n Chapter IV of Mr. Stopford Brooke's _Tennyson_, there is a valuable
commentary upon _Oenone_. He deals first with the imaginative treatment
of the landscape, which is characteristic of all Tennyson's classical
poems, and instances the remarkable improvement effected in the
descriptive passages in the volume of 1842. "But fine landscape and fine
figure re-drawing are not enough to make a fine poem. Human interest,
human passion, must be greater than Nature, and dominate the subject.
Indeed, all this lovely scenery is nothing in comparison with the sorrow
and love of Oenone, recalling her lost love in the places where once she
lived in joy. This is the main humanity of the poem. But there is more.
Her common sorrow is lifted almost into the proportions of Greek tragedy
by its cause and by its results. It is caused by a quarrel in Olympus,
and the mountain nymph is sacrificed without a thought to the vanity of
the careless gods. That is an ever-recurring tragedy in human history.
Moreover, the personal tragedy deepens when we see the fateful dread in
Oenone's heart that she will, far away, in time hold her lover's life in
her hands, and refuse to give it back to him--a fatality that Tennyson
treated before he died. And, secondly, Oenone's sorrow is lifted into
dignity by the vast results which flowed from its cause. Behind it were
the mighty fates of Troy, the ten years' battle, the anger of Achilles,
the wanderings of Ulysses, the tragedy of Agamemnon, the founding of
Rome, and the three great epics of the ancient world."

Another point of general interest is to be noted in the poem. Despite
the classical theme the tone is consistently modern, as may be gathered
from the philosophy of the speech of Pallas, and from the tender yielding
nature of Oenone. There is no hint here of the vindictive resentment
which the old classical writers, would have associated with her grief.
Similarly Tennyson has systematically modernised the Arthurian legend in
the _Idylls of the King_, giving us nineteenth century thoughts in a
conventional mediaeval setting.

A passage from Bayne, puts this question clearly: "Oenone wails
melodiously for Paris without the remotest suggestion of fierceness or
revengeful wrath. She does not upbraid him for having preferred to her
the fairest and most loving wife in Greece, but wonders how any one could
love him better than she does. A Greek poet would have used his whole
power of expression