Alfred Tennyson

EARLY LIFE 

Alfred Tennyson was born a rector's son at a local house which was the former rectory on August 6, 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. He was the fourth of 11 children. 

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, by George Frederic Watts (1817-1904)

Alfred's father was the Reverend George Tennyson Rector of Somersby, Lincolnshire. His paternal grandfather was an MP who had violated tradition by making his younger son his heir and arranged for George to enter the ministry. Whilst Alfred's aunt and uncle lived in a castle the future poet laureate was brought up in relatively straightened circumstances. 

The Reverend George Tennyson had fallen out with his family and been disinherited; he drank heavily, was an opium addict and had become mentally unstable.

Alfred's mother, Elizabeth (Fytche) Tennyson, was the daughter of Stephen Fytche, vicar of St. James Church, Louth (1764) and rector of Withcall (1780).

Alfred and two of his elder brothers, Charles and Frederick were writing poetry in their teens. A collection of poems by Alfred and Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers, was published locally when Alfred was seventeen.

An illustration by W. E. F. Britten showing Somersby Rectory, where Tennyson was raised and began writing

Charles Tennyson later married Louisa Sellwood, younger sister of Alfred's future wife.

Alfred was educated at of King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He did not enjoy his schooldays there.

He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, where he joined the intellectual discussion group called the Cambridge Apostles.

Tennyson continued writing poems as a student at Cambridge and he won a medal for one of his first pieces, "Timbuktu". 

When Tennyson’s father died in 1831 he was forced to leave Cambridge. He shared the responsibility for his widowed mother and her large brood of children. They were allowed to stay in the rectory for some time, but later moved to Essex.

CAREER 

Tennyson was left a small sum by his grandfather which meant he could concentrate on writing poetry rather than getting a regular job. However, he risked his small inheritance on an ecclesiastical scheme for mass producing wood carvings using steam power. The business collapsed and Tennyson lost just about everything he owned. 

As a result of Tennyson's resulting depression and decline, his friends got together and persuaded Robert Peel, the PM, to give Tennyson a civil list pension of £200 a year. (Peel had never heard of him.

In 1850 Tennyson was appointed to the position of Poet Laureate.

When Alfred Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate, he borrowed the same suit to wear to the palace that William Wordsworth wore on his appointment to the same post seven years before. Both borrowed their court dress from the poet Samuel Rogers. 

Tennyson held the position of Poet Laureate until his own death in 1892, the longest tenure of any laureate before or since. 

Alfred Tennyson, portrait by P. Krämer

By 1860 he was the most widely read living poet. The Victorians reveled in Tennyson's poems of lovelorn maidens and gallant knights. He was the media idol of his age.

Tennyson liked adulation but hated publicity and when his fans flocked to his Isle of Wight home he was forced to move. His life was made a misery by the public besieging him.  

In 1884 Queen Victoria created him Baron Tennyson, of Aldworth in the County of Sussex and of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight. He took his seat in the House of Lords on March 11, 1884. Tennyson was the first English writer to win so high a title for his work alone.

POETRY 

The archetype Victorian poet composed his poetry in his head due to his extreme shortsightness, constantly revising them in his mind.  and habitually using a rhyming dictionary, before committing it to paper once fully satisfied. 

Tennyson's rhyming words seemed to fall into place naturally and effortlessly but time and time again they were the result of studying a rhyming dictionary to find a word which would rhyme. 

Tennyson would read his poetry aloud in a deep chant.

His first publication was a joint collection of "his boyish rhymes" with those of his elder brother Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers, published when he was 17.

In 1833 Tennyson published Poems, his second book of poetry, which notably included the first version containing 20 stanzas of his lyrical ballad "The Lady of Shalott." The volume met heavy criticism, which so discouraged Tennyson that he did not publish again for close to a decade, although he did continue to write.

Tennyson wrote a second version of "The Lady of Shalott" which was published in 1842, this time containing 19 stanzas. The revised version has a significantly different ending.

"The Lady of Shalott" was particularly popular with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which shared Tennyson's interest in Arthuriana. Decades later Holman Hunt created his charming, magical 1905 painting "The Lady of Shalott". 

Holman Hunt's Lady of Shalott (1905)

In a 1995 Poll of BBC listeners, "Lady of Shalott" was voted second most popular poem of all time. (In case you're wondering, Rudyard Kipling's "If" came out on top). 

In 1833 Tennyson's close friend Hallam died suddenly and unexpectedly after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while on a holiday in Vienna. Hallam's death had a profound impact on Tennyson and inspired several poems, including and the long work In Memoriam A.H.H. Completed in 1849, it established Tennyson's fame and is widely considered to be one of the great poems of the 19th century and won him the appointment of Poet Laureate. 

In Memorium, Tennyson coined the phrase, "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

Title page of 1st edition (1850)

Maud, and Other Poems was published in 1855. It contained the dark and controversially suggestive "Maud" and sold 5,000 copies on the day of publication.

The well-known song "Come into the garden, Maud" appears at the end of the first part of "Maud". Tennyson composed "Come into the Garden Maud" at Swainston Manor, Calbourne, Isle of Wight. The poet earned so much from the work he was able to buy the neighboring mansion that he was renting and live there for the next 40 years.

English actor Kenneth Branagh's first production as an entrepreneur was a 1983 one man show called The Madness, based on "Maud." It was not successful.

Another of the "other poems" in Tennyson's Maud, and Other Poems collection was "The Charge of the Light Brigade", which glamorized the inept charge. He composed the poem while walking near his Isle of Wight home after reading a newspaper report of the carnage. The work was first published in The Examiner, only a few weeks after the Crimean War debacle.

