Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1809–1892 · English poet, Poet Laureate for over forty years, author of In Memoriam, Ulysses and The Charge of the Light Brigade.
Alfred Tennyson was born in 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the son of a clergyman. He began writing poetry as a boy and at Trinity College, Cambridge, joined a group of friends called the Apostles, including Arthur Hallam, who became his closest friend. Hallam's sudden death in 1833 affected Tennyson deeply, and over many years he wrote the long elegy In Memoriam A.H.H., published in 1850. In that year he also married Emily Sellwood and succeeded William Wordsworth as Poet Laureate, a post he held until his death. His poems include The Lady of Shalott, Ulysses, Break, Break, Break, Crossing the Bar and The Charge of the Light Brigade, written after a disastrous cavalry charge in the Crimean War. Idylls of the King retells the legends of King Arthur in a series of poems. Queen Victoria made him a baron in 1884. He died in 1892 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson is also an author in the library: author page and works.
Faith: Son of an Anglican clergyman. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Key dates
- 1809 Born in Somersby, Lincolnshire
- 1833 Death of his friend Arthur Hallam
- 1850 In Memoriam published; becomes Poet Laureate
- 1854 The Charge of the Light Brigade
- 1884 Made a baron
- 1892 Dies; buried in Westminster Abbey
Record-breaker
Firsts and records, worded as the sources give them ("first known", "at the time").
- He was Poet Laureate from 1850 until his death in 1892, the longest time anyone has held the post. (Source: Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Wikipedia))
Read about them
Grades 9–12
- Ulysses · In the library
More lives
Edwin A. Abbott · Jane Addams · Louisa May Alcott · Hans Christian Andersen · Jane Austen · Honoré de Balzac