The Alfred Lord Tennyson Fan Club

[Beren3000]

Originally Posted by Rosie Gamgee

Well, I went back and read WWLM. It seems to me that the first part deals almost exclusively with the exultation of liquor and its effects on the brain. The second part, concocted, it would seem, largely under the influence of said drink, is a fantastical monolouge concerning the origins of the headwaiter. The last part seems to me to be a series of thoughts on the lamentable state of the hangover. The final stanza is a blessing on the headwaiter, made in gratitude for the hour of happiness and inspiration his beverage effected upon the poet. The poem seems then, in short, to be a series of thoughts had while sitting in a public house put down in verse and rhyme for the purpose of killing a few spare moments that would have otherwise been spent in boredom.

Sure...if you look at it literally
When I first read the poem it seemed to me that the liquor was a metaphor for poetic inspiration (cf. the allegory with the Muse) but this seems to run amiss with the story of the headwaiter. However, I still think the poem has meaning beyond the literal one...