What is the final test of the value of a law? Its effects on the people. In what words does Tennyson show the effect on the people of the laws made through this man's influence?
Explain how this man became "The pillar of a people's hope". What words show the far-reaching extent of his influence? Which shows the more force in the man, his influence with the King or his later influence in the whole nation? In what words does Tennyson show which he thinks the greater? To which do "high" and "higher" respectively refer? What does "Fortune's crowning slope" suggest about (1) the honour which the man has now gained, (2) the nature of the road he has travelled?
Stanza V
Picture the man as he looks back after having reached the height of his ambition. Describe his mood. At what times does he indulge in these dreamy memories? What does he seem to see in these quiet hours? What hill and stream does the poet mean? What feeling does each awaken? Why is the "sweetness" called "secret"? Why is the "dearness" called "distant"?
Stanza VI
What part of his life is meant by "his narrower fate"? With what is he comparing that early life, when he calls it "his narrower fate"? Using similar language, what might his present position of great influence be called?
Some think that the first line of this stanza refers to the limitations or restrictions of his early life, while others say the poet was thinking simply of the stream, as the limit or boundary of the things that influenced his childhood. Which view is to be preferred? Which meaning agrees with the use of the word "its" in the next line? Would this man now look back on those difficulties of his early life as limitations and hindrances, or as things which helped to make him what he is?
Now explain "The limit of his narrower fate". Compare the direction in which he looks in his day dreams now, with the direction in which he looked in those of his boyhood. What is meant by "vocal springs"?
In what way were the games of his youth prophetic of his future work as a man? What do people mean by saying, "The boy is father of the man"?