Poetry as a Reflection of The Inner Being

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Alfred Tennyson gifted the Victorian Era, and the literary world with two iconic poems. The author explored the themes of personal development and culture clash in one of his most famous poems, “Ulysses”. Tennyson also discovered and analyzed the themes of love and death through his renowned and eminent poem, “Tears Idle, Tears”. The poet was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire in 1809 in the East Lindy district of England. Tennyson experienced numerous amounts of difficulties in his childhood and growing adolescent phases that spilled into his adult life. These trials and tribulations became a foundation and source of inspiration for Tennyson, who used them as a stimulus and catalyst to aide his literary progress and ideas. Two of the most prominent poems that Tennyson wrote were “Ulysses “and “Tears Idle, Tears”. These poems defined the peak of his literary endeavor and symbolized the struggles that Tennyson had experienced in his life. Throughout time readers have been able to distinguish a direct correlation between his life journey and the poems he crafted.

During Tennyson’s childhood and maturing adulthood he endured tempestuous events which altered the course of his life and the essence of literary career. The death of his best friend, Hallem, threw him into a phase of darkness, solitude and despair. It was “a period referred to as his ‘”ten years silence”‘(Napierkowski and Rose 270); he was extremely affected by the death “for it shattered all his life and made him desire to die rather than live” (Napierkowski and Rose 270). The potent emotion surrounding death was modeled in his poem Tears Idle, Tears. The poet identified “the source of his poems emotion as rising from his feelings about the death of his college friend…H...

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..., Adian. The Victorians. New York: Evans Brothers, 2003. Print.

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Bloom, Harold. Victorian Poets. New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2011. Print.

Galens, David. Literary Movements for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Literary Movements. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Print.

Magill, Frank N. Critical Survey of Poetry. Vol. 7. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 1987. Print

"Ulysses." Poetry for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski and Mary Ruby. Vol. 2.

"Ulysses." Poetry for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski and Mary Ruby. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 277-293. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.

"Tears, Idle Tears." Poetry for Students. Ed. Mary Ruby. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 219-231. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 1 May 2014

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