Alfred Lord Tennyson

699 Pages·2012·1.39 MB·English

Classic Poetry Series

Alfred Lord Tennyson
- poems -

Publication Date:
2012

Publisher:
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Alfred Lord Tennyson(6 August 1809 – 6 October
1892)

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United
Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most
popular poets in the English language.

Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as "In the Valley of Cauteretz",
"Break, Break, Break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "Tears, Idle Tears" and
"Crossing the Bar". Much of his verse was based on classical mythological
themes, such as Ulysses, although In Memoriam A.H.H. was written to
commemorate his best friend Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet and fellow student at
Trinity College, Cambridge, who was engaged to Tennyson's sister, but died from
a brain haemorrhage before they could marry. Tennyson also wrote some notable
blank verse 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 commonplaces of the
English language, including "Nature, red in tooth and claw", "'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", "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.

<b>Early Life</b>

Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, a rector's son and fourth of 12
children. He derived from a middle-class line of Tennysons, but also had noble
and royal ancestry.

His father, George Clayton Tennyson (1778–1831), was rector of Somersby
(1807–1831), also rector of Benniworth and Bag Enderby, and vicar of Grimsby
(1815). The rector was the elder of two sons, but was disinherited at an early
age by his father, the landowner George Tennyson (1750–1835) (owner of
Bayons Manor and Usselby Hall), in favour of his younger brother Charles, who
later took the name Charles Tennyson d'Eyncourt. Rev. George Clayton Tennyson
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
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management enabled the family to spend summers at Mablethorpe and
Skegness, on the eastern coast of England." Alfred Tennyson's mother, Elizabeth
Fytche (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 were published locally when Alfred was only 17.
One of those brothers, Charles Tennyson Turner 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, where he died.

<b>Education and First Publication</b>

Tennyson was first a student of Louth Grammar School for four years
(1816–1820) and then attended Scaitcliffe School, Englefield Green and King
Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge in
1827,[4] where he joined a secret society called the Cambridge Apostles. At
Cambridge Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam, who became his closest friend.
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 he was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his
first pieces, "Timbuctoo." 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",
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.

<b>Return to Lincolnshire and Second Publication</b>

In the spring of 1831 Tennyson's father died, requiring him to leave Cambridge
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 included his well-
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known poem, The Lady of Shalott. The volume met heavy criticism, which so
discouraged Tennyson that he did not publish again for 10 years, although he
continued to write. That same year, Hallam died suddenly and unexpectedly after
suffering a cerebral haemorrhage while on vacation in Vienna. Hallam's sudden
and unexpected death in 1833 had a profound impact on Tennyson, and inspired
several masterpieces, including "In the Valley of Cauteretz" and In Memoriam
A.H.H., a long poem detailing the 'Way of the Soul'.

Tennyson and his family were allowed to stay in the rectory for some time, but
later moved to High Beach, Essex in 1837. An unwise investment in an
ecclesiastical wood-carving enterprise soon led to the loss of much of the family
fortune. Tennyson then moved to London, and lived for a time at Chapel House,
Twickenham.

<b>Third Publication</b>

In 1842, while living modestly in London, Tennyson published two volumes of
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, "Tithonus", and "Ulysses" have
met enduring fame. The Princess: A Medley, a satire on women's education,
which 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., dedicated to Hallam. Later the
same year he was appointed Poet Laureate, succeeding <a href="

<b>Poet Laureate</b>

After <a href="

Queen Victoria was an ardent admirer of Tennyson's work, and in 1884 created
him Baron Tennyson, of Aldworth in the County of Sussex and of Freshwater in
the Isle of Wight. Tennyson initially declined a baronetcy in 1865 and 1868
(when tendered by Disraeli), finally accepting a peerage in 1883 at Gladstone's
earnest solicitation. He took his seat in the House of Lords on 11 March 1884.

Tennyson also wrote a substantial quantity of non-official political verse, from the
bellicose "Form, Riflemen, Form", on the French crisis of 1859, to "Steersman, be
not precipitate in thine act/of steering", deploring Gladstone's Home Rule Bill.
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Tennyson was the first to be raised to a British Peerage for his writing. A
passionate man with some peculiarities of nature, he was never particularly
comfortable as a peer, and it is widely held that he took the peerage in order to
secure a future for his son Hallam.

Thomas Edison 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",
"Charge of the Heavy Brigade", and "Lancelot and Elaine"; the sound quality is as
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": Famously, he
wrote in In Memoriam: "There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than
in half the creeds." [The context directly contradicts the apparent meaning of this
quote.] In Maud, 1855, he wrote: "The churches have killed their Christ." In
"Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," 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 of a sort." His son's biography confirms
that Tennyson was not an orthodox Christian, noting that Tennyson praised
Giordano Bruno 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. A memorial was
erected in All Saints' Church, Freshwater. His last words were; "Oh that press will
have me now!".

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.

<b>The art of Tennyson's Poetry</b>

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 <a href="

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The moan of doves in immemorial elms
And murmuring of innumerable bees.

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 moralising and self-
indulgent 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 a grand and special variability in its quality. Tennyson
possessed the strongest poetic power; he put great length into many works,
most famous of which are Maud and Idylls of the King, the latter one of
literature's treatments of the legend of King Arthur and The Knights of the Round
Table.
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&#140;None

There lies a vale in Ida, lovelier
Than all the valleys of Ionian hills.
The swimming vapour slopes athwart the glen,
Puts forth an arm, and creeps from pine to pine,
And loiters, slowly drawn. On either hand
The lawns and meadow-ledges midway down
Hang rich in flowers, and far below them roars
The long brook falling thro' the clov'n ravine
In cataract after cataract to the sea.
Behind the valley topmost Gargarus
Stands up and takes the morning: but in front
The gorges, opening wide apart, reveal
Troas and Ilion's column'd citadel,
The crown of Troas. Hither came at noon
Mournful &#140;none, wandering forlorn
Of Paris, once her playmate on the hills.
Her cheek had lost the rose, and round her neck
Floated her hair or seem'd to float in rest.
She, leaning on a fragment twined with vine,
Sang to the stillness, till the mountain-shade
Sloped downward to her seat from the upper cliff.

