William McTaggart's Diploma Work illustrates a scene from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's idyll 'Dora' (1842): 'But when the morrow came, she rose and took The Child once more, and sat upon the mound; And made a little wreath of all the flowers That grew about, and tied it round his hat To make him pleasing in her uncle's eye…' Dora tells the tale of old farmer Allan and his estrangement from his son William who had gone against his father's will in refusing to marry his cousin Dora. William instead married a girl called Mary and they had a son. When William died Dora decided to introduce her uncle to his grandson and attempt a reconciliation. Her plan was eventually successful and the poem concludes with Mary, Dora and the boy living together with farmer Allan in his house.