Alfred Tennyson, 1809–1892

[Mentioned in Science and Health, pp. 88, 194, and Miscellaneous Writings, p. 106]

Of Alfred Tennyson, England's poet laureate for 42 years, a twentieth-century critic has said, "Tennyson will always rank amongst the first, because he is the most human of the great poets." Before he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, he had published some of his work. While at Cambridge he won the Chancellor's prize for "Timbuctoo" and brought out a volume, "Poems, Chiefly Lyrical." He also joined The Apostles, a club which discussed literary, social, and political problems. Foremost among the many friends he made in this club was Arthur H. Hallam. His sudden death in 1833 was a great shock to Tennyson. For the next 9 years he published nothing, although he worked constantly.

As a result of this work he published two volumes of his poetical works in 1842 and "In Memoriam A. H. H." in 1850. A happier period in his life began with his marriage that year. He was also made poet laureate. His official poems were generally liked, and his tribute to the prince consort published as a Dedicatory Preface in "The Idylls of the King" won him the queen's friendship.

With the publication of the two-volume edition of his poems, Tennyson's work began to be known America. He contributed to St. Nicholas, was paid £1000 for a poem "England and America in 1782," and made the acquaintance of Emerson, Phillips Brooks, and Hawthorne. Edison sent representatives to make a record of Tennyson's reading of his own poetry. Elizabeth Browning said of his reading of "Maud," "It was ... tender, and beautiful, ... rather music than speech."

One of his most popular ballads was "The Charge of the Light Brigade," written after he had read an account of the futile but gallant charge at Balaklava. Besides his lyric and narrative poems he wrote several historical plays, in some of which Sir Henry Irving starred. The great variety of Tennyson's work fulfilled his own definition, "Poetry is like shot-silk with many glancing colours."

In 1883 he accepted a peerage and sat in the House of Lords. His concern for humanity made him beloved by all classes. Some of his appeal may be traced to his faith in God and in man's immortality. He said, "There's a something that watches over us; and our individuality endures: that's my faith, and that's all my faith."

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Signs of the Times

September 24, 1955

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