A Study of Poets: Tennyson & Browning
Assignment
Topic:
A Study of Poets:
◘ Tennyson & ◘ Browning
Name: Kaushal Desai
Department: M.A. English department
Semester: II
Roll No: 14
To be submitted to: The
Department of English,
M.K.
Bhavnagar University
◙ A Study of Poets:
◘
Tennyson &
◘
Browning
→ Preface :
The period of 1820
to 1900 known as the age of ‘victoria’. During this period Queen
Victoria developed the much literary forms. So , this age in English
literature known as the ‘victorian Age’. During that period
many great writers gave their best contribution to English age as a gift. , Browning,
Dickens, Thackray, Meredith, Carlyle, Macaulay and Ruskin there are some
great stars of the age.Tennyson the prominent poet of the age.So, now let’s we
discussing about Tennyson in detailed. Lord Alfred Tennyson was born in 1809.The son of
a clergyman he was born at his father’s living atsomersby in Lincolnshire.
After some schooling at Louth, Which was not agreeable to him. He was
taken education from the Cambridge. University, at the university
he was a wholly conventional person.
We
can also say about this period that The Victorian era of British
history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 until her
death in 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined culture,
great advancements in technology, and national self-confidence for Britain.
During the Victorian age, Britain was the world's most powerful
nation. By the end of Victoria's reign, the British empire extended over
about one-fifth of the earth's surface. Like Elizabethan
England, Victorian England saw great expansion of wealth, power, and
culture. But as Victorian England was a time of great ambition and
grandeur, it was also a time of misery, squalor, and urban
ugliness.The Victorian era of British history was the
period of Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 until her death in 1901. It was
a long period of peace, prosperity, refined culture, great advancements in
technology, and national self-confidence for Britain. During the
Victorian age, Britain was the world's most powerful nation. By the end of
Victoria's reign, the British empire extended over about one-fifth of the
earth's surface. Like Elizabethan England, Victorian England saw
great expansion of wealth, power, and culture. But as Victorian England
was a time of great ambition and grandeur, it was also a time of misery,
squalor, and urban ugliness. But art is never be stop so in this era also we
find foremost art. And we are going to discuss about two major poet who create
a kind of influence in this era.
◘Alfred Lord Tennyson:
He was Poet
Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets.
Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as "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 brain haemorrhage before they
could marry. 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. A number of phrases from
Tennyson's work 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",
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield", "Knowledge
comes, but Wisdom lingers", and "The old order changeth, yielding
place to new". He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The
Oxford Dictionary of QuotationsMost of Tennyson’s early education
under his father’s direction. Even then he spent 4 unhappy years at
the grammar school. His departure in 1827to join his elder brothers at
Trinity College Cambridge. He was extraordinary handsome intelligent, humorous
and gifted as charming personality, he was at the center of an admiring group
of young men knows that then he was interested in poetry and conversation.The
only mark he made was to win thechancellor’s medal for a poem onTimbuctoo. Then,
He left Cambridge without taking a degree.The history of family is interesting
in itself ,but some knowledge of it is also essential for understanding of the
themes of his poetry. Madness, Murder, Miserliness, social climbing there
are some main themes of the work of Tennyson.It was surprisable thing
that he began writing poetry long before he was sent to school; as did most of
his talented brothers and sisters. At the early age of18 his first volume
published ‘poems by two brothers (1827)’. Now let’s studies further about both poets.
He left
Cambridge before he was published a volume of mediocre verse. During the next 20 years
he was passed a tranquil existence.During that time he met Arthur Henry
Hallam. This was the beginning of 4years of warm friendship
between Tennyson and Hallam.
In 1844 he lost his unlucky
speculation, but in nick of the time he received Government pension .He was
appointedpoet Laureate (1850) in owner to Wordsworth married, and removed
to freshwater. Then for the Tennyson ‘Isle of Wight’ became for the
next 20 years.
Now let see the poetic career of the
Tennyson. At the early age of 18 he collaborated with his elder brother Charles
in ‘poems by Two Brothers got the prize.
1). ‘Timbuctoo’ (1829)
2). ‘poems, chiefly Lyricall’ (1830)
‘Isabel and Madeline’ the
pictorial work by Tennyson. His volume of ‘poems (1833)’, which is
often referred to as ‘poems (1832)’.In this collection there are some
great poems-
1).’The Lady of shallot’
2).
‘Enone’
3).’The Lotus-Eaters’
4).’The palace of Art’
This
collection through Tennyson got the renowned as a perfect poet. Then
in1842 he produced two another volume of poetry that set him once
and for all among the greater poets of his day. It’s open with ‘Morte’d
Arthur’
And contains ‘Ulysses,
Locksleyhall.’And several other poems through he became star of the age. Later
he wrote very long poem. Like-
1).‘The princess’ (1847)
2). ‘In Memoriam’ (1850)
3). ‘Maud and other poems’ (1855)
4). ‘Idylls of the king’ (1859-89)
5).Enoch Arden (1864)
Some major
features of his poetic work.1830 to 1842 works lyric and legendry
narrative type. And 1842volume based on ethical interest. His content of
the works mirror of feelings and aspirations of his time.
As a pictorial
poet, he follows the example of Keats. His all poem most probably based on
imagery of nature and other natural elements. His description of each line
built our-selves to see the magic of his art and surprisable deep and beautiful
scene of the picture of the poem.
