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Tennyson- master of poetry
By | January 31, 2008
Lord Alfred Tennyson is one of the best and most well known poets of the 19th century and he is to date day regarded as such. Tennyson was born in 1809 to a clergyman and was one of 12 children. The family had to survive on a clergyman’s paltry salary as his father who was a wealthy man had disowned him. He was quite unhappy at school and after 4 years of schooling he began to be tutored at home.
By the time he was 17 several of his poems had been published in collections of others works and this gave him some amount of recognition as a poet. It was in 1830 when at the age of 21 when he was studying at Trinity College, London that the first collection of his poems titled ‘Poems chiefly lyrical’ was published. This book brought him a lot of fame. It was in college that he met his closest friend Arthur Hallam who greatly influenced his writings. His greatest works including ‘In Memoriam’ were written when he mourned his friend’s death. It is commonly believed that most of the inspiration for his poems came from real life in which he underwent a good deal of struggle and ill fortune.
His father died subsequently due to which he had to discontinue his education. In 1833 he published another book ‘Poems’ which received bad reviews due to which Tennyson did not publish anything for nearly a decade. He married Emily Sellwood later on- a relationship which was heavily frowned upon and this was another source of trouble to him.
Throughout the mid-1840s he continued to write and it was in 1850 that he attained great success when he replaced William Wordsworth in the post of the Court’s Poet Laureate. He remained in this post until his death on the 6th of October, 1892.
Topics: Famous Poets |