| Alfred,
Lord Tennyson "The Lady of Shalott" "Ulysses" "Crossing the Bar" |
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Tennyson was perhaps the most popular of the Victorian era poets, both in
England and in the United States. He was Queen Victoria's favorite poet,
and she made him Poet Laureate of England. He was the fourth of twelve
children in a troubled family. By the time he attended Cambridge University,
he'd already published some books of poetry, and at college he became involved
in a group of intellectual students. One of those students was Arthur Henry
Hallam, who became Tennyson's close friend and was engaged to marry Tennyson's
sister.
Tennyson never graduated (family and financial problems intervened).
However, he continued to study and write on his own. He remained a poor man,
working on his poetry, for many years. He published many books, but reached
critical The Lady of Shalott (click here
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success with the poem In Memorium, published in 1850, which was an
elegy for his friend Hallam, who had died suddenly (and very young) in
1833. This poem found a warm audience in Queen Victoria, who was
mourning the death of her beloved husband, Prince Albert. Victoria made
Tennyson poet laureate, and Tennyson continued to write for an additional 42
years. His works include Idylls of the King, a collection of poems
covering the legends of King Arthur. He died in 1892 at the age of 83.