Alfred Tennyson And His Work :: essays research papers fc

Alfred Tennyson and His WorkAlfred Tennyson was natural on August 6th, 1809, at Somersby, Lincolnshire,fourth of twelve children of George and Elizabeth Tennyson. Tennyson, said tobe the best poet of the Victorian era and his poetry will be discussed in thisessay.     Tennyson had a lifelong fear of mental illness, because several men inhis family had a mild form of epilepsy, which then was thought of as a shamefuldisease. His father and br other Arthur made their epilepsy worse by immoderatedrinking. His brother Edward had to be put in a mental validation after 1833,and he spent a few weeks himself under doctors direction in 1843. In the latetwenties his fathers physical and mental control got worse, and he becameparanoid, abusive, and violent.     In 1827 Tennyson escaped his troubled home when he followed his cardinalolder brothers to Trinity College, Cambridge, where his teacher was WilliamWhe easily. Because each of them had won uni versity prizes for poetry the Tennysonbrothers became well known at Cambridge. In 1829 The Apostles, an undergraduateclub, invited him to join. The members of this group would remain Tennysonsfriends alone his life.     Arthur Hallam was the most important of these friendships. Hallam, abrilliant Victorian young humans was recognized by his peers as having unusualpromise. He and Tennyson knew each other only four years, but their intensefriendship had a major influence on the poet. On a visit to Somersby, Hallammet and later became act to Emily Tennyson, and the two friends lookedforward to a life-long companionship. Hallam died from illness in 1833 at the jump on of 22 and shocked Tennyson profoundly. His grief lead to most of his bestpoetry, including "In Memoriam", "The Passing of Arthur", "Ulysses", and"Tithonus".     Since Tennyson was always sensitive to criticism, The bad reviews of his1832 poems hurt him greatly. Critics in those years took great joy in theharshness of their reviews. John Wilson Crokers harsh criticisms of several(prenominal)(prenominal) ofthe poems he wrote kept Tennyson from publishing again for another nine years.     The victory of his 1842 poems made Tennyson a popular poet, and in 1845he got a presidential term pension of 200 pounds a year, which helped him with hisfinancial difficulties. The success of "The Princess" and "In Memoriam" and his try-on as Poet Laureate in 1850 finally established him as the most popularpoet of the Victorian era.     By now Tennyson, only 41, had written some of his greatest poetry, buthe continued to write and to gain popularity. Prince Albert prise his poetryso much that he would drop by out of the blue to here some of Tennysons poetry.