The Splendour Falls on Castle Walls Man and the Natural World Quotes

The brilliant light of the setting sun ("splendour") falls against the walls of a castle. Shiny! We don't know what castle, exactly, but it almost doesn't matter: it's a castle among mountains that are "old in story," or famous in old tales.

The word "glory" goes well with the word "splendour" from line 1—both describe brilliant, bright light, but both also suggest something almost divine. "Glory," after all, is another word for a halo. Is the speaker suggesting that there is something divine or sacred in nature?

The echoes of the horn make the speaker think of extreme distance—both spatial and historical. He imagines that the horn is actually originating in "Elfland," and not in the real world at all. Somehow, the sound of the horn is traveling across time and across worlds. It makes sense that this amazing, almost divine view of nature should make the speaker think of "Elfland," since, according to Anglo-Saxon mythology, the elves and fairies were very in tune with nature (like the elves of Tolkien's Middle Earth in The Lord of the Rings—Tolkien was familiar with the same Anglo-Saxon myths that Tennyson was!).

The echoes are coming from the valley below, and the reddish light of the setting sun makes the trees and rivers in the valley appear almost "purple."

The speaker says that the echoes "die," or fade away, in one of several outdoor, natural spaces. Why do you think he lists the different natural places that the echoes reverberate and then fade? Why not just say that the echoes fade in the sky and leave it at that? What is the effect of this long list? One possible effect is that it forces the reader to imagine each of those places in turn, which helps to re-establish the beautiful view that  the sound of the bugle had temporarily distracted us from.