TENNYSON, ALFRED TENNYSON, ISt BARON (1809 1892), English poet, was born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, on Aug. 6, 1809. He was the fourth of the 12 children of the Rev. George Clayton Tennyson (2778-1832) and his wife Elizabeth Fytche (1781-1865). The Tennysons were an old Lincolnshire family settled at Bayon's Manor. The poet's grandfather, George Tennyson, M.P., had disinherited the poet's father, who was set tled hard by in the rectory of Somersby, in favour of the younger son, Charles Tennyson D'Eyncourt. The rich pastoral scenery of this part of Lincolnshire influenced the imagination of the boy, and is plainly reflected in all his early poetry. At a very early age he began to write in prose and verse. At Christmas 1815 he was sent to the grammar school at Louth, where he remained for five years, and then returned to Somersby to be trained by his father. In the rectory the boys had the run of an excellent library, and here the young poet based his wide knowledge of the English classics. The news of Byron's death (April 19, 1824) made a deep impression on him. "It was a day," he said, "when the whole world seemed to be darkened for me"; he went out into the woods and carved "Byron is dead" upon a rock. Tennyson was already writing copiously—he had constructed "an epic of 6,000 lines" at the age of twelve, composed a drama in blank verse when he was 14, and so on.
In 1827 Frederick Tennyson (1807-1898), the eldest surviving brother, uniting with his younger brothers Charles and Alfred, published at Louth an anonymous collection of Poems by Two Brothers. The "two" were Charles and Alfred (whose contribu tions predominated), and who shared the surprising profits, £20. On Feb. 20, 1828, Charles and Alfred matriculated at Trinity col lege, Cambridge, where Frederick was already a student. The poet subsequently told Edmund Gosse that his father would not let him leave Somersby till, on successive days, he had recited from memory the whole of the odes of Horace. The brothers took rooms at 12 Rose Crescent, and afterwards moved into Trumpington Street (now 157 Corpus Buildings). They were shy, and at first made few friends; but they gradually gathered selected associates around them, and Alfred grew to be looked up to in Cambridge "as to a great poet and an elder brother" by a group which included Richard Chenevix Trench, Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), James Spedding, W. H. Thompson, Edward FitzGerald, W. H. Brookfield, and, above all, A. H. Hallam (181i
1833). Charles Tennyson (1808-1879) afterwards took the addi tional name of Turner. He published four volumes of sonnets which have been highly praised. In June 1829 Alfred Tennyson won the Chancellor's prize medal for his poem called "Tim buctoo." With great imperfections, this study in Miltonic blank verse displays the genius of a poet, in spite of obscurity both of thought and style. Here are already both richness and power. But by this time Tennyson was writing lyrics of still higher prom ise, and, as Arthur Hallam early perceived, with an extraordinary earnestness in the worship of beauty. The results of this enthu siasm and this labour of the artist appeared in the volume of Poems, chiefly Lyrical, published in 183o. This book would have been astonishing as the production of a youth of 21, even if, since the death of Byron six years before, there had not been a singular dearth of good poetry in England. Here at least, in the slender volume of 183o, was a new writer revealed, and in "Mariana," "The Poet," "Love and Death," and "Oriana," a singer of won derful though still unchastened melody. Through these, and through less perfect examples, was exhibited an amazing mag nificence of fancy, at present insufficiently under control, and a voluptuous pomp of imagery, tending to an over-sweetness.
In the summer of 183o Tennyson and Hallam volunteered in the army of the Spanish insurgent Torrijos, and marched about a little in the Pyrenees, without meeting with an enemy. Tenny son came back to find his father ailing, and in Feb. 1831 he left Cambridge for Somersby, where a few days later Dr. George Tennyson died. The new incumbent was willing that the Tenny sons should continue to live in the rectory, which they did not leave until six years later. Arthur Hallam was now betrothed to Emily Tennyson (afterwards Mrs. Jesse, 1811-1889), and stayed frequently at Somersby. This was a very happy time, and one of great physical development on Alfred's part. He took his share in all kinds of athletic exercises, and it was now that Brook field said, "It is not fair that you should be Hercules as well as Apollo." This high physical zest in life seems to have declined after 1831, when his eyes began to trouble him, and he became liable to depression. The poetical work of these three years, mainly spent at Somersby, was given to the world in the volume of Poems which (dated 1833) appeared at the end of 1832.