Alfred Lord Tennyson Facts: Learn All About This Prolific Poet

Alfred Lord Tennyson was born on August 6, 1809, in the town of Somersby in Lincolnshire to George Clayton Tennyson and Elizabeth, the fourth of their 12 kids who survived.

Alfred Lord Tennyson was a renowned poet in English literature during the Victorian era. His poetry is exceptional for its metrical assortment, rich symbolism, and lyrics.

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson FRS, was a Victorian English poet in England. Alfred Lord Tennyson was appointed as a poet laureate by Queen Victoria from 1850 until he died in 1892.

He was married to Emily Sellwood in 1850.

The poet experienced gout and encountered a reoccurrence that deteriorated his health, and it grew worse in 1892. On October 6, 1892, at 83, Tennyson died at his Aldworth home in Surrey and was buried at the famous Poets' Corner in the Westminster Abbey.

The poems written by Alfred Tennyson raised doubts on the conventionally strict religious beliefs about human destiny and instinct that were constantly questioned by science.

His poetry revealed his deep interest and knowledge in medieval legends, classical myths, as well as his lifelong adoration for nature. The leading poet of the Victorian age proliferated and fine-tuned the Romantic Movement with his poetry, extending and expanding the genre that his predecessors, Wordsworth, Byron, and Keats, popularised.

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Early Years And Family

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was the fourth of 12 kids brought up in a desolate parsonage in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. Tennyson had troublesome home conditions, but his father, the rector, home tutored him.

Alfred Lord Tennyson was bright, and before his teenage years, his writings, including poetry, were inspired by Alexander Pope, Sir Walter Scott, and John Milton. Though in his youth, he wrote 'The Devil and the Lady,' which shows a surprising comprehension of Elizabethan dramatic verses.

Lord Byron was a predominant impact on young Alfred Tennyson. In 1827 Alfred Tennyson joined his elder brothers at Trinity College, Cambridge, because he was craving to escape from Somersby to embrace genuine scholarly work. In 1831 Tennyson's father passed away.

Alfred's wretchedness was at its peak because his grandfather disclosed his dad's debts. Tennyson left Cambridge midway, and his grandfather helped their family financially.

Early Life And Work

The Lincolnshire countryside vastly affected the poems written by Alfred Tennyson, which he started writing before his teenage years. The writings of Alfred Tennyson are mainly drawn from the Lincolnshire countryside: the sea, the plain, about his home, 'the waste enormous marsh,' and 'the sand-built ridge of heaped hills that mound the sea.'

In 1829, Alfred Tennyson was granted the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for his poem, 'Timbuctoo.'

In 1830, Tennyson published his other work, his first solo collection, called 'Poems, Chiefly Lyrical.' Around the same time, Arthur Hallam, Alfred Tennyson, and a group of English poets who called themselves Cambridge Apostles went to Spain to help in the revolt against Ferdinand VII.

In 1832 Tennyson published one more volume of poetry, including 'The Lotos-Eaters,' 'The Palace of Art,' and 'The Lady of Shalott.' In 1833, Tennyson's best friend and fellow poet, Hallam, was engaged to his sister Emilia Tennyson.

However, Hallam suddenly died while on a visit to Vienna in September. The shock to Lord Tennyson was severe. However, in this period, he wrote some of his most celebrated poems - 'The Two Voices,' 'Ulysses,' 'St.

Simeon Stylites', and, most likely, the main draft of 'Morte d'Arthur.' This period has a place for some of the sonnets that became constituent pieces of 'In Memoriam,' in the memories of Arthur Henry Hallam, Tennyson later incorporated the verses into 'Maud.'

Fame And Fortune

Later in 1850, Queen Victoria chose Tennyson as a successor of William Wordsworth as England's new poet laureate. Tennyson's poems turned out to be increasingly more generally read, which gave him both a considerable fortune and a steadily expanding level of popularity.

The writer wore a long beard and broad-brimmed hat and regularly wore a cloak, making it simple for fans to spot him. In 1853, Tennyson was offered a getaway in the Isle of Wight from his developing hordes of admirers.

A scene in the Crimean War prompted Tennyson to write 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' in 1854; the work was remembered for Maud and Other Poems published in 1855. The initial four books of Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King,' an epic interpretation of the Arthurian legend, showed up in 1859.

In 1864, 'Enoch Arden and Other Poems' had sold around 17,000 copies on the very first day of its publication.

Tennyson made a good relation with Queen Victoria, who found solace in reading 'In Memoriam' following the death of her better half, Prince Albert, in 1861. In 1867, Tennyson purchased a property in Surrey, where he would construct another home, Aldworth, that offered more security.

Alfred Tennyson's Literary Career

The most famous poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson included 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and 'Intersection the Bar.'

His more extended works are remembered in the collection of 'In Memoriam,' enlivened by his despondency over the passing of a friend and 'Idylls of the King' because of Arthurian legend. In 1842 Tennyson published poems, in two volumes, one containing a revised version from the volumes of 1830 and 1832, the other consisting of his new 'Poems.'

The new poems included 'Morte d'Arthur,' 'The Two Voices,' 'Locksley Hall,' and 'The Vision of Sin.'

The other poems uncover a peculiar gullibility, for example, 'The May Queen,' 'Woman Clara Vere de Vere,' and 'The Lord of Burleigh.' Tennyson was awarded by the head of the state, Sir Robert Peel, an annuity of £200 to ease the financial problems he was facing during that time.

In 1847, he published his initially long poem, 'The Princess,' and the poem's theme peculiarly had a fantasia of anti-feminism.

In 1874 Alfred Lord Tennyson chose to take a shot at poetic drama.

The appearance of Queen Mary marked the year 1875, and an abbreviated adaptation was produced at the Lyceum in 1876 with just moderate achievement. It was trailed by Harold published in 1877, Becket published in 1884, and 'The Village Tragedy,' The Promise of May, which wasn't successful at the Globe Theatre in November 1882.

This play, his main writing work, shows Tennyson's developing sorrow and disdain at the age's strict, moral, and political inclinations.

He had effectively created some uproar by publishing a poem called 'Depression' in November 1881. A more certain sign of Tennyson's later convictions shows up in 'The Ancient Sage,' published in Tiresias and Other Poems in 1885.

Here the poet records his implications of life previously and past this life.

Tennyson was a quintessential lovely poet, combining and refining the customs passed on to him by his archetypes in the Romantic development—particularly William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, and John Keats.

While the consideration of this extraordinary human situation in some cases evoked his fears and premonitions, it additionally gave him a more extensive imaginative reach than the majority of the poets of his time.

It added a more noteworthy depth and reverberation to his poetry.

Education And First Publication

In 1815, Alfred Tennyson and two of his brothers, Charles and Frederick, were sent to Louth Grammar School and Tennyson was miserable in the school because he was often bullied. He left the school in 1820.

He got into Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, but due to his father's untimely demise and the burden of the financial crisis, he left the college without taking the degree.

When Alfred was not even 18 years old, his first volume of a poem, 'Poems by Two Brothers' (1827), was published. Alfred Tennyson composed a significant piece of the volume, even though it also contained Tennyson's brothers, Frederick and Charles.

It is a momentous book for such a young writer, showing incredible virtuosity of versification and the extravagance of symbolism that was to stamp his later works, a large number of which came from his readings in his father's library.

At first, not many copies were sold; only two brief reviews were published. However, its publication affirmed Tennyson's assurance to dedicate his life to poetry.

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