Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. He grew up worrying about money because his father was in ministry and his fathers’ younger brother inherited everything from the grandfather (Glenn). The Tennyson family had many men with mild forms of epilepsy, which worried Tennyson because the disease was a shame in those times. He grew up in an unstable household where his brother and father drank too much and his other brother was eventually confined to a mental institution. As Alfred grew up, his father drank more and became only increasingly violent and abusive.
Tennyson attended school at Trinity College in Cambridge with his brothers. Tennyson started off his works at college with “Poems by Two Brothers” that he wrote with his brother and won a university prize for. Tennyson met a lot of influential people while he was at school that made a huge impact on his writing. A person that impacted Tennyson the most was his friend Arthur Hallam. Unfortunately for Tennyson but fortunately for his writing, Hallam died of disease. Some of Tennyson’s greatest work came out of the inspiration and honor of his late friend Hallam. In “Tennyson’s IN MEMORIAM” it describes their relationship as “Their minds and hearts were wedded in a friendship which was closer than brotherhood” (Van Dyke 107). Jeffery Howard views In Memoriam as Tennyson relating Jesus Christ “in whose redeeming and resurrecting power he has faith concerning the eventual salvation of himself and his friend Hallam” (Howard). The death of Hallam affected Tennyson so greatly that produced amazing works.
Other works that Tennyson wrote include “The Passing of Arthur”, “Ulysses”, and “Tithonus”. Tennyson had great success with his poetry and grew increasingly popular. Tennyson also had many of his work just in his head. He suffered from severe short-sightedness and could only see with his monocle. The first copy of his work “The Lotus Eaters” is credited to his friend Arthur Hallam for writing it down while Tennyson told the story (Glenn). Tennyson lived a long 83 years and died on October 6 1892, just before the end of the Victorian period.
Sources:
Glenn Everett.”Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Brief Biography”.
Howard, Jeffrey. "Tennyson's IN MEMORIAM." Explicator 68.4 (2010):
Van Dyke, Henry. Studies in Tennyson. New York: Kennikat, 1966. Print
Picture Source:
http://myliteraryquest.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/tennyson.jpg
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