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Tennyson 1809 - 1892 (83)

It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.


QUOTES

Ulysses

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.


 Alfred Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was one of the most important English poet of the Victorian period. The son of a priest, he was involved in poetry from his childhood. In 1827 he published the collection Poems of Two Brothers, with poems by himself and his brother, and began his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduation, he published 2 collections of poems for which he received very severe reviews and for several years as his poetry did not resonate, he lived with many financial problems. In 1850 he married the woman he loved, but in the same year a dear friend and fiance of his sister died, which saddened him deeply and prompted him to write a series of poems in his memory. When these were published they brought him great success, Queen Victoria awarded him.

Since then his reputation has steadily grown and in 1884 he was awarded the title of baron and member of the house of lords. In his youth, Tennyson was influenced by the romance of Byron and Keats, while later, overcoming the romance, he wrote about the everyday life of the Victorian era, the conflict between faith and doubt, about the philosophical and scientific interests of his time. He also wrote plays with considerable success. His poetry was forgotten and ignored for many years after hhis death, until the 20th century, when it came back to the fore; Tennyson has taken a place among the greatest English poets.