Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the
Poet Laureate during much of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the
Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, "Timbuktu". He published his first solo collection of poems, ''
Poems, Chiefly Lyrical'', in 1830. "Claribel" and "
Mariana
Mariana may refer to:
Literature
* ''Mariana'' (Dickens novel), a 1940 novel by Monica Dickens
* ''Mariana'' (poem), a poem by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
* ''Mariana'' (Vaz novel), a 1997 novel by Katherine Vaz
Music
*"Mariana", a so ...
", which remain some of Tennyson's most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although described by some critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day, including
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lak ...
. Tennyson's early poetry, with its medievalism and powerful visual imagery, was a major influence on the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Tennyson also excelled at short lyrics, such as "
Break, Break, Break", "
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan had intended to s ...
", "
Tears, Idle Tears", and "
Crossing the Bar". Much of his verse was based on
classical mythological themes, such as "
Ulysses". "
In Memoriam A.H.H.
The poem "In Memoriam A.H.H." (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is an elegy for his Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died of cerebral haemorrhage at the age of twenty-two years, in Vienna in 1833. As a sustained exercise in tetrametric ...
" was written to commemorate his friend
Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet and student at
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, after he died of a stroke at the age of 22. Tennyson also wrote some notable
blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and ...
including ''
Idylls of the King'', "Ulysses", and "
Tithonus". During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success.
A number of phrases from Tennyson's work have become commonplace in the English language, including "Nature, red in tooth and claw" ("In Memoriam A.H.H."), "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all", "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die", "My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure", "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield", "Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers", and "The old order changeth, yielding place to new". He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in ''
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations''.
Biography
Early life
Tennyson was born on 6 August 1809 in
Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. He was born into a successful middle-class family of minor landowning status distantly descended from
John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers, and
Francis Leke, 1st Earl of Scarsdale. His father, George Clayton Tennyson (1778–1831), was an Anglican clergyman who served as rector of Somersby (1807–1831), also rector of
Benniworth (1802–1831) and
Bag Enderby, and vicar of
Grimsby
Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...
(1815). He raised a large family and "was a man of superior abilities and varied attainments, who tried his hand with fair success in architecture, painting, music, and poetry. He was comfortably well off for a country clergyman, and his shrewd money management enabled the family to spend summers at
Mablethorpe and
Skegness on the eastern coast of England". George Clayton Tennyson was elder son of attorney and
MP George Tennyson (1749/50-1835),
JP,
DL, of
Bayons Manor
Tealby is a village and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds and north-east of Market Rasen. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 593.
Commu ...
and
Usselby Hall, who had also inherited the estates of his mother's family, the Claytons, and married Mary, daughter and heiress of John Turner, of
Caistor, Lincolnshire. George Clayton Tennyson was however pushed into a career in the church and passed over as heir in favour of his younger brother,
Charles Tennyson d'Eyncourt. Alfred Tennyson's mother, Elizabeth (1781–1865), was the daughter of Stephen Fytche (1734–1799), vicar of
St. James Church, Louth (1764) and rector of
Withcall (1780), a small village between
Horncastle and
Louth. Tennyson's father "carefully attended to the education and training of his children".
Tennyson and two of his elder brothers were writing poetry in their teens and a collection of poems by all three was published locally when Alfred was only 17. One of those brothers,
Charles Tennyson Turner
Charles Tennyson Turner (4 July 1808 – 25 April 1879) was an English poet.
Born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, he was an elder brother of Alfred Tennyson; his friendship and the "heart union" with his brother is revealed in ''Poems by Two Brothe ...
, later married Louisa Sellwood, the younger sister of Alfred's
future wife; the other was
Frederick Tennyson. Another of Tennyson's brothers, Edward Tennyson, was institutionalised at a private asylum.
Education and first publication
Tennyson was a student of
King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth from 1816 to 1820.
[''Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson.'' Eugene Parsons (Introduction). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1900.] He entered
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, in 1827, where he joined a secret society called the
Cambridge Apostles. A portrait of Tennyson by
George Frederic Watts is in Trinity's collection.
At Cambridge, Tennyson met
Arthur Hallam and
William Henry Brookfield
William Henry Brookfield (31 August 1809 – 12 July 1874) was an Anglican priest, Inspector of Schools, and chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria.. His son was the playwright Charles Brookfield.
