On May 14, 1842, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published Poems.
While the 32-year-old poet had already published several other books of verse, Poems,
which included works like "Ulysses" and "Morte D'Arthur,"
was considered his best work to date. The book confirmed his growing stature as
a poet after more than a decade of writing. Tennyson was born into a chaotic
and disrupted home. His father, the eldest son of a wealthy landowner, was
disinherited in favor of his younger brother. Forced to enter the Church to
support himself, the Rev. Dr. George Tennyson became a bitter alcoholic.
However, he educated his sons in the classics, and Alfred Tennyson, the fourth
of 12 children, went to Trinity College at Cambridge in 1827. The same year, he
and his brother Charles published Poems by Two Brothers. At Cambridge,
Tennyson befriended a circle of intellectual undergraduates who strongly
encouraged his poetry. Chief among them was Arthur Hallam, who became
Tennyson's closest friend and who later proposed to Tennyson's sister.
In 1830, Tennyson published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical.
The following year, his father died, and he was forced to leave Cambridge for
financial reasons. Besieged by critical attacks and struggling with poverty,
Tennyson remained dedicated to his work and published several more volumes. The
sudden death of Tennyson's dear friend Arthur Hallam in 1833 inspired several
important works throughout Tennyson's later life, including the masterful In
Memoriam of 1842. The publication of Poems in 1842 boosted
Tennyson's reputation, and in 1850 Queen Victoria named him Poet Laureate of
the United Kingdom. At long last, Tennyson achieved financial stability and
finally married his fiancée Emily Sellwood, whom he had loved since 1836. Tennyson's
massive frame and booming voice, together with his taste for solitude, made him
an imposing character. He craved solitude and bought an isolated home where he
could write in peace. In 1859, he published the first four books of his epic Idylls
of the King. Eight more volumes would follow. He continued writing and
publishing poems until his death in 1892.
Michael Thomas
Barry is the author of Great Britain’s
Literary Legends. The book can be purchased from Amazon through the following
links:
No comments:
Post a Comment