Alfred Tennyson And His Work :: essays research papers fc

Alfred Tennyson and His WorkAlfred Tennyson was born 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 poem will be discussed in thisessay.     Tennyson had a lifelong fear of genial illness, because several men inhis family had a mild form of epilepsy, which then was concept of as a shamefuldisease. His father and brother Arthur made their epilepsy worse by excessivedrinking. His brother Edward had to be put in a mental institution after 1833,and he spent a few weeks himself under doctors care in 1843. In the latetwenties his fathers physical and mental soma got worse, and he becameparanoid, abusive, and violent.     In 1827 Tennyson escaped his troubled home when he followed his twoolder brothers to Trinity College, Cambridge, where his teacher was WilliamWhewell. Because each of them had won university prizes for rime the Tennysonbrothers became well cognise at Cambridge. In 1829 The Apostles, an undergraduateclub, invited him to join. The members of this group would remain Tennysonsfriends all his life.     Arthur Hallam was the closely important of these friendships. Hallam, abrilliant Victorian young man 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 engaged to Emily Tennyson, and the two friends lookedforward to a life-long companionship. Hallam died from illness in 1833 at theage of 22 and shocked Tennyson profoundly. His grief snuff it 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 days took great joy in theharshness of their reviews. stool Wilson Crokers harsh criticisms of some ofthe poems he wrote kept Tennyson from publishing again for another nine years.     The success of his 1842 poems made Tennyson a popular poet, and in 1845he got a government pension of 200 pounds a year, which helped him with hisfinancial difficulties. The success of "The Princess" and "In Memoriam" and hisappointment 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 admired his poetryso much that he would drop by unexpectedly to here some of Tennysons poetry.