Biography
William Henry Brookfield was t ...
, who became his closest friends. His first publication was a collection of "his boyish rhymes and those of his elder brother Charles" entitled ''Poems by Two Brothers'', published in 1827.
In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the
Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, "Timbuktu". Reportedly, "it was thought to be no slight honour for a young man of twenty to win the chancellor's gold medal".
He published his first solo collection of poems, ''Poems Chiefly Lyrical'' in 1830. "Claribel" and "
Mariana
Mariana may refer to:
Literature
* ''Mariana'' (Dickens novel), a 1940 novel by Monica Dickens
* ''Mariana'' (poem), a poem by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
* ''Mariana'' (Vaz novel), a 1997 novel by Katherine Vaz
Music
*"Mariana", a so ...
", which later took their place among Tennyson's most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although decried by some critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day, including
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lak ...
.
Return to Lincolnshire, second publication, Epping Forest
In the spring of 1831, Tennyson's father died, requiring him to leave
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...
before taking his degree. He returned to the rectory, where he was permitted to live for another six years and shared responsibility for his widowed mother and the family.
Arthur Hallam came to stay with his family during the summer and became engaged to Tennyson's sister, Emilia Tennyson.
In 1833 Tennyson published his second book of poetry, which notably included the first version of "
The Lady of Shalott". The volume met heavy criticism, which so discouraged Tennyson that he did not publish again for ten years, although he did continue to write. That same year, Hallam died suddenly and unexpectedly after suffering a
cerebral haemorrhage while on a holiday in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
. Hallam's death had a profound effect on Tennyson and inspired several poems, including "In the Valley of Cauteretz" and "
In Memoriam A.H.H.
The poem "In Memoriam A.H.H." (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is an elegy for his Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died of cerebral haemorrhage at the age of twenty-two years, in Vienna in 1833. As a sustained exercise in tetrametric ...
", a long poem detailing the "Way of the Soul".
[H. Tennyson (1897). ''Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son'', New York: MacMillan.]
Tennyson and his family were allowed to stay in the rectory for some time, but later moved to Beech Hill Park,
High Beach
High Beach (or High Beech) is a village inside Epping Forest in south-west Essex, England. Part of Waltham Abbey, the village is within the Epping Forest District and the ward of Waltham Abbey High Beach, and lies approximately north-east of ...
, deep within
Epping Forest,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, about 1837. Tennyson's son recalled: “there was a pond in the park on which in winter my father might be seen skating, sailing about on the ice in his long blue cloak. He liked the nearness of London, whither he resorted to see his friends, but he could not stay in town even for a night, his mother being in such a nervous state that he did not like to leave her...".
Tennyson befriended a Dr Allen, who ran a nearby asylum whose patients then included the poet
John Clare
John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th ce ...
. An unwise investment in Dr Allen's ecclesiastical wood-carving enterprise soon led to the loss of much of the family fortune, and led to a bout of serious depression.
According to Tennyson's grandson
Sir Charles Tennyson, Tennyson met
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy.
Born in Ecclefechan, ...
in 1839, if not earlier. The pair began a lifelong friendship, and were famous smoking companions. Some of Tennyson's work even bears the influence of Carlyle and his ideas. Tennyson moved to London in 1840 and lived for a time at
Chapel House, Twickenham.
Third publication
On 14 May 1842, while living modestly in London, Tennyson published the two volume ''
Poems'', of which the first included works already published and the second was made up almost entirely of new poems. They met with immediate success; poems from this collection, such as "
Locksley Hall", "
Break, Break, Break", and "
Ulysses", and a new version of "
The Lady of Shalott", have met enduring fame. "
The Princess: A Medley", a satire on women's education that came out in 1847, was also popular for its lyrics.
W. S. Gilbert later adapted and parodied the piece twice: in ''
The Princess'' (1870) and in ''
Princess Ida'' (1884).
It was in 1850 that Tennyson reached the pinnacle of his career, finally publishing his masterpiece, "
In Memoriam A.H.H.
