Ford's description of Alfred Tennyson's work being "the past is his great theme" is referring to two things; one is obvious: Tennyson's poetry takes place in the past. But second, and more complex, is Tennyson's ability to place his poems in the past in order to discuss Victorian issues. Although Tennyson was "the poet" of the Victorian age, he was also called "poet of things past" for his ambiguous writing style; Tennyson was gifted with the ability to write about concerns of the everyday Victorian person in a place that was far, far away and in a time long before the Victorian age. Two of the poems which explore the notion of the past as Tennyson's great theme are "Mariana" and "The Lotos Eaters".
             Were Tennyson, Shakespeare, and Homer were alive these days; both "Mariana" and "The Lotos Eaters" could cause intellectual property lawsuits considering that they were both based on other stories by other writers. In these two poems it is interesting to see how Tennyson took characters from other people's work and gave them his own ending to their stories (with, of course, the Victorian flare).
             "Mariana" much like "Lady of Shalott" concerns a heroine dealing with isolation. Isolation -not only physical, from the rest of the world, but also mental, was a concern for many people during the Victorian era. Victorians felt in some ways it was difficult to connect with other members of society. Such things as the religion vs. science controversy and the industrial boom made the Victorians feel a lost of traditional values as well as sacrificing individualism.
             "Mariana" is a character taken from Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure", Mariana waits in a farmhouse for her lover to come back. Having not read the play, I assume this is where Shakespeare leaves Mariana, and this is where T...