#Alfred lord tennyson series

Tennyson often took inspiration from Classical and Arthurian mythology, and frequently explored death, loss, desire, the passing of time, and the dilemma of whether to withdraw from or engage with the world. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.īoth comments and pings are currently closed.Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was the most famous poet of the Victorian era, renowned for his dramatically powerful subjects and highly-wrought melodious style.Īmong his most celebrated works are ‘The Lady of Shalott’ (1842), ‘Ulysses’ (1842), In Memoriam A.H.H. On Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Tennyson. An edition of The Major Works in the Oxford World's Classics series, edited by Adam Roberts, is cheaper, and also includes extracts from Tennyson's letters and from Hallam Tennyson's memoir about his poet father. Christopher Ricks' Tennyson: A Selected Edition is published by Longman in a reasonably affordable paperback, which includes comprehensive notes. If you're looking for a good text of Tennyson's poems, two well-known editions deserve special mention. It invites readers to evaluate several different approaches to one poem.

#Alfred lord tennyson series

'Tears, Idle Tears' uses one poem to ask a series of fundamental questions about how we read poems in relation to their historical contexts. 'Music and Meaning' is about the musicality of poetry, the use of musical metaphor in Tennyson's work, and musical settings of his work: it covers a lot of ground, and asks many rewarding questions along the way. Two large resources require a special mention. You can find details of these in the menu on the left. There are also close analyses of poems, and we hope you'll compare your interpretations with the ones set out there. The Cambridge Authors resources for Tennyson include an introduction to his Arthurian poems, as well as several articles that explore his life (especially at Cambridge) and the times he wrote in (for example, looking at the religious and scientific backgrounds, and his presentation of women). Tennyson's persistent interest in the court of King Arthur manifests itself both in early poems (such as 'The Lady of Shalott', and 'The Morte d'Arthur'), and in the great collection Idylls of the King. Another group of poems, telling the stories of King Arthur and his court, would be rewarding to consider. 'The Lotos-Eaters', 'Maud', 'Enoch Arden', 'Mariana', and 'Tithonus', to name just a few, would offer varied rewards to a reader exploring the range of his work. In addition to In Memoriam Tennyson wrote fascinating and well-known poems in numerous collections. He was admitted to the peerage, becoming Baron Tennyson (hence he is often referred to as 'Alfred, Lord Tennyson') in 1883. He published In Memoriam, one of the greatest English poems about grief, loss, and consolation, and he was named Poet Laureate, succeeding Wordsworth. It was not until later, however, in 1850, that two highly significant events secured his reputation and his financial security. He was very productive throughout the 1830s and 1840s (after leaving university).

One was with Arthur Henry Hallam, another poet, whose death in 1833 was a huge blow.

By the time he left in 1831, without taking a degree, he had already published his first collection, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, and formed some very significant friendships. In 1827 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. The Tennysons were a prominent but quarrelsome family, and he grew up in comfortable but not particularly wealthy circumstances. Alfred Tennyson was born in 1809 at Somersby, Lincolnshire, the son of the Rector there.