The poem "In Memoriam A.H.H." (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is an elegy for his Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died of cerebral haemorrhage at the age of twenty-two years, in Vienna in 1833. As a sustained exercise in tetrametric ...
", dedicated to Hallam. Later the same year, he was appointed
Poet Laureate, succeeding
William Wordsworth. In the same year (on 13 June), Tennyson married
Emily Sellwood, whom he had known since childhood, in the village of
Shiplake
Shiplake consists of three settlements: Shiplake, Shiplake Cross and Lower Shiplake. Together these villages form a civil parish situated beside the River Thames south of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. The river forms the parish boun ...
. They had two sons,
Hallam Tennyson
Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, (11 August 1852 – 2 December 1928) was a British aristocrat who served as the second governor-general of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1904. He was previously Governor of South Australia from 1899 to 1 ...
(b. 11 August 1852)—named after his friend—and Lionel (b. 16 March 1854).
Tennyson rented
Farringford House on the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
in 1853, eventually buying it in 1856. He eventually found that there were too many
starstruck tourists who pestered him in Farringford, so he moved to
Aldworth, in
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an a ...
in 1869. However, he retained Farringford, and regularly returned there to spend the winters.
File:Break-break-break-reickemeyer.jpg, ''Break, Break, Break, on thy cold grey Stones, o Sea'', a photograph by Rudolf Eickemeyer Jr. The title is a quote from the 1842 poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...
.
File:Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson and family.jpg, Tennyson with his wife Emily
Emily may refer to:
* Emily (given name), including a list of people with the name
Music
* Emily (1964 song), "Emily" (1964 song), title song by Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer to the film ''The Americanization of Emily''
* Emily (Dave Koz son ...
(1813–1896) and his sons Hallam (1852–1928) and Lionel (1854–1886)
File:Farringford - Lord Tennyson's residence - c1910 - Project Gutenberg eText 17296.jpg, Farringford
Farringford House, in the village of Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight, was the home of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from 1853 until his death in 1892. The main house dates from 1806 with gothic embellishments and extensions added from the 1830s. ...
– Lord Tennyson's residence on the Isle of Wight
File:Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson by George Frederic Watts.jpg, ''Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson'', by George Frederic Watts (1817–1904)
Poet Laureate
In 1850, after William Wordsworth's death and
Samuel Rogers' refusal, Tennyson was appointed to the position of
Poet Laureate;
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and
Leigh Hunt had also been considered.
[Batchelor, John. ''Tennyson: To Strive, To Seek, To Find.'' London: Chatto and Windus, 2012.] He held the position until his own death in 1892, the longest tenure of any laureate. Tennyson fulfilled the requirements of this position, such as by authoring a poem of greeting to
Princess Alexandra of Denmark when she arrived in Britain to marry the future King
Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
. In 1855, Tennyson produced one of his best-known works, "
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan had intended to s ...
", a dramatic tribute to the British cavalrymen involved in
an ill-advised charge on 25 October 1854, during the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included t ...
. Other esteemed works written in the post of Poet Laureate include "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" and "Ode Sung at the Opening of the International Exhibition".
Tennyson declined a
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
cy offered him by
Disraeli in 1865 and 1868, finally accepting a
peerage in 1883 at
Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-con ...
's earnest solicitation. In 1884 Victoria created him Baron Tennyson, of Aldworth in the County of Sussex and of
Freshwater in the Isle of Wight. He took his seat in the House of Lords on 11 March 1884.
Tennyson also wrote a substantial quantity of unofficial political verse, from the bellicose "Form, Riflemen, Form", on the French crisis of 1859 and the
Creation of the Volunteer Force, to "Steersman, be not precipitate in thine act/of steering", deploring Gladstone's
Home Rule Bill
The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the e ...
. Tennyson's family were
Whigs by tradition and Tennyson's own politics fitted the Whig mould, although he would also vote for the
Liberal Party after the Whigs dissolved.
Tennyson believed that society should progress through gradual and steady reform, not revolution, and this attitude was reflected in his attitude toward universal suffrage, which he did not outright reject, but recommended only after the masses had been properly educated and adjusted to self-government.
Upon passage of the
1832 Reform Act
The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the elec ...
, Tennyson broke into a local church to ring the bells in celebration.
