Alfred Tennyson 1st Baron Tennyson

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Alfred Tennyson Tennyson, 1st Baron , 1809–92, English poet. The most famous poet of the Victorian age, he was a profound spokesman for the ideas and values of his times.

Early Life and Works

Tennyson was the son of an intelligent but unstable clergyman in Lincolnshire. His early literary attempts included a play, The Devil and the Lady, composed at 14, and poems written with his brothers Frederick and Charles but entitled Poems by Two Brothers (1827). In his three years at Cambridge, Tennyson wrote a prizewinning poem, Timbuctoo (1829), and Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830) and began his close friendship with Arthur Henry Hallam, son of the historian Henry Hallam.

Upon the death of his father in 1831, Tennyson became responsible for the family and its precarious finances. His volume Poems (1832) included some of his most famous pieces, such as "The Lotus-Eaters,""A Dream of Fair Women," and "The Lady of Shalott." In 1833 he was overwhelmed by the sudden death of Hallam.

Mature Works and Later Life

Tennyson's next published work, Poems (1842), expressed his philosophic doubts in a materialistic, increasingly scientific age and his longing for a sustaining faith. The new poems included "Locksley Hall,""Ulysses,""Morte d'Arthur," and "Break, Break, Break." With this book he was acclaimed a great poet, and in addition, he was granted an annual government pension of £200 in 1845.

The Princess (1847) was followed in 1850 by the masterful In Memoriam, an elegy sequence that records Tennyson's years of doubt and despair after Hallam's death and culminates in an affirmation of immortality. The same year saw his appointment as poet laureate and his marriage to Emily Sellwood, whom he had courted since 1836 but had been unable to marry because of his precarious financial position. Occasional poems, such as the "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" (1852) and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1855), were part of his duties as laureate.

The first group of Idylls of the King appeared in 1859; it was expanded in 1869 and 1872, and in 1885 Tennyson added the final poem. He arranged the 12 poems chronologically in 1888 to constitute a somber ethical epic of the glory and the downfall of King Arthur. In the Arthurian legend, Tennyson projected his vision of the hollowness of his own civilization. Included among his other works are Maud (1855), a "monodrama" ; Enoch Arden (1864); several poetic dramas, most notably Becket (1879; produced 1893); Ballads and Other Poems (1880); and Demeter and Other Poems (1889), which contained "Crossing the Bar."

Tennyson passed his last years in comfort. In 1883 he was created a peer and occupied a seat in the House of Lords. Throughout much of his life he was a popular as well as critical success and was venerated by the general public. Unappreciated early in the 20th cent., Tennyson has since been recognized as a great poet, notable for his mastery of technique, his superb use of sensuous language, and his profundity of thought.

Bibliography

See biographies by his son H. Tennyson (4 vol., 1897), his grandson C. Tennyson (1949, repr. 1968), H. L. Fausset (1923, repr. 1968), and P. Levi (1993); studies by J. H. Buckley (1960), C. Ricks (1972), and D. J. Palmer, ed. (1973).

Tennyson, Alfred, first Baron Tennyson (1809–92), was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he joined the Apostles and became acquainted with A. H. Hallam. In 1829 he won the chancellor's medal for English verse with ‘Timbuctoo’, Poems by Two Brothers (1827) contains some early work as well as poems by his brothers Charles and Frederick (below). Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830, including ‘Mariana’) was unfavourably reviewed by Lockhart and John Wilson. In 1832 he travelled with Hallam on the Continent. Hallam died abroad in 1833, and in that year Tennyson began In Memoriam, expressive of his grief for his lost friend.

He became engaged to Emily Sellwood, to whom, however, he was not married until 1850. In Dec. 1832 he published a further volume of Poems (dated 1833), which included ‘The Two Voices’, ‘Oenone’, ‘The Lotos-Eaters’, and ‘A Dream of Fair Women’; ‘Tithonus’ (1860) was composed 1833–4. In 1842 appeared a selection from the previous two volumes, many of the poems much revised, with new poems, including ‘Morte d'Arthur’ (the germ of the Idylls), ‘Locksley Hall’, ‘Ulysses’, and ‘St Simeon Stylites’. In 1847 he published The Princess and in 1850 In Memoriam, and in the latter year he was appointed poet laureate in succession to Wordsworth. He wrote his ‘Ode’ on the death of Wellington in 1852 (see ode) and ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ in 1854, having at this time settled in Farringford on the Isle of Wight.

Tennyson's fame was by now firmly established, and Maud, and Other Poems (1855, see Maud) and the first four Idylls of the King (1859) sold extremely well. Among the many friends and admirers who visited Farringford were E. Fitzgerald, Lear, Patmore, Clough, F. T. Palgrave, and Allingham. Prince Albert called in 1856, but Queen Victoria never visited him, preferring to summon him to Osborne or Windsor. Enoch Arden Etc. (see Enoch Arden) appeared in 1864. The Holy Grail and Other Poems (including ‘Lucretius’) in 1869 (dated 1870), ‘The Last Tournament’ in the Contemporary Review in 1871, and Gareth and Lynette, etc. in 1872. His dramas Queen Mary and Harold were published in 1875 and 1876, and The Falcon, The Cup, and Becket in 1884, in which year he was made a peer. In 1880 appeared Ballads and Other Poems, including ‘The Voyage of Maeldune’, ‘Rizpah’, and ‘The Revenge’. He published Tiresias, and Other Poems (see Tiresias) in 1885, and The Foresters appeared in 1892. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and a life by his son Hallam appeared in 1897.

In his later years there were already signs that the admiration Tennyson had long enjoyed was beginning to wane. Critical opinion has tended to endorse Auden's view that ‘his genius was lyrical’, and that he had little talent for the narrative, epic, and dramatic forms to which he devoted such labour. More recently there has been a revival of interest in some of the longer poems, e.g. ‘Locksley Hall’, The Princess, and ‘Enoch Arden’.

Tennyson, Alfred, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809–92). Tennyson was the first poet to be made a peer of the realm, since Macaulay, author of Lays of Ancient Rome, had been an active politician. He was the son of a Lincolnshire rector and attended Louth Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge. His first volume of poetry in 1830 sold badly, though it contained ‘Mariana’: the next volume in 1832 included ‘The Lady of Shalott’. His collected volume in 1842 established him as a major poet, he was given a pension in 1845, succeeded Wordsworth as poet laureate in 1850, and was given his barony during Gladstone's ministry in 1884, apparently at Queen Victoria's suggestion. Much of his work, though not always his best, was based upon historical or legendary themes: ‘Morte d'Arthur’ and ‘Idylls of the King’ (1842, 1859); a translation from the Anglo-Saxon of ‘The Battle of Brunanburh’ (1880); and several historical plays, including Queen Mary (Mary Tudor, 1876), Harold (1877), and Becket (1884).

J. A. Cannon

Tennyson, Alfred, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809–92). Tennyson was the first poet to be made a peer of the realm, since Macaulay, author of Lays of Ancient Rome, had been an active politician. He was the son of a Lincolnshire rector and attended Louth Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge. His first volume of poetry in 1830 sold badly, though it contained ‘Mariana’: the next volume in 1832 included ‘The Lady of Shalott’. His collected volume in 1842 established him as a major poet. He succeeded Wordsworth as poet laureate in 1850, and was given his barony during Gladstone's ministry in 1884.