TENNYSON 



5756 



TENNYSON 



1828, when he entered Cambridge University. 

 In these years spent in his quiet, pleasant home 

 he had plenty of time for reading and reflection, 

 for the close observation of nature and for prac- 

 tice in poetic composition, and the first re- 

 sults of the period were seen in the little vol- 

 ume published in 1827, by Charles and Alfred 

 Tennyson, ' entitled Poems by Two Brothers. 

 The book attracted no attention, and brought 

 to its authors only about $100. 



Poetry of Student Days. The constantly se- 

 cluded life at home had made the brothers 

 rather shy, and when they entered the uni- 

 versity they did not find it easy to make 



ALFRED TENNYSON 



One of the noblest and most representative fig- 

 ures in nineteenth-century literature. 



friends. Gradually, however, some of the bright- 

 est young men of the school became acquainted 

 with the brothers and made them members of 

 the select society known as "The Apostles." In 

 1829 Alfred distinguished himself by winning 

 the Chancellor's prize for his blank verse poem, 

 Timbuctoo, and in the following year he pub- 

 lished his Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. Critics found 

 faults in this volume, but recognized, too, the 

 promise of the young author; indeed, the 

 melody of such poems as Mariana and Oriana 

 could not fail to make itself felt. 



Shortly before his father's death in 1831 Ten- 

 nyson left Cambridge without receiving a de- 

 gree. Two years later he published another 

 volume of Poems, among which appeared some 

 of the most exquisite of his lyrics, among them 

 The Lady of Shalott, The Palace of Art, The 

 Lotus-Eaters, The Dream oj Fair Women and 



Oenone. Again the critics did not spare his 

 work, and a particularly savage article appeared 

 in the Quarterly Review; but had Tennyson 

 written nothing after that time he would by 

 that volume have proved his right to rank with 

 the great English poets. 



His Greatest Years. In 1833 an event oc- 

 curred which affected the poet so profoundly 

 that he remained in seclusion for ten years. 

 This was the sudden death of his best friend, 

 Arthur Henry Hallam, son of the historian. At 

 the end of the long period of silence appeared 

 a third collection of Poems containing, with 

 others of special note, Locksley Hall, Morte 

 d' Arthur, Dora, Ulysses and Break, Break, 

 Break, and in 1847 was produced The Princess, 

 a long narrative poem which is perhaps most 

 noteworthy for the exquisitely finished songs 

 interspersed through it. Among these are 

 Sweet and Low; The Splendor Falls on Castle 

 Walls; Tears, Idle Tears, and As Through the 

 Land. These poems are marked by a depth of 

 thought not found in any that preceded them; 

 but the spiritual development which came as 

 a direct result of Hallam 's death found its 

 fullest expression in the long elegy In Me- 

 moriam, composed of lyrics written at various 

 times, but published as one poem in 1850. This 

 masterpiece is equaled in its class only by Mil- 

 ton's Lycidas and Shelley's Adonais. Much 

 longer than either, it presents all phases of the 

 poet's grief, and takes up the most serious 

 questions as to life, death and immortality. 



Appointment as Poet Laureate. In the same 

 year Tennyson was made poet laureate. He 

 was then enabled to purchase the estate of Far- 

 ringford, on the Isle of Wight, and to marry 

 Miss Emily Sellwood, the lady to whom he had 

 been long betrothed. Years later the poet said 

 of her, "The peace of God came into my life 

 before the altar when I wedded her." In 1868 

 Tennyson built Aldworth, his house near Hasel- 

 mere, and thereafter passed his time between 

 the new home and Farringford. Eight years 

 before his death he was made Baron of Aid- 

 worth and Farringford. 



After his appointment to the laureateship he 

 produced Maud, a dramatic representation of a 

 morbid man; The Idylls of the King, an ideal- 

 istic treatment of the King Arthur legends, and 

 perhaps his most popular work; Enoch Arden, 

 portraying one of the noblest heroes in litera- 

 ture; the dramas Queen Mary and Becket; 

 Locksley Hall Sixty Years After; Demeter, and 

 several other volumes of poems and dramas. 

 The Arthurian legends always had a fascination 