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born ...
wrote a play called ''Freshwater'', showing Tennyson as host to his friends
Julia Margaret Cameron and
G. F. Watts. Colonel
George Edward Gouraud,
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invent ...
's European agent, made sound recordings of Tennyson reading his own poetry, late in his life. They include recordings of "The Charge of the Light Brigade", and excerpts from "The splendour falls" (from The Princess), "Come into the garden" (from
Maud), "Ask me no more", "Ode on the death of the Duke of Wellington" and "Lancelot and Elaine". The sound quality is poor, as wax cylinder recordings usually are.
Towards the end of his life Tennyson revealed that his "religious beliefs also defied convention, leaning towards agnosticism and
pandeism": In a characteristically Victorian manner, Tennyson combines a deep interest in contemporary science with an unorthodox, even idiosyncratic, Christian belief. Famously, he wrote in ''In Memoriam'': "There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds." In ''Maud'', 1855, he wrote: "The churches have killed their Christ". In "
Locksley Hall Sixty Years After Locksley may refer to:
* Locksley, Nottinghamshire, fictional home of English folk hero Robin Hood
* Locksley (band), an American rock band
* Locksley, New South Wales, Australia
* Locksley, Victoria, Australia
* Locksley railway station, Victoria ...
", Tennyson wrote: "Christian love among the churches look'd the twin of heathen hate." In his play, ''
Becket'', he wrote: "We are self-uncertain creatures, and we may, Yea, even when we know not, mix our spites and private hates with our defence of Heaven". Tennyson recorded in his ''Diary'' (p. 127): "I believe in
Pantheism
Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ...
of a sort". His son's biography confirms that Tennyson was an unorthodox Christian, noting that Tennyson praised
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno (; ; la, Iordanus Brunus Nolanus; born Filippo Bruno, January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist. He is known for his cosmolo ...
and
Spinoza on his deathbed, saying of Bruno, "His view of God is in some ways mine", in 1892.
Tennyson continued writing into his eighties. He died on 6 October 1892 at Aldworth, aged 83. He was buried at
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
. A memorial was erected in
All Saints' Church, Freshwater. His last words were, "Oh that press will have me now!". He left an estate of £57,206.
Tennyson Down and the
Tennyson Trail on the Isle of Wight are named after him, and a monument to him stands on top of Tennyson Down.
Lake Tennyson in New Zealand's high country, named by
Frederick Weld, is assumed to be named after Lord Tennyson.
He was succeeded as 2nd Baron Tennyson by his son,
Hallam, who produced an authorised biography of his father in 1897, and was later the second
Governor-General of Australia
The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Australia.[Albert, Prince Consort
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the consort of Queen Victoria from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861.
Albert was born in the Saxon d ...](_blank)
, was largely responsible for Tennyson's appointment as Laureate,
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
became an ardent admirer of Tennyson's work, writing in her diary that she was "much soothed & pleased" by reading "
In Memoriam A.H.H.
The poem "In Memoriam A.H.H." (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is an elegy for his Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died of cerebral haemorrhage at the age of twenty-two years, in Vienna in 1833. As a sustained exercise in tetrametric ...
" after Albert's death.
The two met twice, first in April 1862, when Victoria wrote in her diary, "very peculiar looking, tall, dark, with a fine head, long black flowing hair & a beard, oddly dressed, but there is no affectation about him."
Tennyson met her a second time just over two decades later, on 7 August 1883, and the Queen told him what a comfort "In Memoriam A.H.H." had been.
The art of Tennyson's poetry
As source material for his poetry, Tennyson used a wide range of subject matter ranging from medieval legends to classical myths and from domestic situations to observations of nature. The influence of
John Keats and other
Romantic poets published before and during his childhood is evident from the richness of his imagery and descriptive writing.
He also handled rhythm masterfully. The insistent beat of ''Break, Break, Break'' emphasises the relentless sadness of the subject matter. Tennyson's use of the musical qualities of words to emphasise his rhythms and meanings is sensitive. The language of "I come from haunts of coot and hern" lilts and ripples like the brook in the poem and the last two lines of "Come down O maid from yonder mountain height" illustrate his telling combination of
onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...