Tennyson's epic poem "Enoch Arden" was the title work of Enoch Arden and Other Poems, which sold 17,000 copies on the day of its publication in 1864. Tennyson made £6000 from the collection in his first year. 

The poem "Enoch Arden" tells the story of a husband who disappears. He returns years later to find his wife (still pining for him) married to another.

Enoch Arden (watercolour painting by George Goodwin Kilburne)

Written in blank verse on the Isle of Wight, Idylls of the King was published between 1859 and 1885. A cycle of twelve narrative poems, it retells the story of King Arthur. The work is arguably the most famous Victorian adaptation of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

RELATIONSHIPS 

As an impoverished nobody, the young Tennyson would visit his beloved Rosa Baring at Harrington Hall, three miles away. He was not considered a fitting suitor and the affair caused him much unhappiness. 

Tennyson first met Emily Sellwood (1813-96) at his brother's wedding in 1836. They became engaged but in 1840 Emily's father opposed the marriage of his daughter to the young, lanky penniless poet. He disapproved of Tennyson because of his bohemianism, addiction to port and tobacco and liberal religious views.

Alfred and Emily didn't forget each other and in 1850 Sellwood at last gave his permission (Tennyson was by now famous and raking in the money). 

The 41 year old Alfred Tennyson, who had never kissed another woman, married the 37 year old Emily Sellwood at Shiplake, Oxfordshire on June 13, 1850. 

They had a happy marriage. The devoted, steady, dutiful Emily kept house and managed her poet husband's writing tasks, becoming a secretary for him.

Tennyson and Emily doted on their children, Hallam and Lionel who were made to wear dove colored frocks and had long golden hair.

Tennyson with his wife Emily (1813–1896) and his sons Hallam (1852–1928) and Lionel (1854–1886)

Tennyson's grandson by Hallam, Lionel, later Lord Tennyson, played nine cricket tests for England captaining them for three. Hallam later became Governor General of all of Australia. 

At Cambridge, Tennyson met Arthur Hallam, who became his close friend and later became  engaged to the poet's sister Emilia. The death in his youth of Arthur Hallam, bought Tennyson great sorrow, but the result was In Memorium, which is widely considered to be one of the great poems of the 19th century.

APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER 

Gypsy looking when younger, Tennyson was tall with a full beard and receding hairline; he grew his beard to mask sunken cheeks caused by teeth problems. 

Lord Tennyson in middle age

Tennyson was fine and dignified looking with a lofty brow, aquiline nose, long black, sloppy unkempt hair, sallow complexion. 

Queen Victoria wrote in her diary: "I went to see Tennyson, who is very peculiar-looking, tall, dark, with a fine head, long black flowing hair and a beard, oddly dressed, but there is no affection about him. I told him how much comfort I found in his Memorium." 

Tennyson made a striking figure striding through London in his swirling Spanish cloak and great sombrero though frequently his clothes were dirty and his fingernails filthy.

Words used to describe Tennyson's character include melancholic, broody, shambolic, energetic, conventional, pious, cleverer,  coarse, lazy and selfish.

BELIEFS 

Tennyson had an unorthodox, even idiosyncratic Christian belief. Best described as a Christian socialist, he ran a soup kitchen at his Isle of Wight home. 

He believed in Heaven, a place where one would be reunited with loved ones and "someone who watches over us."

Tennyson once wrote of God, "closer is he than breathing and nearer than hands or feet."

HOMES 

Tennyson spent the first 28 years of his life living in the hamlet of Somersby, in Lincolnshire. The green and lovely scenery of the Lincolnshire Wolds was an unending source of inspiration to him.

Tennyson and his family first rented the 18th century Farringford House at Bedbury Lane, Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight on November 25, 1853, eventually buying three the property years later. 

Tennyson's wife, Emily ran their Isle of Wight, Farringford farm successfully. Her wheat grown there won international prizes.

Farringford

He eventually found that there were too many starstruck tourists who pestered him in Farringford, so in 1869 Tennyson built Aldworth House at Blackdown, Haslemere, in the secluded West Sussex countryside. However, he retained Farringford, and regularly returned there to spend the winters. 

HOBBIES AND INTERESTS 

Tennyson was a cricket enthusiast and wrote articles on his favorite sport. 

He liked to walk down to The Needles at the Western tip of the Isle of Wight from his home everyday. He said "the air up here is worth 6 pence a pint". Tennyson often composed his poems whilst walking.

Tennyson was interested in science and habitually carried with him a pocket microscope.

A voracious reader, Tennyson read a novel a day, often romantic fiction. 

Tennyson felt that the best poem ever written ancient or modern was The Old Testament Book of Job.

Tennyson drank at least one bottle of port a day.

When not smoking a cigar, Tennyson smoked his pipe constantly. He smoked shag tobacco non-stop in his black clay pipe and he stank of it.

Tennyson kept a pony named Fanny, which used to pull Emily along in a daily wheelchair.

HEALTH 

Tennyson was very short-sighted, indeed without a monocle he couldn't even see to eat. 

Tennyson also had problems with his teeth, as his false ones were fitted badly. 

Tennyson had a fear of mental illness, for several men in his family had a mild form of epilepsy.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 

Tennyson continued writing into his eighties. He died on October 6, 1892 at Aldworth, aged 83, with his hand resting on a copy of his hero Shakespeare's Cymbeline. His last words were, "Oh that press will have me now!"

Lord Tennyson's death was widely mourned, and he was buried at Westminster Abbey.

A memorial to Tennyson was erected on Tennyson Down, Freshwater. on the Isle of Wight. 

Monument to Tennyson on Tennyson Down, Isle of Wight. By Mypix 

He was succeeded as 2nd Baron Tennyson by his son, Hallam.