Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 1892) Poet Laureate of the UK during much of queen Victorias reign and remains

s one of the most popular poets in the English Literature. He excelled at penning short lyrics, In the valley Cauteretz, Break, Break, Break, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tears, Idle Tears and Crossing the Bar. Much of his verse was based on mythological themes. During his career, he also attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success. Tennyson used a wide range of subject matter, ranging from medieval legends to classical myths and from domestic situations to observations of nature, as source material for his poetry. 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 handed rhythm masterfully. The insistent beat of Break, Break, Break emphasizes the relentless sadness of the subject matter. Tennysons use of the musical qualities of words to emphasize his rhythms and meaning is sensitive. Tennyson was a craftsman who polished and revised his manuscripts extensively. Few poets have used such a variety of styles with such an exact understanding of metre; 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 moralizing and selfindulgent melancholy. He also reflects a concern common among Victorian writers in being troubled by the conflict between religious faith and expanding scientific knowledge. Like many writers who write a great deal over a long time, he can be pompous or banal, but his personality rings throughout all his works work that reflects grand and special variability in its quality. Tennyson possessed the strongest poetic power. The romantic characteristics can be found in Tennyson's poetry which was written in the 1930s; the melancholy, the nostalgic for the past, the subjectivity, the dreams and the imagery of the Romantics. All these characteristics were evident in every single line of his verse. In Alfred Tennyson ran a vein of almost morbid hypersensitiveness and melancholy to which we may trace the rare delicacy and intensity of his sensuous and emotional renderings of nature and mood and dream, as well as the hysterical extravagances of some of the poems in which he touched on subjects, political and religious, that moved him deeply. Tennysons genius struck its roots deep into that soil of family affection and love of country the alienation from which, in varying degree, of most of the earlier romantic poetsWordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley-contributed to the independent, revolutionary tone of their poetry, and the slowness with which some of them gained the ear of English readers.

Tennyson was always to be-not entirely for the benefit of his poetry in closer sympathy with the sentiments of the English middle-classes, domestic, distrustful of passion or, at least, of the frank expression and portrayal of passion, patriotic, and utilitarian. And the influence of these classes, politically and morally, was becoming dominant. Tennyson is one of the Victorians who were torn by doubt, spiritually bewildered, lost in a troubled universe. They, we are told, were crass materialists, wholly absorbed in the present, quite unconcerned with abstract verities and eternal values; but they were also excessively religious, lamentably idealistic, nostalgic for the past. The Victorians believed in progress, denied original sin, and affirmed the death of the Devil, they also yielded to feminine standards. Indeed the Victorian literature remains too purposeful, propagandistic, didactic, with too palpable a design upon the reader; yet it is clearly so romantic, aesthetic, "escapist", that it carries to posterity but a tale of little meaning. The Victorians, I think, did not achieve their mastery directly as Victorians for the reason that most of them had their beginnings in Romanticism. For example, Tennyson had his beginning in Romanticism and then became the most important poet of the Victorian Age. Tennyson's gifts, in his early work, were primarily emotional, elegiac, the source of his melancholic meditation occasionally exquisite in its sensibility, but seldom conductive to a meaningful grasp of broader social problems. The major incentive factor behind this tendency in Tennyson's early poems was his extensive reading in the classics. Tennyson's poetry, like that of the Romantics, is dominated by reverie, nostalgia, longing, and melancholy. He used to talk about the past days; he "was always discontented with the present till it has become the past, and then yearns toward it, and worships it, and not only worships it, but is discontented because it is past". Tennyson's early subjects were the common topics of his romantic predecessors, nature, English pastorals, ballad themes, medieval romance, classical legend, love and death. But Tennyson was burdened with no message, no new interpretation of nature or the peasant, no fresh insight into the significance of things medieval or things Hellenic. Each and all were subjects that quickened his poetic imagination, and his concern was to attain to the perfect rendering in melody and picturesque suggestion of the mood which each begot in his brooding temperament. Tennyson is a poet not so much of passion and passionate thinking as of moods moods subtle and luxurious and sombre, moods in which it is not always easy to discern the line that separates waking from dreaming. Themes The Reconciliation of Religion and Science

