Stanza 2 Summary

Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.

Her tears fell with the dews at even;
Her tears fell ere the dews were dried;
She could not look on the sweet heaven,
Either at morn or eventide.

Mariana cries—a lot. She cries in the morning, when the dew is fresh, and she cries at night, when it has dried.
She's so despondent that she can't think about the sweet things in life. Heartbreak'll do that to ya.
The speaker really wants to emphasize the woman's tears. Notice how he repeats "Her tears" at the beginning of two consecutive lines? He's using anaphora, a tool that builds the cadence, or musical elements, of a poem.
Check out "Sound Check" for more.

After the flitting of the bats,
When thickest dark did trance the sky,
She drew her casement-curtain by,
And glanced athwart the glooming flats.

Some bats fly by—spooky.
It's very dark, the "thickest" dark. Nice imagery, Tennyson.
Mariana opens her curtains and looks outside.
Notice the repetition of a couple sounds in these few lines?
Yep, Tennyson is using alliteration again. "Dark" and "did" in line 18, "casement" and "curtain" in line 19, and "glanced" and "glooming" in line 20 all repeat initial consonant sounds.
Keep your eyes peeled for more of this technique, just as our Mariana keeps her eyes peeled for whatever waits in the dark.

    She only said, "The night is dreary,
    He cometh not," she said;
    She said, "I am aweary, aweary,
    I would that I were dead!"

We get that same refrain here again: "He cometh not."
This time, Mariana's saying it as she looks out of her curtains.
And, instead of her "life" being dreary, this time she calls the "night" dreary. Everything else stays the same, though.
It seems like she is still waiting for whoever is supposed to come. And all the waiting must be getting pretty old.
Why else would Tennyson keep reminding us of her plight?