James Baquet

    The British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) — born the same year as Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin — is not quite as well-known as those two luminaries, though very well-known indeed. He was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland for 42 years, longer than any other, during the reign of Queen Victoria. He succeeded William Wordsworth to the position, largely due to the influence of Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert.

    As official poet of the realm, Tennyson produced numerous ordinary poems to celebrate state occasions. However, many of his poems — from before and after his appointment in 1850 — remain among England’s greatest, and his words became familiar in everyday speech. In fact, in “The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations,” he is the ninth most-quoted author.

    For example, his “Sir Galahad” (1842) says, “My strength is as the strength of ten / Because my heart is pure.” In “In Memoriam A.H.H.” (1849), written at the death of a dear friend, we find “’Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all” and a pessimistic description of Nature as “red in tooth and claw” (meaning savage and violent). His 1854 “The Charge of the Light Brigade” was written about a battle from the Crimean War. In it, he wrote the famous lines, “Theirs not to make reply / Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die.”

    Many of his works are based on ancient tales, retelling them, or reflecting on the characters’ lives. “Idylls of the King” tells stories of King Arthur, 12 tales in separate stanzas. “Ulysses”—another name for Odysseus — is a dramatic monologue containing the thoughts of that warrior after his travels are over. He is bored, feeling old, and wishes he were wandering again!

    In honor of his work, in 1884 Queen Victoria made Tennyson — the son of a clergyman — a baron, “Lord Tennyson,” a title which passed to his son. The current holder of the title is the 6th Baron Tennyson, and a great-great-grandson of the poet.

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson, died at age 83, and is buried in a place of honor at Westminster Abbey.

    Vocabulary

    Which word above means:

    1. kingdom

    2. sections of a song or poem

    3. official writer of poems for a country

    4. the hard, sharp part at the end of an animal or bird’s toe

    5. minister of a church

    6. expecting the worst

    7. story or speech spoken by one person

    8. famous people

    9. wild, untamed

    10. period during which someone rules a country