Tennyson as a representative Victorian poet

Course: B.A. English Hons. Part I Paper: I (sub-section I), Group A Title of e-content: - Tennyson as a representative Victorian poet e-Content by Dr Rohini Department of English, P.U.

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Alfred Lord Tennyson was one of the Early Victorian poets along with Mathew Arnold and Robert Browning. Most of us have heard his famous lines: The old order changeth, yielding place to new And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world (The Passing of Arthur) Life: Tennyson was born at Somersby, Lincolnshire. Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam whose death he lamented in the poem ‘In Memoriam’(1850). Hallam was engaged to Tennyson’s sister. When Tennyson’s father died, he left the university without a degree and published , chiefly Lyrical. His poetry is a record of the intellectual and spiritual life of the time. Tennyson was made poet Laureate in 1850. Tennyson’s early work is .

Tennyson’s selected works: Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830) and other poems (1832) The Princess : A Medly( 1847) In memoriam A.H.H. (1850) Maud, and Other Poems (1855) The (1842-88) (1864) Tiresias and other poems(1855) Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886)

The Lotus- Eaters was inspired by his trip to Spain with his close friend . The story of The Lotus- Eaters comes from Homer’s ‘The Odyssey.’ In memoriam A.H.H. is a poem by Tennyson. It is a requiem for the poet’s beloved friend A.H.Hallam. In Memoriam is written in four- line ABBA stanzas of Iambic tetrameter, and such stanzas are now called In Memoriam stanza. At the end of the poem, Tennyson emerged with his Christian faith. In memoriam is lyrical in tone. Tennyson’s optimistic notes is evident in the last lines: Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Break, Break, Break is an elegy. It was published in 1842. The memorable lines: O, well for the fisherman’s boy, That he shouts with his sister at play! O, well for the sailor lad, That he sings in his boat on the bay! And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill; But O for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still. is a poem in blank verse.( Iambic pentameter). It was written in 1833 and published in 1842.Ulysses contrasts his restlessness and boredom with his heroic past. He contemplates his age and eventual death and longs for further experience and knowledge. ‘Life piled on life/ were all too little, and of one to me/ Little remains(24-26) In a 1929 essay T.S.Eliot called ‘‘ Ulysses’’ a perfect poem. An analogue of Ulysses is found in Eliot’s Gerontion(1920). Both poems are narrated by an aged man contemplating life’s end. Many readers have accepted the acclaimed last lines of Ulysses as inspirational. ‘one equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. (68-70)