Tennyson lived during a period of great scientific advancement, and he used his poetry to work out the conflict between religious faith and scientific discoveries. Notable scientific findings and theories of the Victorian period include stratigraphy, the geological study of rock layers used to date the earth, in 1811; the first sighting of an asteroid in 1801 and galaxies in the 1840s; and Darwins theory of evolution and natural selection in 1859. In the second half of the century, scientists, such as Flp Semmelweis, Joseph Lister, and Louis Pasteur, began the experiments and work that would eventually lead to germ theory and our modern understanding of microorganisms and diseases. These discoveries challenged traditional religious understandings of nature and natural history. For most of his career, Tennyson was deeply interested in and troubled by these discoveries. His poem Locksley Hall (1842) expresses his ambivalence about technology and scientific progress. There the speaker feels tempted to abandon modern civilization and return to a savage life in the jungle. In the end, he chooses to live a civilized, modern life and enthusiastically endorses technology. In Memoriam connects the despair Tennyson felt over the loss of his friend Arthur Hallam and the despair he felt when contemplating a godless world. In the end, the poem affirms both religious faith and faith in human progress. Nevertheless, Tennyson continued to struggle with the reconciliation of science and religion, as illustrated by some of his later work. For example, Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886) takes as its protagonist the speaker from the original Locksley Hall, but now he is an old man, who looks back on his youthful optimism and faith in progress with scorn and skepticism. The Virtues of Perseverance and Optimism After the death of his friend Arthur Hallam, Tennyson struggled through a period of deep despair, which he eventually overcame to begin writing again. During his time of mourning, Tennyson rarely wrote and, for many years, battled alcoholism. Many of his poems are about the temptation to give up and fall prey to pessimism, but they also extol the virtues of optimism and discuss the importance of struggling on with life. The need to persevere and continue is the central theme of In Memoriam and Ulysses (1833), both written after Hallams death. Perhaps because of Tennysons gloomy and tragic childhood, perseverance and optimism also appear in poetry written before Hallams death, such as The Lotos-Eaters (1832, 1842). Poems such as The Lady of Shalott (1832, 1842) and The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854) also vary this theme: both poems glorify characters who embrace their destinies in life, even though those destinies end in tragic death. The Lady of Shalott leaves her seclusion to meet the outer world, determined to seek the love that is missing in her life. The cavalrymen in The Charge of the Light Brigade keep charging through the valley toward the Russian cannons; they persevere even as they realize that they will likely die. The Glory of England

Tennyson used his poetry to express his love for England. Although he expressed worry and concern about the corruption that so dominated the nineteenth century, he also wrote many poems that glorify nineteenth-century England. The Charge of the Light Brigade praises the fortitude and courage of English soldiers during a battle of the Crimean War in which roughly 200 men were killed. As poet laureate, Tennyson was required to write poems for specific state occasions and to dedicate verse to Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. Nevertheless, Tennyson praised England even when not specifically required to do so. In the Idylls of the King, Tennyson glorified England by encouraging a collective English cultural identity: all of England could take pride in Camelot, particularly the chivalrous and capable knights who lived there. Indeed, the modern conception of Camelot as the source of loyalty, chivalry, and romance comes, in part, from Tennysons descriptions of it in the Idylls of the King and The Lady of Shalott. Motifs Tragic Death Early, tragic death and suicide appear throughout Tennysons poetry. Perhaps the most significant event of his life was the untimely death of his best friend Arthur Hallam at age twenty-two, which prompted Tennyson to write his greatest literary work, In Memoriam. This long poem uses the so-called In Memoriam stanza, or a quatrain that uses iambic tetrameter and has an abba rhyme scheme. The formal consistency expresses Tennysons grief and links the disparate stanzas together into an elegiac whole. The speaker of Break, Break, Break (1834) sees death even in sunsets, while the early Mariana (1830) features a woman who longs for death after her lover abandons her. Each of that poems seven stanzas ends with the line I would that I were dead. The lady in The Lady of Shalott brings about her own death by going out into an autumn storm dressed only in a thin white dress. Similarly, the cavalrymen in The Charge of the Light Brigade ride to their deaths by charging headlong into the Russian cannons. These poems lyrically mourn those who died tragically, often finding nobility in their characters or their deaths. Scientific Language Tennyson took a great interest in the scientific discoveries of the nineteenth century, and his poetry manifests this interest in its reliance on scientific language. The Kraken (1830), which describes an ancient, slumbering sea beast, mentions a cell (8) and polypi (9). Section 21 of In Memoriam alludes to the 1846 discovery of Neptune. There, a traveler tells the speaker not to grieve for his friend. Rather than grieve, the traveler says, the speaker should rejoice in the marvelous possibilities of science. Section 120, in contrast, features the speaker wondering what good science might do in a world full of religious doubt and despair. Other poems praise technological discoveries and inventions, including the steamships

