The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson

by Alfred Tennyson, Karen Hodder (Editor)

Although Tennyson (1809-1892) has often seemed to personify the Victorian Age, he was a poet before it began and his poems endure to speak clearly to this modern one. His mastery of a great variety of poetic forms and moods enables him to communicate such extremes of feeling as ‘calm despair and wild unrest’; rapturous love: ‘the soul of the rose went into my blood’; and noble resolve:

…One equal temper of heroic hearts / Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Literature, Victorian, Nonfiction, Collections, Classic Literature

688 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1894

About the author

Works, including In Memoriam in 1850 and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" in 1854, of Alfred Tennyson, first baron, known as lord, appointed British poet laureate in 1850, reflect Victorian sentiments and aesthetics.

Elizabeth Tennyson, wife, bore Alfred Tennyson, the fourth of twelve children, to George Tennyson, clergyman; he inevitably wrote his books. In 1816, parents sent Tennyson was sent to grammar school of Louth.

Alfred Tennyson disliked school so intensely that from 1820, home educated him. At the age of 18 years in 1827, Alfred joined his two brothers at Trinity College, Cambridge and with Charles Tennyson, his brother, published Poems by Two Brothers , his book, in the same year.

Alfred Tennyson published Poems Chiefly Lyrical , his second book, in 1830. In 1833, Arthur Henry Hallam, best friend of Tennyson, engaged to wed his sister, died, and thus inspired some best Ulysses and the Passing of Arthur .

Following William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson in 1850 married Emily Sellwood Tenyson, his childhood friend. She bore Hallam Tennyson in 1852 and Lionel Tennyson in 1854, two years later.

Alfred Tennyson continued throughout his life and in the 1870s also to write a number of plays.

In 1884, the queen raised Alfred Tennyson, a great favorite of Albert, prince, thereafter to the peerage of Aldworth. She granted such a high rank for solely literary distinction to this only Englishman.

Alfred Tennyson died at the age of 83 years, and people buried his body in abbey of Westminster.

Reviews

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite poet.

[Jon Schwarz · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite poets. So great.

[Hope Tull · Rating 4 out of 5]

British lit

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was a slog to get through dear lord

[Eduard Gafton]

In order for me to write a proper review of the entirety of Tennyson's work, I'll be rating each poem, in reading order. As such, here it goes:

Crossing the Bar 3/5 ☆

To the Queen 3/5 ☆

Timbuctoo 2/5 ☆

Claribel, A Melody 2/5 ☆

Boometh, hummeth, cometh, swelleth, dwelleth, lispeth, outwelleth, crispeth, replieth, low-lieth

Can't believe these are all in just one stanza.

Lilian 2/5 ☆

"Praying all I can
If prayers will not hush thee,
Airy Lillian
Like a rose-leaf I will crush thee.
Fairy Lillian."


Isabel 3/5 ☆

Elegiacs 4/5 ☆

Mariana 4/5 ☆

To - 3/5 ☆

Madeline 3/5 ☆

The Merman 4/5 ☆

The Mermaid 3/5 ☆

Supposed Confessions 2/5 ☆

Song. The Owl 2/5 ☆

Recited by Tom O' Bedlam over on Youtube

Second Song of The Owl 2/5 ☆

[Ethan Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introspective and highly exposing of the Christian mind during the Victorian era. this series of poems is insightful and shocking. The age of automation and industrialization when mass groups abandoned their rural homes in search of fortune in the murky urban centers of Central England. Within those foggy streets, crime ridden and impoverished, we see this beacon, dim though it be, that is the musings of a man extant in the gulf between the sacred, yet dying ways of ecclesiastic philosophies of old, and the secular reactionary ideologies that discipline the human body, subjugating it to work in dangerous factories, cesspool docks, and that forces child laborers to donate limbs to literal machines as well as to the machine that is high capitalism. This is the setting that Tennyson writes in with nostalgic machinations, forlorn and longing for a simpler time while entrenched in the bewildering social upheaval of the Victorian age.

[Isabella Roh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though it took forever to work through, this was an interesting collection, showing the best and worst of a rather interesting poet. Tennyson absolutely has some romantic sensibilities, and a bit of an infatuation with medieval lore (especially Arthur), though his later work seemed more Classical in nature. As this was so long, and as it took me a little less than two years to work through, I'll just name a few favorite poems: The Lady of Shalott, The Miller's Daughter, The Sisters, The Brook, Enoch Arden, and The Victim.
Also, I have this note from about the halfway point: The Two Voices is a little dark, but magnificent--in the vein of Boethius' Consolation. A Day-Dream was simply a delightful retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and Amphion was simultaneously an understandable expression of the frustrations of gardening and a lovely, Narnia-esque fantasy.

[Demi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tennyson is easily one of my favourite poets and sometimes I need to hear poetry read out loud. I revisit from time to time. Different poets for different reasons. Neruda and Cummings when I want to hurt my own feelings; Tennyson when I wish I could lay in a field and just look up at the sky. Sometimes the world feels too tight.

[Keiran Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a die hard fan of Tennyson, poems such as Ulysses, Charge of the light Brigade and the Kraken, I would rate 5/5 but In Memoriam A.H.H just makes me shudder

[Rocio Puebla · Rating 4 out of 5]

leí Ulysses

[Eleanor · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a tiresome man. Having had his work excluded from my education, I've labored under the impression that I've missed a seminal master of poetry. I owe my teachers an apology.

[Rachel E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good introduction, interesting to see the chronological presentation but not necessarily the version Tennyson published in that year.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've avoided him most of my life, but Maud was a surprise--hypnotic, not jingly, etched with the conviction of the imbalanced consciousness, a madness put to use. Early work seems indebted to Keats, prosody especially, loads of assonance. But I've never cared for Ulysses. Sometimes you can admire the execution but not the thinking behind it. Or the Miltonisms seem mechanical, like Victorian stuffed chairs.

[Ricardo]

iam very interested in it

[Michael Arnold · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't like Tennyson very much. Or rather, I dislike something like 95% of his stuff. And yet the poems of his I do like, like The Kraken, Ulysses, and Two Voices - I think they are absolutely phenomenally good. I'm glad I read this book cover to cover, but at times I was simply struggling to keep my interest up.

I suppose I feel like I should like him. He deals with many of the subjects I'm personally interested in. I'm just not a fan.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only started to read this because I've read some of the quotes in another book. Over all it was good once you get passed the "old english" parts of it.

[Rhonnel K. Forde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a wonderful collection of literature. Loved it!

[Cherish]

Printed by Macmillan & Co. in 1892

[Eliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

his work is my all-time favorite!!!

[Maida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfection.

*5/5 stars*