| |
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Lord Tennyson
|
|
|
(Alfred Tennyson, 1809–92, baron 1884)
Poet who more than any other struck a chord with the Victorian public. At Trinity College, Cambridge, he became a close friend of Arthur Hallam. Hallam fell in love with Tennyson's sister, Emily, and was engaged to marry her when he suddenly died. The shock of this death inspired the poem which years later made Tennyson's reputation, *In Memoriam. The queen was among its keenest admirers, and its publication in 1850 coincided with the death of the poet laureate, William *Wordsworth. Tennyson was immediately appointed in his place.
|
|
|
|
|
His early work had not been so well received. Poems (1833) provoked savage reviews, causing him to publish nothing more until the 2-volume Poems of 1842 (the first volume contained revised versions of the 1833 poems, including 'The *Lady of Shalott'). But after 1850 he steadily consolidated his position, catching the national mood successfully with poems such as his ode on the death of Wellington in 1852 or with The *Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854. The response to *Maud (1854) was less warm, many finding it confusing and morbid, but the series grouped as *Idylls of the King (1859–85) satisfied the Victorian appetite for medieval and Arthurian themes.
|
|
|
|
|
The short poem Crossing the Bar (1889) revealed that he had not lost his touch in old age. It was written on the sea between the south coast and the Isle of Wight, where he and his wife had made their home since 1853 in a house called Farringford (now a hotel). A neighbour, Julia Margaret *Cameron, was responsible for several powerful images of his leonine features and shock of hair – a bohemian appearance which greatly pleased his public when combined with so respectable a life.
|
|
|
|