost impersonal terms — as if he can barely recognize his own reflection. How does the poem explore the erosion of identity over time, and in what ways does Tithonus's lost youth signify a loss of self rather than merely a loss of appearance?

1. Symbolism | AQA AO2 / IB Literary Feature: Aurora embodies perpetual renewal and radiance, while Tithonus represents endless decay. How does Tennyson use the symbolic contrast between Aurora and Tithonus to deepen the central tragedy of the poem? In what way is Aurora's love both the source of his suffering and a reminder of what he has lost?

1. Symbolism | AP Close Reading: The "grassy barrows of the dead" — burial mounds visible from Aurora's domain — are portrayed not as symbols of grief but of peace and belonging. What does it reveal about Tithonus's state of mind that he envies the dead, and how does this symbol challenge conventional ideas about a good life or a good ending?

1. Biographical & Historical Context | AQA AO3 / IB Contextual Reading: Tennyson drafted Tithonus in 1833 shortly after the death of his close friend Arthur Hallam, then revised and published it decades later. In what ways might the poem be interpreted as a meditation on grief and the exhaustion of surviving loss? How does this biographical context influence your understanding of Tithonus's plea to be allowed to die?

1. Authorial Intent | IB Guiding Question / AP Authorial Craft: Tennyson selected the myth of Tithonus — rather than creating an original scenario — to explore themes of time, love, and mortality. What does the mythological framework enable him to achieve that a more realistic or personal narrative might not? How does grounding the poem in Greek myth provide Tennyson with distance from, or access to, deeply personal emotions?

1. Theme: Time | AQA AO2 / AP Thematic Analysis: The Hours in Tithonus are personified not as gentle or neutral forces but as aggressive, destructive ones that "beat," "marred," and "wasted" the speaker. How does this violent depiction of time's passage differ from more conventional poetic treatments of time, and what does it suggest about the particular horror of Tithonus's immortality?

1. Imagery: Warmth vs. Cold | AQA AO2 / AP Close Reading: The poem traces a deliberate movement from images of warmth — glowing skin, crimson light, heated intimacy — to a pervasive coldness by the final stanza. How does this thermal shift function as a structural device, and what does it convey about Tithonus's relationship with Aurora and his own existence by the poem's conclusion?