"John Keats. A Literary Biography."--HANCOCK. "Studies in Poetry."--BROOKE. ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809-1892) Alfred Tennyson, generally accounted the greatest English poet since Milton, was born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, where his early studies were for the most part personally directed by his father, the rector of the parish. He then studied at Cambridge, where "The Lady of Shalott" and "A Dream of Fair Women," were written. Criticism and the death of a dearly loved friend, Arthur Hallam, now drove the tender-souled Tennyson into a retirement from which he did not reappear for nine years. He was busy during all this time, composing and perfecting "Locksley Hall," "Dora," "Morte D'Arthur," and other poems whose publication placed him in the front rank as a poet. "The Princess" followed in 1847 and "In Memoriam," his noblest work, an elegy on the death of Arthur Hallam, in 1850, seventeen years after his friend's decease. In the same year he was appointed poet laureate and married a Miss Sellwood. Nine years later appeared his great epic cycle, "Idylls of the King." In 1884 he was raised to the peerage. "Crossing the Bar," published shortly before his death, was a fitting close to a literary life nobly consecrated to the combat against skepticism and materialism. THE MAN 1. Would you place Tennyson among the aristocracy of England? He is known as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson": was he of noble extraction? 2. What position did he hold at the Court of St. James? 3. Who preceded and who succeeded him as poet laureate? XII, 324; I, 235. 4. How may we account for his strong religious bent? 5. Locate on the map two districts intimately connected with the life of Tennyson, Lincolnshire and the Isle of Wight. 6. Compare England in his lifetime with conditions in the days of Byron and Shelley. XI, 434 ff. STYLE AND WORKS 1. What poems are classed with "In Memoriam" as the great elegies of English Literature? VI, 106; IX, 105; XI, 95. 2. What great contribution did Tennyson make to epic poetry? 3. From what sources did Tennyson derive the material for his "Idylls of the King"? VIII, 262; IX, 15. 4. Which of his poems was instrumental in establishing his reputation? XII, 5. 5. What poem indicates his religious feeling? 6. Name some of his best early poems. 7. In memory of whom was "In Memoriam" written? 8. Name three works based on the Arthurian legend; two dealing with the romance of common life; and two dealing with immortality. 9. What are the principal excellences of his style? 10. Compare "The Revenge" with Raleigh's account of the battle, X, 124, from which Tennyson took his facts and even his phrases. What does this show with regard to Raleigh's power as an author? FROM "IN MEMORIAM" 1. Find the two stanzas which contain the central thought on which the poem is based. 2. What attitude did Tennyson take in regard to his friend's death?