,
alliteration, and
assonance
Assonance is a resemblance in the sounds of words/syllables either between their vowels (e.g., ''meat, bean'') or between their consonants (e.g., ''keep, cape''). However, assonance between consonants is generally called ''consonance'' in America ...
:
Tennyson was a craftsman who polished and revised his manuscripts extensively, to the point where his efforts at self-editing were described by his contemporary
Robert Browning as "insane", symptomatic of "mental infirmity". His complex compositional practice and frequent redrafting also demonstrates a dynamic relationship between images and words, as can be seen in the many notebooks he worked in. Few poets have used such a variety of styles with such an exact understanding of
metre
The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its p ...
; like many Victorian poets, he experimented in adapting the
quantitative metres of Greek and Latin poetry to English. He reflects the
Victorian period of his maturity in his feeling for order and his tendency towards moralising. He also reflects a concern common among
Victorian writers in being troubled by the conflict between religious faith and expanding scientific knowledge. Tennyson possessed a strong poetic power, which his early readers often attributed to his "Englishness" and his masculinity. Well-known among his longer works are ''Maud'' and ''Idylls of the King'', the latter arguably the most famous Victorian adaptation of the legend of
King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table
The Knights of the Round Table ( cy, Marchogion y Ford Gron, kw, Marghekyon an Moos Krenn, br, Marc'hegien an Daol Grenn) are the knights of the fellowship of King Arthur in the literary cycle of the Matter of Britain. First appearing in li ...
. A common thread of grief, melancholy, and loss connects much of his poetry (including ''Mariana'', ''The Lotos Eaters'', ''Tears, Idle Tears'', ''In Memoriam''), possibly reflecting Tennyson's own lifelong struggle with debilitating depression. T. S. Eliot famously described Tennyson as "the saddest of all English poets", whose technical mastery of verse and language provided a "surface" to his poetry's "depths, to the abyss of sorrow". Other poets such as
W. H. Auden maintained a more critical stance, stating that Tennyson was the "stupidest" of all the English poets, adding that: "There was little about melancholia he didn't know; there was little else that he did."
Influence on Pre-Raphaelite artists
Tennyson's early poetry, with its medievalism and powerful visual imagery, was a major influence on the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In 1848,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti and
William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism. ...
made a list of "Immortals", artistic heroes whom they admired, especially from literature, notably including
Keats and Tennyson, whose work would form subjects for PRB paintings. ''The Lady of Shalott'' alone was a subject for Rossetti, Hunt,
John William Waterhouse (three versions), and
Elizabeth Siddall
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall (25 July 1829 – 11 February 1862), better known as Elizabeth Siddal, was an English artist, poet, and artists' model. Significant collections of her artworks can be found at Wightwick Manor and the Ashmolean. Siddal ...
.
Tennyson heraldry
A
heraldic achievement of Alfred, Lord Tennyson exists in an 1884 stained-glass window in the Hall of
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, showing arms:
These are a
difference of the arms of
Thomas Tenison (1636–1715),
Archbishop of Canterbury, themselves a difference of the arms of the 13th-century
Denys family of
Glamorgan and
Siston in Gloucestershire, themselves a difference of the arms of
Thomas de Cantilupe (c. 1218–1282),
Bishop of Hereford, henceforth the arms of the
See of Hereford; the name "Tennyson" signifies "Denys's son", although no connection between the two families is recorded.
Works
A list of works by Tennyson follows:
*''
Poems by Two Brothers'' (published 1826; dated 1827 on title page; written with Charles Tennyson)
*"Timbuctoo" (for which he won chancellor's gold medal and was printed in ''Prolusiones Academicæ'')
*''
Poems, Chiefly Lyrical'' (1830), in which the following poems were published:
*"
No More No More may refer to:
* No More (band), a German post-punk band
Songs
* "No More" (1944 song), written by Bob Russell and Toots Camarata; covered by Billie Holiday
* "No More" (1961 song), a version of "La Paloma" recorded by Elvis Presley and ...
