Alfred Lord Tennyson
Personal Information
Description
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS, much better known as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson," was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language. Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, "In the valley of Cauteretz", "Break, Break, Break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "Tears, Idle Tears" and "Crossing the Bar". Much of his verse was based on classical mythological themes, such as Ulysses, although In Memoriam A.H.H. was written to commemorate his best friend Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet and fellow student at Trinity College, Cambridge, who was engaged to Tennyson's sister, but died from a cerebral hemorrhage before they were married. Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, Ulysses, and Tithonus. During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success. Tennyson wrote a number of phrases that have become commonplaces of the English language, including: "Nature, red in tooth and claw", "'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", "My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure", "Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers", and "The old order changeth, yielding place to new". He is the second most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations after Shakespeare.
Books
A Treasury of Christmas Classics
Selected poems
Queen Mary
The final part of Tennyson's trilogy of plays, Queen Mary depicts the decline of Roman Catholic influence in England.
Tennyson's The princess
A princess founds a University exclusive for women, and men are forbidden to enter. Her betrothed, a prince, together with some friends, disguise themselves as women in order to win her back
Prentice Hall Literature--Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes--Gold Level
Select poems
"Ephrem the Syrian is the most important poet and theologian of the Syriac Christian tradition. His numerous hymns, homilies, and commentaries were highly influential for later generations, and his poetry continues to be broadly used in the liturgies of Syrian Christian churches. This new translation of twenty poems, the only edition of Ephrem that features a text in vocalized serto script with a facing translation, offers a broad and varied introduction to Ephrem's work. Arranged according to his concept of salvation history, this book will allow readers to further explore his poetry in both its original language and in a contemporary English translation." -- From the publisher.
Prentice Hall Literature--Silver
Grade Level 7-9
Prentice Hall Literature - Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes - The British Tradition
Familiar poems, annotated
Ozymandias / Percy Bysshe Shelley The destruction of Sennacherib / George Gordon Byron The vision of Belshazzar / George Gordon Byron Alexander's feast / John Dryden Antony to Cleopatra / William Haines Lytle The angels' song / Edmund Hamilton Sears Boadicea / William Cowper The Pied Piper of Hamlin / Robert Browning Bruce to his men at Bannockburn / Robert Burns Lepanto / Gilbert Keith Chesterton The "revenge" / Alfred Tennyson The landing of the pilgrim fathers / Felicia Dorothea Hemans On the late massacre in Piedmont / John Milton The deacon's masterpiece / Oliver Wendell Holmes Paul Revere's ride / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Concord hymn / Ralph Waldo Emerson On the extinction of the Venetian Republic / William Wordsworth Incident of the French camp / Robert Browning The star-spangled banner / Francis Scott Key On first looking into Chapman's Homer / John Keats A visit from Saint Nicholas / Clement Clarke Moore Old Ironsides / Oliver Wendell Holmes The Helen / Edgar Allan Poe Anne Rutledge / Edgar Lee Masters The charge of the Light Brigade / Alfred Tennyson Maryland, my Maryland / James Ryder Randall Battle-hymn of the republic / Julia Ward Howe Barbara Frietchie / John Greenleaf Whittier O captain! My captain! / Walt Whitman Invictus / William Ernest Henley The modern major-general / William Schwenk Gilbert The new Colossus / Emma Lazarus Recessional / Rudyard Kipling Cargoes / John Masefield Miniver Cheevy / Edwin Arlington Robinson In Flanders fields / John McCrae Fire and ice / Robert Frost