Alfred Lord Tennyson is the Victorian poet who is the author of "Tiresias." This is a poem centered on the mythological character of Tiresias. Tennyson speaks through this character using a technique called prosopopoeia. In this poem Tennyson explores the ideas that are present in much of his poetry such as: justification of death, purpose for life, and his person struggle with his close friend Arthur Henry Hallam's death.
             In this poem, Tiresias is trying to persuade Menoeceus to commit suicide in order to save Thebes. No one can kill Menoecus under order of Creon.
             Tennyson portrays Tiresias longing for the past. Tennyson begins this poem by preparing the reader for a long journey of retrospection into Tiresias' past. He makes this apparent to the reader in line one:
             I wish I were as in the years of old,
             While yet the blessed daylight made itself
             Ruddy through both the roofs of sight, and woke
             These eyes, now dull, but then so keen to seek
             The meanings ambushed under all they saw (1-5)
             Tennyson begins this poem with the blatant statement that he yearns for the 'years of old.' The third line could quite possibly be talking about the myth that Hera punished Tiresias for disturbing the life cycle between two snakes. Hera punished Tiresias by turning him into a girl for the majority of his life. Also, he is struck blind for watching the goddess Athena undress. Thus, Tiresias has understood life as "both" a woman and a man. The preceding lines can pertain to how being struck blind had caused him to actually see. When Athena punished Tiresias he was granted the power of foreseeing the future of man. In lines four and five Tiresias is describing how in his younger days his gift allowed him to understand the world around him better. Beneath his optimistic view lies a sentimental and depressive tone. His eyes are now dull.
             Tiresias seems to find a certain consolation ...