Reinterpretation of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Selected Poetry: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Alfred Lord Tennyson was the most loved and acclaimed poet of the Victorian Era. He was born on 06 August 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. He belonged to an influential family as his father was a clergyman having a large family. Alfred Lord Tennyson had 11 siblings and he showed his interest for writing in his early age. When he was merely thirteen years old, he wrote a 6000-line poem in epic style. His father was suffering from mental breakdowns and had an addiction for alcoholism. One of Tennyson’s brothers would quarrel with his father and another was sent to mental asylum. One more brother had opium addiction like T.S. Eliot. Tennyson entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1827 and he wrote Poems by Two Brothers in collaboration with his brother there. Tennyson had close friendship with Arthur Henry Hallam and both of them went to Europe tour in 1830 and 1832. Tennyson wrote an elegy In memoriam on Hallam’s death. He dedicated some of his poem to Hallam. He published Poems Chiefly Lyrical in 1830 and then Poems in 1832. People criticized these books and consequently he did not write for nine years. He got emotionally attached with Emily Sellwood. He rose to fame in 1942 and when his elegy published in 1850, he became the most popular poet of England. He became the Poet Laureate of England after the death of William Wordsworth and when Samuel Rogers refused this offer. He got married with Emily Sellwood. He died on October 6, 1892 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Present paper is an attempt to analyse Tennyson’s selected poems from multiple angles.