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Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Personal Life and Poetry Essay
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was the most acclaimed British poet of the Victorian age. He had a long life, but his path was not void of various severe complications. To begin with, he was one of the eleven children in the family of a church rector. While his father had a good salary, the size of the family made them very cautious about spending the income. However, not only financial problems existed in the family. Having been disinherited by his father, George Clayton Tennyson (Alfred’s father) started drinking and taking drugs. His violent and brutal behavior made their home a rather bitter place.
Still, when it came to education, it was the father who gave Alfred pre-university education due to being well-read. After Alfred had spent a few years at Louth Grammar School, his studies continued at home. No matter how irrational his father was, it was he who instilled love in reading into his children. Alfred’s education at Trinity College had to stop when his father died. Even though it was expected of him to follow in his father’s footsteps, Alfred decided to concentrate on poetry. And, as it turned out, he made an excellent choice.
Lord Tennyson’s personal life was not very happy. He thought he had epilepsy, and that made him withhold from the intention of marrying the girl he loved, Emily Sellwood. They eventually got married almost fifteen years later, upon discovering that he was not ill.
While there were many struggles in his life, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was highly acknowledged for his poetry. He frequently had royal family members as visitors in his house on the Isle of Wight. Tennyson was the embodiment of the Victorian era. “‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all” from his “In Memoriam” are some of the most recognizable lines in the world.
