In Memoriam A.H.H. Man and the Natural World Quotes

Tennyson is personifying the yew tree by giving it human emotions like sullenness and stubbornness, which actually reflect his own mood. Get ready for some lit jargon: this is called "pathetic fallacy."

The cycles of nature are one way the poem marks time. The red leaf whirling away on the wind shows us that, at this point in the poem, we're in autumn.

"Type" here means "species." So, Nature is more careful to preserve the various species (per the Theory of Evolution), but is completely okay with destroying individuals, like Arthur. Here, Nature (meaning reason and the scientific method) are opposed to God, representing the struggle Tennyson is having between faith and science.

Tennyson characterizes Nature—the Nature of Darwin's recent Theory of Evolution—as something violent. It's so violent its teeth and claws are red with blood, and it shrieks out against God's "creed" of love.

Here, we get a very simple and short statement on one huge concept of Darwin's: the adaptation of various species to their environments and the survival of those who make the best adaptations.

Here's the Darwinian idea that humans are (so far, anyway) the species that has won the adapting-to-their-environment jackpot and have become the highest form of life. They've moved through the lower phases and are the "result" (which suggests something of a higher nature that has been accomplished).