The Suppressed Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson (Pictorial Edition) (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781500484187)

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS (1809 -1892) was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during Queen Victoria's reign. His famous poems include "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and "Crossing of the Bar." Among his most recognizable phrases are "'Tis better to have loved and lost/ Than never to have loved at all," "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die," and "My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure." The son of a Lincolnshire rector, he was fourth of twelve children. As a teenager, he published a small volume entitled Poems by Two Brothers, containing works by him and two of his brothers In 1828, Tennyson enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge. The following year he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry. He left the university without receiving a degree due to the death of his father. Living with his family in London, Tennyson published a two-volume collection of his work that contained revisions of earlier poems, as well as new ones, including "Morte d'Arthur," "Ulysses," and "Locksley Hall." At last he was recognized as one of the leading literary figures of the period. In 1850, after an engagement of thirteen years, Tennyson married Emily Sellwood. Later that same year he succeeded Wordsworth as England's poet laureate. In 1883, Queen Victoria raised him to the peerage, making him Baron Tennyson of Aldworth. He was the first Englishman ever granted such a high rank solely for literary distinction. Tennyson was hailed as the greatest of English poets. In 1885 he was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford University. Dying at the age of eighty-three, Tennyson was buried in the Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey.