TENNYSON. 



CGI 



Hallam ns a memorial of their friendship. This plan 

 was abandoned at the suggestion of Hullam's father. 

 Hallam, however, reviewed his friend's volume in an 

 essay " On some of the Characteristics of Mo lern 

 Poetry, and on tin- .Lyrical I'oeuisof Alfred Tennyson." 

 which appeared in the Englishman's Magazine. To 

 those who would account tor Tennyson's surpassing 

 affection for his friend tliis essay is exceedingly inter- 

 esting. Hallaui notes five distinct ( xci licneies in Tenny- 

 son's manner : his luxuriance of imajrination and his 

 control over it; his power of embixlying himself in 

 ideal characters ; his vivid picturesque delineation of 

 objects, and the peculiar skill with which he holds all 

 of them fused in a medium of strong emotion ; the 

 variety of his lyrical measures, and exquisite modu- 

 lation of harmonious words and cadences to the swell 

 and fall of the feelings expressed ; the elevated habits 

 of thought, implied rather than directly expressed, 

 and more' impressive than if the author had drawn up 

 a set of opinions in verse, and sought to instruct the 

 understanding rather than to communicate the love of 

 l>p.iuty to the heart Hallam's prophetic allusion in 

 verse to his companion is worthy of mention : 



" A friend, a rare one, 

 A nolile being full of clearest insight, 



. . . whose fume 



Is couching now with pnntherifcen! intent, 

 As who shall say, I'll spring to him amin 

 And have him for my own." 



Leigh Hunt paid Tennyson's first volume the com- 

 pliment of an extended review. Yet the poet's 

 rourse has not been a continuous ovation. Even Cole- 

 rM.L'c wrote : "The misfortune is that he has begun to 

 write verses without very well understanding what 

 metre is." 



A In int this time Tennyson and llallam made a jour- 

 ney to the Pyrenees in the interest of the Spanish 

 p-itriots driven into revolt by the tyranny of Ferdinand, 

 i'hey were the bearers of money and of despatches in 

 invisible ink to the conspirators who wore then Incline 

 in the mountain!!. Tins episode is referred to in In 

 Mftnoriam. In t/if Vnllfn/ af ( 'im/rri'tz, and in the pool's 

 letter to his commentator, Mr. Dawson. of Montreal. 



In the winter of 1X32 a second volume appeared, 

 containing thirty poems ; among them Tlif JSH/I/ of 

 Shalnit, Thf MfUtr't Daughter, (Enoiif. Tlif I'ala're 

 of Art, The ,l/"v Q'irrn. 'Tlif. Lotit* Kntrr*, and .1 

 Dream <if Fair Women, Of this little book one of the 

 most competent of modern critics (himself a poet) has 

 said : "All in all, a more original and beautiful volume 

 of minor poetry has never been added to our literature. " 

 It is difficult for those whose memories cover only that 

 portion of Tennyson's career since his powers have 

 been abundantly acknowledged and his fame assured 

 to realize that there was a time when not merely the 

 world but the majority even of the readers of poetry 

 were quite indifferent to the feasts which he prepared 

 for them ; that a taste for such spiritual delicacies had 

 actually to be cultivated, and that right slowly and 

 painfully. Such is the case, however, as is shown in 

 the world's willingness to let ten years elapse before 

 calling for a second edition of this exceptional volume. 

 Here ami there, however, might be found a man, and, 

 very rarely, even a critic, who regarded Tennyson as 

 the chief living hope of the musts. 



In 1833 1 Arthur Hallam, the poet's brother in the 

 kinship of sympathy and the betrothed lover of his 

 nistcr Emily died while absent in Vienna. This be- 

 reavement, so sudden, sharp, and unex|iccted, following 

 fast upon other similar visitations, produced a most 

 profound impression on the sensitive, thoughtful mind 

 of the poet, bringing him face to face and at closest 

 quarters with the awful Sphinx, propounding the great 

 riddle Death and the even greater riddle Life. 

 Tennyson's answer and no grander has been recorded 

 in our age is to be found in In Memoriam. The ten 

 years following 1832 was a period of silence, though by 



no means one of inactivity. The poet's life during 

 these ten years was one of the greatest seclusion. 