", '"
Anacreontics" and "
A Fragment" contributed to
''The Gem: A Literary Annual'' (1831)
*
"Sonnet" (Check every outflash, every ruder sally) in The Englishman's Magazine (August, 1831) and later reprinted in
Friendship's Offering (1833)
*''Poems'' (published 1832, but dated 1833 on title page), in which the following poems were published:
*''The Lover's Tale'' (Two parts published in 1833; Tennyson suppressed it immediately after publication as he felt it was imperfect. A revised version comprising three parts was subsequently published in 1879 together with "The Golden Supper" as a fourth part.)
*''
Poems'' (1842; with numerous subsequent editions including the 4th edition (1846) and 8th edition (1853)); the collection included many of the poems published in the 1833 anthology (some in revised form), and the following:
*''
The Princess: A Medley'' (1847), which includes the following poems:
**"
Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" – later appeared as a song in the film ''
Vanity Fair'' (2004), with musical arrangement by
Mychael Danna
**"
Tears, Idle Tears"
*''
In Memoriam'' (1850), which includes the following poem:
**"
Ring Out, Wild Bells
"Ring Out, Wild Bells" is a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Published in 1850, the year he was appointed Poet Laureate, it forms part of '' In Memoriam'', Tennyson's elegy to Arthur Henry Hallam, his sister's fiancé who died at the age of 22.
A ...
" (1850)
*"
The Eagle" (1851)
*"The Sister's Shame"
*''
Maud, and Other Poems
''Maud, and Other Poems'' (1855) was Alfred Tennyson's first published collection after becoming poet laureate in 1850.
Among the "other poems" was "The Charge of the Light Brigade", which had already been published in the ''Examiner'' a ...
'' (1855), in which the following poems were published:
**"Maud"
**"
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan had intended to s ...
" (1854) – an early recording exists of Tennyson reading this
*''
Idylls of the King'' (1859–1885; composed 1833–1874)
*''Enoch Arden and Other Poems'' (1862/1864), in which the following poems were published:
**"
Enoch Arden"
**"
Tithonus"
*''The Holy Grail and Other Poems'' (1870), in which the following poem was published:
**"
Flower in the Crannied Wall" (1869)
*''
The Window; or, The Songs of the Wrens'' (written 1867–1870; published 1871) – a
song cycle
A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle, of individually complete songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online''
The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarel ...
with music composed by
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', '' The Pirates of Penzance ...
*''Queen Mary: A Drama'' (1875) – a play about
Mary I of England
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She ...
*''Harold: A Drama'' (1877) – a play about
Harold II of England
*''Montenegro'' (1877)
*''
The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet'' (1878) – about the ship
''Revenge''
*''Ballads and Other Poems'' (1880)
*''
Becket'' (1884)
*''
Crossing the Bar'' (1889)
*''
The Foresters'' (1891) – a play about
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is de ...
with
incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead ...
by Arthur Sullivan
*''
Kapiolani'' (published after his death by Hallam Tennyson)
Citations
General bibliography
*Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1989). ''Tennyson: A Selected Edition''. Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif: University of California Press. (hbk.) or (pbk.). Edited with a preface and notes by
Christopher Ricks. Selections from the definitive edition ''The Poems of Tennyson'', with readings from the Trinity MSS; long works such as ''
Maud'' and ''
In Memoriam A. H. H.
The poem "In Memoriam A.H.H." (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is an elegy for his Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died of cerebral haemorrhage at the age of twenty-two years, in Vienna in 1833. As a sustained exercise in tetrametric ...
'' are printed in full.
*
External links
; Digital collections of works
*
*
*
*
Alfred Lord Tennyson: Profile and Poems at Poets.orgRecording of Tennyson reciting "The Charge of the Light Brigade"*Archival material at
Settings of Alfred Tennyson's poetry in the Choral Public Domain Library
; Institutional collections of works
*Th
Baron Alfred Tennysondigital collection from the
Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pu ...
at The University of Texas at Austin.
*
Alfred Tennyson Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
*A substantia
collection of Tennyson's worksare held at Special Collections and Archives, Cardiff University.
Alfred, Lord Tennysonat the British Library
Tennyson's Notebooksin the collections of the
Wren Library, fully digitised in
Cambridge Digital LibraryThe Twickenham Museum – Alfred Lord Tennyson in Twickenham
; Additional biographical information
*
*
*
; Other works
Farringford Holiday Cottages and Restaurant, Home of Tennyson, Isle of Wight
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