"O mother Ida, many-fountain'd Ida,
Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.
For now the noonday quiet holds the hill:
The grasshopper is silent in the grass:
The lizard, with his shadow on the stone,
Rests like a shadow, and the winds are dead.
The purple flower droops: the golden bee
Is lily-cradled: I alone awake.
My eyes are full of tears, my heart of love,
My heart is breaking, and my eyes are dim,
And I am all aweary of my life.

"O mother Ida, many-fountain'd Ida,
Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.
Hear me, O Earth, hear me, O Hills, O Caves
That house the cold crown'd snake! O mountain brooks,
I am the daughter of a River-God,
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Hear me, for I will speak, and build up all
My sorrow with my song, as yonder walls
Rose slowly to a music slowly breathed,
A cloud that gather'd shape: for it may be
That, while I speak of it, a little while
My heart may wander from its deeper woe.

"O mother Ida, many-fountain'd Ida,
Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.
I waited underneath the dawning hills,
Aloft the mountain lawn was dewy-dark,
And dewy-dark aloft the mountain pine:
Beautiful Paris, evil-hearted Paris,
Leading a jet-black goat white-horn'd, white-hooved,
Came up from reedy Simois all alone.

"O mother Ida, harken ere I die.
Far-off the torrent call'd me from the cleft:
Far up the solitary morning smote
The streaks of virgin snow. With down-dropt eyes
I sat alone: white-breasted like a star
Fronting the dawn he moved; a leopard skin
Droop'd from his shoulder, but his sunny hair
Cluster'd about his temples like a God's:
And his cheek brighten'd as the foam-bow brightens
When the wind blows the foam, and all my heart
Went forth to embrace him coming ere he came.

"Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.
He smiled, and opening out his milk-white palm
Disclosed a fruit of pure Hesperian gold,
That smelt ambrosially, and while I look'd
And listen'd, the full-flowing river of speech
Came down upon my heart. `My own &#140;none,
Beautiful-brow'd &#140;none, my own soul,
Behold this fruit, whose gleaming rind ingrav'n
"For the most fair," would seem to award it thine,
As lovelier than whatever Oread haunt
The knolls of Ida, loveliest in all grace
Of movement, and the charm of married brows.'

"Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.
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He prest the blossom of his lips to mine,
And added 'This was cast upon the board,
When all the full-faced presence of the Gods
Ranged in the halls of Peleus; whereupon
Rose feud, with question unto whom 'twere due:
But light-foot Iris brought it yester-eve,
Delivering that to me, by common voice
Elected umpire, Her&egrave; comes to-day,
Pallas and Aphrodit&egrave;, claiming each
This meed of fairest. Thou, within the cave
Behind yon whispering tuft of oldest pine,
Mayst well behold them unbeheld, unheard
Hear all, and see thy Paris judge of Gods.'

"Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.
It was the deep midnoon: one silvery cloud
Had lost his way between the piney sides
Of this long glen. Then to the bower they came,
Naked they came to that smooth-swarded bower,
And at their feet the crocus brake like fire,
Violet, amaracus, and asphodel,
Lotos and lilies: and a wind arose,
And overhead the wandering ivy and vine,
This way and that, in many a wild festoon
Ran riot, garlanding the gnarled boughs
With bunch and berry and flower thro' and thro'.

"O mother Ida, harken ere I die.
On the tree-tops a crested peacock lit,
And o'er him flow'd a golden cloud, and lean'd
Upon him, slowly dropping fragrant dew.
Then first I heard the voice of her, to whom
Coming thro' Heaven, like a light that grows
Larger and clearer, with one mind the Gods
Rise up for reverence. She to Paris made
Proffer of royal power, ample rule
Unquestion'd, overflowing revenue
Wherewith to embellish state, 'from many a vale
And river-sunder'd champaign clothed with corn,
Or labour'd mine undrainable of ore.
Honour,' she said, 'and homage, tax and toll,
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From many an inland town and haven large,
Mast-throng'd beneath her shadowing citadel
In glassy bays among her tallest towers.'

"O mother Ida, harken ere I die.
Still she spake on and still she spake of power,
'Which in all action is the end of all;
Power fitted to the season; wisdom-bred
And throned of wisdom--from all neighbour crowns
Alliance and allegiance, till thy hand
Fail from the sceptre-staff. Such boon from me,
From me, Heaven's Queen, Paris, to thee king-born,
A shepherd all thy life but yet king-born,
Should come most welcome, seeing men, in power
Only, are likest Gods, who have attain'd
Rest in a happy place and quiet seats
Above the thunder, with undying bliss
In knowledge of their own supremacy.'

"Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.
She ceased, and Paris held the costly fruit
Out at arm's-length, so much the thought of power
Flatter'd his spirit; but Pallas where she stood
Somewhat apart, her clear and bared limbs
O'erthwarted with the brazen-headed spear
Upon her pearly shoulder leaning cold,
The while, above, her full and earnest eye
Over her snow-cold breast and angry cheek
Kept watch, waiting decision, made reply.

"`Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,
These three alone lead life to sovereign power.
Yet not for power (power of herself
Would come uncall'd for) but to live by law,
Acting the law we live by without fear;
And, because right is right, to follow right
Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.'

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