and railways discussed in Locksley Hall, or mention specific plants and flowers, as does The Lotos-Eaters (1832, 1842). Taking metaphors and poetic diction from science allowed Tennyson to connect to his age and to modernize his sometimes antiquarian language and archaic verse forms. The Ancient World Like the romantic poets who preceded him, Tennyson found much inspiration in the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome. In poems such as The Lotos-Eaters and Ulysses, Tennyson retells the stories of Dante and Homer, which described the characters of Ulysses, Telemachus, and Penelope and their adventures in the ancient world. However, Tennyson slightly alters these mythic stories, shifting the time frame of some of the action and often adding more descriptive imagery to the plot. For instance, Ulysses, a dramatic monologue spoken by Homers hero, urges readers to carry on and persevere rather than to give up and retire. Elsewhere Tennyson channels the voice of Tithonus, a legendary prince from Troy, in the eponymous poem Tithonus (1833, 1859). He praises the ancient poet Virgil in his ode To Virgil (1882), commenting on Virgils choice of subject matter and lauding his ability to chronicle human history in meter. Tennyson mined the ancient world to find stories that would simultaneously enthrall and inspire his readers. Symbols King Arthur and Camelot To Tennyson, King Arthur symbolizes the ideal man, and Arthurian England was England in its best and purest form. Some of Tennysons earliest poems, such as The Lady of Shalott, were set in King Arthurs time. Indeed, Tennyson rhymes Camelot, the name of King Arthurs estate, with Shalott in eighteen of the poems twenty stanzas, thereby emphasizing the importance of the mythical place. Furthermore, our contemporary conception of Camelot as harmonious and magnificent comes from Tennysons poem. Idylls of the King, about King Arthurs rise and fall, was one of the major projects of Tennysons late career. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert envisioned themselves as latter-day descendents of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and their praise helped popularize the long poem. But King Arthur also had a more personal representation to Tennyson: the mythic king represents a version of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, whose death at twentytwo profoundly affected Tennyson. Hallams death destroyed his potential and promise, which allowed Tennyson to idealize Hallam. This idealization allows Tennyson to imagine what might have been in the best possible light, much as he does when describing King Arthur and his court. The Imprisoned Woman The imprisoned woman appears throughout Tennysons work. In Mariana, a woman abandoned by her lover lives alone in her house in the middle of desolate

country; her isolation imprisons her, as does the way she waits for her lover to return. Her waiting limits her ability and desire to do anything else. The Lady of Shalott is likewise about a woman imprisoned, this time in a tower. Should she leave her prison, a curse would fall upon her. Tennyson, like many other Victorian poets, used female characters to symbolize the artistic and sensitive aspects of the human condition. Imprisoned women, such as these Tennyson characters, act as symbols for the isolation experienced by the artist and other sensitive, deepfeeling people. Although society might force creative, sensitive types to become outcasts, in Tennysons poems, the women themselves create their own isolation and imprisonment. These women seem unable or unwilling to deal with the outside world. Tennysons poetic output covers a breadth difficult to comprehend in a single system of thematics: his various works treat issues of political and historical concern, as well as scientific matters, classical mythology, and deeply personal thoughts and feelings. Tennyson is both a poet of penetrating introspection and a poet of the people; he plumbs the depths of his own consciousness while also giving voice to the national consciousness of Victorian society. Not only is Tennyson a poet of the natural and psychological landscape, he also attends frequently to the past, and historical events. The Lady of Shalott and the poems within Idylls of the King take place in medieval England and capture a world of knights in shining armor and their damsels in distress. In addition to treating the history of his nation, Tennyson also explores the mythological past, as articulated in classical works of Homer, Virgil, and Dante. His Ulysses and The Lotos-Eaters draw upon actual incidents in Homers Odyssey . Likewise, his ode To Virgil abounds with allusions to incidents in the great poets Aeneid , especially the fall of Troy. Tennyson thus looked both to historical and mythological pasts as repositories for his poetry. Tennysons personal past, too, figures prominently in his work. The sudden death of his closest friend Arthur Henry Hallam when Tennyson was just 24 dealt a great emotional blow to the young poet, who spent the next ten years writing over a hundred poems dedicated to his departed friend, later collected and published as In Memoriam in 1850. This lengthy work describes Tennysons memories of the time he spent with Hallam, including their Cambridge days, when Hallam would read poetry aloud to his friends: thus Tennyson writes, O bliss, when all in circle drawn / About him, heart and ear were fed / To hear him, as he lay and read / The Tuscan poets on the lawn! Tennyson grapples with the tremendous grief he feels after the loss of such a dear friend, concluding famously that Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all. In Memoriam also reflects Tennysons struggle with the Victorians growing awareness of another sort of past: the vast expanse of geological time and evolutionary history. The new discoveries in biology, astronomy, and geology

implied a view of humanity that much distressed many Victorians, including Tennyson. In Maud, for example, he describes the stars as cold fires, yet with power to burn and brand/ His nothingness into man; unlike the Romantics, he possessed a painful awareness of the brutality and indifference of Nature red in tooth and claw. Although Tennyson associated evolution with progress, he also worried that the notion seemed to contradict the Biblical story of creation and longheld assumptions about mans place in the world. Nonetheless, in In Memoriam, he insists that we must keep our faith despite the latest discoveries of science: he writes, Strong Son of God, immortal Love / Whom we, that have not seen they face, / By faith, and faith alone, embrace / Believing where we cannot prove. At the end of the poem, he concludes that Gods eternal plan includes purposive biological development; thus he reassures his Victorian readers that the new science does not mean the end of the old faith. Tennyson also spoke to his Victorian contemporaries about issues of urgent social and political concern. In The Princess he addresses the relations between the sexes and argues for womens rights in higher education. In The Charge of the Light Brigade, he speaks out in favor of a controversial diplomatic maneuver, the disastrous charge on the Russian army by British troops in the Crimean War. Thus, for all his love of the past, Tennyson also maintained a lively interest in the developments of his day, remaining deeply committed to reforming the society in which he lived and to which he gave voice.