Term Papers on Alfred Tennyson And His Work

Term Paper Title	Alfred Tennyson And His Work
# of Words	903
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.61

Alfred Tennyson and His Work

        Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6th, 1809, at Somersby, Lincolnshire,
fourth of twelve children of George and Elizabeth Tennyson.  Tennyson, said to
be the best poet of the Victorian era and his poetry will be discussed in this
essay.
     Tennyson had a lifelong fear of mental illness, because several men in
his family had a mild form of epilepsy, which then was thought of as a shameful
disease.  His father and brother Arthur made their epilepsy worse by excessive
drinking.  His brother Edward had to be put in a mental institution after 1833,
and he spent a few weeks himself under doctor's care in 1843.  In the late
twenties his father's physical and mental condition got worse, and he became
paranoid, abusive, and violent.
     In 1827 Tennyson escaped his troubled home when he followed his two
older brothers to Trinity College, Cambridge, where his teacher was William
Whewell.  Because each of them had won university prizes for poetry the Tennyson
brothers became well known at Cambridge.  In 1829 The Apostles, an undergraduate
club, invited him to join.  The members of this group would remain Tennyson's
friends all his life.
     Arthur Hallam was the most important of these friendships.  Hallam, a
brilliant Victorian young man was recognized by his peers as having unusual
promise.  He and Tennyson knew each other only four years, but their intense
friendship had a major influence on the poet.  On a visit to Somersby, Hallam
met and later became engaged to Emily Tennyson, and the two friends looked
forward to a life-long companionship.  Hallam died from illness in 1833 at the
age of 22 and shocked Tennyson profoundly.  His grief lead to most of his best
poetry, including "In Memoriam", "The Passing of Arthur", "Ulysses", and
"Tithonus".
     Since Tennyson was always sensitive to criticism, The bad reviews of his
1832 poems hurt him greatly.  Critics in those days took great joy in the
harshness of their reviews.  John Wilson Croker's harsh criticisms of some of
the 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 1845
he got a government pension of 200 pounds a year, which helped him with his
financial difficulties.  The success of "The Princess" and "In Memoriam" and his
appointment as Poet Laureate in 1850 finally established him as the most popular
poet of the Victorian era.
     By now Tennyson, only 41, had written some of his greatest poetry, but
he continued to write and to gain popularity.  Prince Albert admired his poetry
so much that he would drop by unexpectedly to here some of Tennyson's poetry.
This helped solidify his position as the national poet, and Tennyson returned
the favour by dedicating "The Idylls of the King" to his memory.
     Tennyson suffered from extreme short-sightedness so without...

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