 "Avoiding general society, he would prefer to sit up 

 all night with a friend, or else to sit and think alone. 

 Beyond a very small circle he was never met." This 

 circle, however, was as select as it was small. It in- 

 cluded Thackeray, Landor, R. H. Home, Carlyle, 

 Sterling, Macready, Cunningham, Forster, and Mill. 

 Tennyson and Carlyle used to have sundry "wit com- 

 bats," "interlarded," according to their own accounts, 

 with "brilliant flashes of silence." At length the 

 plodding poetic world so far caught up with her great 

 apostle as to demand a new edition of his poems. 

 This was met in 1842 by the publication of a selection 

 from the contents of his two previous books, carefully 

 revised, with several new poems, among which were 

 Lnily Clara I ere de Vere, The lilacMjird. The Gnnxe, 

 r/i/.ivrs, Love and Duty, The Ttco Voices, The Talk- 

 ing Oak. Morte d 1 Arthur, The Gardener's Daughter, 

 Dora, St. Simeon Stylites, Lodtsley Hall, Cmlica, 

 and part of The Day Dream. The reception given 

 those two volumes by the most thoughtful of the 

 English-speaking race everywhere was prompt and 

 appreciative. Fine as had been the quality of his pre- 

 vious work, it was seen that he had improved even 

 upon that. Three further editions of the "Poems" 

 were called for within four years, and Moxon, his pub- 

 lisher, said, as early as 1K43, that Tennyson was the 

 only poet by whom he had not lost. About this time 

 the future laureate met, for the first time, his great 

 predecessors. The high opinion of each respecting the 

 other is shown in one of Wordsworth's letters to Prof. 

 Henry Iteed, of Philadelphia, in which he says: "I 

 saw Tennyson when I was in London several times. 

 He is decidedly the first of our living poets. You will 

 be pleased to hear that he expressed in the highest 

 terms his gratitude to my writings." 



One thoroughly human phase of genius is well shown 

 in the "literary squabble" between Bulwer-Lytton 

 and Tennyson which followed the bestowal of a pension 

 upon the latter in 1845. The curious may learn par- 

 ticulars by referring, in old editions, to The New 

 Tnnon ; a Romance of London, and to Tennyson's 

 rejoinder. The New Timon and the fbett. But the 

 wrath of the truly great is apt to be as momentary 

 as it is intense. The After-thought, since re- 

 eliri---teiM'd Literary SqiinlJJe*, following speedily unon 

 Tennyson's AV< Timon, shows his humility as well ns 

 bis wisdom in such matters. A further sequel to this 

 episode is to be found in Tennyson's dedication of his 

 Harold. 



In 1847 The Princes* appeared ; a poem well worthy 

 of profound study by all who find themselves per- 

 plexed over the question of woman's proper "sphere." 

 Three important event! mark the year 1850. On June 

 13 Tennyson was married to Miss Emily Sellwood, 

 whose mother was a sister of Sir John Franklin. The 

 bride was "the near, dear, and true" of The Dedica- 

 tion in Knoch Ardrn. She proved a woman eminently 

 qualified to have in her keeping a poet's comfort and 

 happiness. Few men of letters have been so singularly 

 fortunate in the choice of a helpmeet. The second 

 event of 1850 WM the publication of In Memoriam. 

 Those who make of this work merely a monument to 

 Arthur Hallam's memory underestimate its weighty 

 import. Such a monument it is, of course, but it is 

 vastly more : it is Tennyson's rendering of Job des- 

 tined to endure as long as men turn for enlightenment 

 and consolation to the scriptures of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. In Memoriam instances well the slow and pain- 

 ful evolution of those things which are vital and lasting. 

 Even a Tennyson took seventeen years to write In Mc- 

 morium; and the sadness and sorrow of some of those, 

 years arc a subject too sacred to be publicly intruded 

 upon. It was in 1850 that Tennyson succeeded Words- 

 worth as poet-laureate, an office which he has greatly 

 honored, though not by the amount of work dr>no 

 strictly in bis official capacity. The best known of his 



