Research Paper On Alfred Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, born on August 6, 1809 to Reverend George and Elizabeth Tennyson at Somersby, Lincolnshire, England experienced a rather normal childhood. Tennyson attended Louth grammar school up until 1820, in which he was home schooled by his father afterwards (Kissane). However, Tennyson’s household did have its share of troubles. Tennyson’s father, despite being the eldest, had lost the inheritance to his younger brother whom Tennyson’s grandfather favored. Jaded, George Tennyson turned to alcohol and drugs creating a dark, unpleasant household atmosphere for Alfred Tennyson and his eleven siblings. Biographers never fail to include the “bad blood” of mental and physical debilities, including epilepsy that every child of the Tennyson

The dramatic monologue written not only reflects the emotions from Hallam’s passing but also from George Tennyson’s death which left the Tennyson family in debt and increased Tennyson’s worries about following in his father’s mental and physical debilities (“Alfred, Lord Tennyson”). This has lead “biographers [to speculate] that the general melancholy and morbidity expressed in much of Tennyson’s verse [like “Ulysses”] is rooted in the unhappy environment at Somersby” (“Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809-1892”). “Ulysses,” written in blank verse (Brooke) is told from the perspective of an aged Ulysses who wishes to journey and to gain knowledge again instead of staying in Ithaca. Tennyson himself said of “Ulysses”: “‘There is more about myself in “Ulysses,” which was written under the sense of loss and all that had gone by, but that still life must be fought out to the end. It was more written with the feeling of [Hallam’s] loss upon me than many poems” (Harrison). “Ulysses,” an elegiac, dramatic monologue (Brooke) contains various shifts in Ulysses’ tone throughout the seventy lines of the poem reflecting Tennyson’s response to Hallam’s passing. Lines 1-6 of the first section (lines 1-32) consists of many shifts

In 1850, his life started to sort itself out. First, he married Emily Sellwood, after being engaged since 1838. Then, he was named the Poet Laureate by Queen Victoria following fellow poet William Wordsworth. This title made Tennyson the most respected poet of the Victorian era. And finally, in 1850, Tennyson published his masterpiece, In Memoriam A.H.H. The majority of Tennyson’s works are elegiac in nature and includes themes of grief (“Ulysses”), clearly drawing from his experience in losing Hallam. Due to the extensive grief Tennyson expressed following his friend’s death, it had been speculated and even suggested that there was more to Tennyson and Hallam’s friendship than mere friendship. Therefore, Tennyson became “the perfect model of a poet who is a bereaved lover” (Kermode and