The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

ALFRED TENNYSON

Alfred Tennyson was an eccentric English poet and Poet Laureate. He was born in 1809 at Somersby, Lincolnshire and died in 1892. He started writing poetry at the age of eight and had written most of a blank verse play by the age of fourteen. In 1827 he entered Cambridge, and his first published poetry appeared in ' Poems by Two Brothers'. At Cambridge, he made friends with Edward Fitzgerald, Thackeray, and Arthur Henry Hallam. In 1829 Alfred beat Thackeray, among others, for a poetry prize. The following year, his Poems, Chiefly Lyrical won some critical praise, and he met Emily Sellwood, the love of his life. Arthur Hallam introduced them and himself became engaged to Alfred's sister Emily.

In 1839, Alfred and Emily were officially engaged and by 1840, officially unengaged. Emily's father had put a stop to the match, supposedly because Alfred was too poor to marry. He was, but the real reason was probably the very unhappy marriage between Charles, Alfred's older brother, and Louisa Sellwood, Emily's sister. Charles was an opium addict, and though he eventually gave up the habit, by then Louisa had worked herself into a nervous collapse trying to help him. So Alfred and Emily suffered the pain of separation, which showed strongly in Alfred's poetry of the time. He threw himself into travelling and studying, and he eventually became proficient in several languages, including Persian and Hebrew.

By 1842, he found himself famous with the publication of his 'Poems'. Unfortunately, he had decided that his health was bad and let his doctors talk him into not writing or even really reading for almost two years. In 1849, his brother Charles was reconciled with his wife and the following year, on the 13th of June, Alfred and Emily married in great secrecy. By then, Wordsworth had died and the Court was looking for a new Poet Laureate. The job was first offered to the 87-year-old Samuel Rogers, who turned it down. Alfred's name was submitted with two others, but Prince Albert had read Alfred's poem 'In Memorium', and that tipped the balance in Alfred's favour. He loved being Poet Laureate, though he never quite got used to all the attention from complete strangers.
Research Alfred Tennyson