A Study of the Life and Career of Lord Alfred Tennyson and...

A Study Of The Life And Career Of Lord Alfred Tennyson And Selected Criticism Of His Works Whether a person likes or dislikes the works of Lord Alfred Tennyson, most would agree that he was one of the most influential writers of his time period. Tennyson grew up in a wealthy family never wanting for anything. English author often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. Tennyson succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850; he was appointed by Queen Victoria and served 42 years. Tennysons works were melancholic, and reflected the moral and intellectual values of his time, which made them especially vulnerable for later critic. Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire. His father, George†¦show more content†¦In the poem Enoch Arden, Philip Ray and Annie Lee grow up together. Enoch wins her hand. He sails abroad and is shipwrecked for 10 years on a deserted island. Meanwhile Annie has been reduced to poverty. Philip asks her to marry him. Enoch returns and witnesses their happiness, but hides that he is alive and sacrifices his happiness for theirs. An Enoch Arden has come to mean a person who truly loves someone better than himself. The poem ends banally: So past the strong heoic soul away. / And when they buried him, the little port / Had seldom seen a costlier funeral. IDYLLS OF THE KING (1859-1885) dealt with the Arthurian theme, and THE ANCIENT SAGE (1885) and AKBARS DREAM (1892) testified his faith in the redemption offered by love. Despite his pessimism about the human condition, the poet believed in God. In the 1870s Tennyson wrote several plays, among them poetic dramas QUEEN MARY (1875) and HAROLD (1876). In 1884 he was created a baron. Tennyson died at Aldwort on October 6, 1892 and was buried in the Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. Soon he became the favorite target of attacks of many English and American poets who saw him as a representative of narrow patriotism and sentimentality. Later critics have praised again Tennyson. T.S. Eliot has called him the great master of metric as well as of melancholia and that he possessed the finest ear of any English poet since Milton. 1