Alfred Lord Tennyson

In 1836, Alfred Tennyson became involved with Emily Sellwood, daughter of their family solicitor. Although they considered themselves engaged by 1837 due to Tennyson’s financial condition and the frequent trances that he lapsed into, which he thought was due to epilepsy, he broke it off by 1840.

They again resumed communication in 1849, finally getting married in the middle of June 1850. Three sons were born to them, out of which one died in infancy.

Their eldest son, Hallam, was named after his Cambridge friend Hallam. He became the 2nd Baron Tennyson and authored ‘Tennyson: a Memoir’. Their younger son Lionel was inflicted with ‘jungle fever’ on a visit to India and died on the way back home in 1886.

Alfred Tennyson was born on 6 August 1809, in Somersby, a village in Lincolnshire, England. His father, George Clayton Tennyson, was a country clergyman, occupying the position of the rector at Somersby, Benniworth and Bag Enderby. Alfred’s mother, Elizabeth nee Fytche, was the daughter of a vicar.

Alfred was the fourth of his parents twelve children. While the eldest died at infancy, his second and third elder brothers, Frederick Tennyson and Charles Tennyson Turner, were also poets. That apart, Alfred had four brothers and four sisters, younger to him.

Alfred’s father, George Clayton Tennyson, was a man of varied attainments. He kept a large library and took care to educate his children. He was also good at money management, enabling the family to spend the summers by the sea. But that was only one side of him.

George Clayton was also a very embittered man. He was pushed into the church by his father, who later made George’s younger brother, Charles, his chief heir. Resentful, he took to drugs and drinks, often taking his ire on his wife and children, physically threatening them.

Young Alfred began to write poetries from a very early age, in part to take his mind off from the unhappy situation at home. Around the age of 13 or 14, he wrote a six-thousand-line epic in imitation of Sir Walter Scott in addition to a drama in blank verse.

At Cambridge, Alfred Tennyson began to enjoy his life for the first time. In early 1829, at the insistence of his college-mates, he submitted his poetry, ‘Timbuctoo’, set on the subject of Armageddon, for Chancellor's Gold Medal, ultimately winning the award.

It not only boosted his confidence as a poet, but also led to his meeting with another brilliant undergraduate, Arthur Henry Hallam. The two soon developed a close friendship that would last till Hallam’s death four years later.

In the later part of 1829, Tennyson and Hallam joined a secret club called ‘The Apostle’, whose members formed the cream of the university. Although Tennyson dropped out after a few meetings, he retained friendship with its members.

The realization that his friends not only accepted him as a poet, but also felt a certain degree of affection for him, brought into his personality much needed warmth. He began to devote more time towards his literally pursuit than studies.

In June 1830, he had his first solo book, ‘Poems, Chiefly Lyrical’, published. Among other forgettable poems the book contained several fine ones like ‘The Kraken’, ‘Ode to Memory’ and ‘Mariana’. Also in the same year, he went on a trip to Europe with Hallam, by now his best friend.

Alfred’s father, George Tennyson, died early in 1831 and with that the family’s financial condition became very bleak. Although his grandfather provided some relief it was not enough to support his studies at Trinity. Therefore, Alfred left Cambridge without acquiring a degree and returned to Lincolnshire in that very year.

Alfred’s grandfather offered to find him a position in the church if he would be ordained. But determined to devote his life to writing poems, he refused the offer. Instead he chose to live on an annual gift of £100, which he received from an aunt. For the time being, the family was allowed to stay at the rectory at Somersby and Tennyson lived there with the family until 1837.

Meanwhile in 1832, he published his second book, ‘Poems by Alfred Tennyson’. The book included the initial versions of many of his famous works like ‘The Lady of Shalott’, ‘The Palace of Art’, ‘A Dream of Fair Women’, ‘The Hesperides’, ‘Oenone’ ‘The Lotos-Eaters’ and ‘Mariana in the South’.

‘Poems by Alfred Tennyson’ received very bad reviews . The worst reviews were written by Edward Bulwer and John Wilson Croker. While the former was a friend of his uncle the latter often prided that it was his review of Keats’ ‘Endymion’, which caused the poet’s death.

Always thin-skinned, Tennyson was so upset about these criticisms that he did not publish any other work for almost a decade. However, encouraged by Hallam and other Apostle friends, he continued writing.