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Tennyson was born in Lincolnshire, England, to George Clayton Tennyson, the rector of Somersby, and Elizabeth Tennyson. He was the 4th of 12 children.
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Tennyson's childhood was rather harsh. While he was educated by his father, his father had a serious drinking and drug abuse problem. Of his 3 older brothers, one of them became a drug addict, one of them spent some time in an asylum, and one of them died young.
Words, like nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within.
"Words, like nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within." -
Mostly to excape Somersby, Tennyson enrolled at Trinity College with his older brothers. He got along quite well there, and found a group of young men interested in poetry like him.
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Alfred began writing at a young age, often walking around and thinking up beautiful poetic phrases, then finding places for them later. His brothers wrote, too, abd three of them, Alfred, Frederick, and Charles, published Poems by Two Brothers.
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TImbuctooTennyson's poem "Timbuctoo" won the Chancellor's Award at Trinity. Excellent example of early Romantic themes in Tennyson's work
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The Chancellor's Award brought Tennyson intocontact with Arthur Henry Hallam, another aspiring poet at Trinity, The two hit it off and became extroardinarily close and warm friends, and were probably not gay.
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Tennyson and Hallam were both inducted into The Apostles, a secret society of the "elite" of Trinity. Though Tennyson dropped out of the society almost immediately, he stayed close to the members, and this acceptance added a great amount of warmth to his poetry of the time.
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Tennyson and Hallam planned to publish together, but Hallam's father refused, and Poems, Chiefly Lyrical was only Tennyson. Hallam did review it with flying colors, though.
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Hallam came back to visity Somersby with Tennyson, and the two friends were made closer when Hallam fell in love with Emily Tennyson, Alfred's sister. They kept their engagement a secret, due to finances and a social class divide.
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Tennyson and Hallam were sent on a mission to support Spanish revolutionaries. Tennyson's time in Spain had a profound effect on him, and his characteristic imagery throughout his life was largely inspired by his time in the Pyrenees.
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Tennyson's father finally die dof rampant alcoholism and drug use in early 1831. Tennyson's grandfather, deciding that Alfred and his brothers weren;t really profiting from Trinity, pulled all three from the college and back to Somersby. This was a very bitter part of Tennyson's life, but he stayed determined to devote his life to poetry.
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Tennyson published another work, Poems, which included the beginnings of many of his most well known works, including "The Lady of Shallott." It received vicious reviews, however, and Tennyson was very sensitive about criticism.
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In autumn of 1833, on a trip to the continent, Hallam fell ill and died of apoplexy as a complication from a brain malformation. His death crushed Tennyson, and while he continued to write, Tennyson would not publish again for 10 years. His work In Memoriam, largely written during this time, would be published in 1850 and would be one of the most successful poems he ever wrote.
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Tennyson's grandfather dies, and the estate went to his uncle, Charles. This left Tennyson largely broke, as he had a falling out with his uncle and never reconciled.
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Tennyson became romantically involved with Emily Sellwood, and they were engaged the next year. However, Tennyson worried because of what he thought was epilepsy and his poverty, and broke it off with her in 1840.
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After his grandfather's death, Tennyson moved around a lot with his mother, living in Essex and Kent, and spending a lot of time drinking and smoking in cheap London hotels.
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Upon convincing from a colleague, Tennyson published two volumes of Poems in 1842; the 1st revisions from his 1832 volume, and his 2nd new poems, including some written during his period of mourning over Hallam's death. It was received extraordinarily well
Edgar Allen Poe: "I am not sure that Tennyon is not the greatest of poets." -
A business scheme Tennyson had invested in 2 year earlier crashed, and he lost everything (some $4000) and became severely depressed again. This would begin a 5 year period in and out of "hydropathic" establishments
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Following an insurance claim from the death of the starter of that investment, and a $200 annual pension for his poetic achievement, Tennyson got more financially stable. Habit made him complain of poverty for the rest of his life
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The Princess was Tennyson's first crack at a long narrative poem. It began emphasizing the empowerment of women and female education, but by the end he had gotten off track a bit and was talking about gender roles. It wasn't recieved as well as his traditional lyric style.
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In 1849, Tennyson was commissioned to compile all of Hallam's elegies he had written and publish them. In Memoriam made him incredibly well known, and is an archetypal Victorian piece. 2 weeks after its publishing, Tennyson married Emily Sellwood.
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After Wordsworth's death in 1850, Tennyson succeeded him as Poet Laureate of England.
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the Tennysons moved into Farringford on the Isle of Wight. Its isolation led Tennyson to find interest in the Crimean War, and he wrote Maud as a pretty experiemental dramatic narrative. It wasn't very well received--worst criticism sine 1832 Poems
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Tennyson published 4 of what would be 12 Idylls of the King. It was a very early version of the story of Camelot and the Round table, and wasn't very well known at the time. He used the decay of the round table as an allegory to the decay of 19th century England.
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Prince Albert, who had been an admirer of Tennyson since 1847, died, and Tennyson wrote a dedication to him.
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A few months after Albert's death, Queen Victoria invited Tennyson to an informal visit. This led to an uncharacteristically casual friendship between the two. Victoria offered Alfred a baronetcy 4 times, but he always turned down, asking instead for one for his son, Hallam.
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In an attempt to become "the people's poet," Tennyson wrote a volume of poems with lyrical words and a simpler underlying meaning. It worked--he became super popular, to the point of people following him around the streets of London and coming to Farringford.
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Since Tennyson was obviously compared to Shakespeare, he took a crack at writing for the stage for about a decade. None of them were very well received, and by 1882 he had to accept the fact that he had wasted a decade of his career.
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Gladstone offered Tennyson a peerage--became Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater at age 75. He said he accepted it on behalf of all literature, as he was the first person to receive a title for poetry.
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Tennyson's younger son, Lionel, died of jungle fever on a return voyage from India. Tennyson grieved for 2 years, and wrote "To the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava." It is written in the same meter as In Memoriam. Tennyson spent the rest of his life searching for proof of immortality, even turning to spirituality, and his poetry of the time paralleles the desperation of his search.
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June Heather and BrackenTennyson qrote poetry for the rest of his life, having his wife or son copy it if he couldn't write. "June Heather and Bracken" was a gentl offering of love to his wife, thanking her for being his companion for so many years. He died peacefully in bed on October 6, 1892, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