Through his all poem he proved
himself as a best poet of the age. Hislyrical quality is also
best-one. Famous example are-
1). ‘The splendor Falls’
2). ‘Break, break, break’
3). ‘crossing the Bar’ etc…
Through his lyrics he touches the heart
of the reader. Let see one example of his great work
“Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, o sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.”
~‘Break, break,break’by Tennyson
Even he used Lyrical
monologue, repetition, imagery, Alliteration there are some great elements
of the work of Tennyson. He himself known as-
“The clamour of the cry.”
In 1884 he
was created a baron, sat in the House of Lords, for a time took himself rather
seriously as a politician. Then he died at Aldworth near
Haslemere in surrey and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Really, through
the study of poet we can say that he was ‘star poet’ of the age.
He was known as demigod of the age.His greatness and richness of his
poems in very early age showed theintellectuality and scholarality in him.
Hishigh place in the temple of fame in assured. Tennyson was not only the
great poet of the “victorian Age”. But,today also he known as in the
category of the best homogenized poet.
◘ Robert Browning
I
also want to say that Browning aspires to redefine
the aesthetic. The rough language of his poems often matches the personalities
of his speakers. Browning uses colloquialisms, inarticulate sounds (like
“Grr”), and rough meter to portray inner conflict and to show characters living
in the real world. In his earlier poems this kind of speech often accompanies
patterned rhyme schemes; “My Last Duchess,” for example, uses rhymed couplets.
The disjunction between form and content or form and language suggests some of
the conflict being described in the poems, whether the conflict is between two
moral contentions or is a conflict between aesthetics and ethics as systems.
Browning’s rough meters and unpoetic language test a new range for the
aesthetic.
Here one more remarkable point is that Women,
particularly for the Victorians, symbolize the home the repository of
traditional values. Their violent death can stand in for the death of society.
The women in Browning’s poetry in particular are often depicted as sexually
open: this may show that society has transformed so radically that even the
domestic, the traditional, has been altered and corrupted. This violence also
suggests the struggle between aesthetics and morals in Victorian art: while
women typically serve as symbols of values (the moral education offered by the
mother, the purity of one who stays within the confines of the home and remains
untainted by the outside world), they also represent traditional foci for the
aesthetic (in the form of sensual physical beauty); the conflict between the
two is potentially explosive. Controlling and even destroying women is a way to
try to prevent such explosions, to preserve a society that has already changed
beyond recognition.
Actually
he more known to be mark of seasons as his writing influenced with the part of
stability and now talking about his work so first look on In March
1833, Pauline, a fragment of a confession was published anonymously
by Saunders and Otley at the expense of the author, the costs of printing
having been borne by an aunt, Mrs Silverthorne. It is a long poem composed in
homage to Shelley and somewhat in his style.
Originally Browning considered Pauline as the first of a series
written by different aspects of himself, but he soon abandoned this idea. The
press noticed the publication. W.J. Fox writing in the The Monthly
Repository of April 1833 discerned merit in the work. Allan Cunningham praised it in The Athenaeum. However, it sold no copies. Some years later, probably in
1850, Dante Gabriel
Rossetti came
across it in the Reading Room of the British Museum and wrote to Browning, then in Florence to ask if he was the author. John Stuart Mill, however, wrote that the author suffered from an
"intense and morbid self-consciousness". Later Browning was
rather embarrassed by the work, and only included it in his collected poems of
1868 after making substantial changes and adding a preface in which he asked
for indulgence for a boyish work.
His major works:
♣ Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833)
♣ Paracelsus (1835)
♣ Strafford (play)
(1837)
♣ Sordello (1840)
♣ Bells and Pomegranates No. I: Pippa
Passes (play) (1841)
♣Bells and Pomegranates No. II: King Victor and King Charles (play) (1842)
♣ Bells and Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic
Lyrics (1842)
♣ "Porphyria's Lover"
♣ "Soliloquy of the
Spanish Cloister"
♣ "My
Last Duchess"
♣ "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"
♣ "Count
Gismond"
♣ "Johannes Agricola in
Meditation"
Here I want
to put few lines of his work,
“One who
never turned his back, but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never
dreamed, tho’ right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are buffled
to fight better,
Sleep to wake.
~ Epilogue, Browning
In
1834 he accompanied the Chevalier George de Benkhausen, the Russian
consul-general, on a brief visit to St Petersburg and began Paracelsus, which was published in
1835. The subject of the 16th century savant and alchemist was probably suggested to him
by the Comte Amédée de Ripart-Monclar, to whom it was dedicated. The
publication had some commercial and critical success, being noticed by Wordsworth, Dickens, Landor, J.S. Mill and others,
including Tennyson (already famous). It is a monodrama without action,
dealing with the problems confronting an intellectual trying to find his role
in society. It gained him access to the London literary world.
As
a result of his new contacts he met Macready, who invited him to write a play. Strafford was performed
five times. Browning then wrote two other plays, one of which was not
performed, while the other failed, Browning having fallen out with Macready. In
1838 he visited Italy, looking for background for Sordello, a long poem in heroic couplets, presented as the imaginary
biography of the Mantuan bard spoken of by Dante in the Divine Comedy, canto 6 of Purgatory, set against a background of hate and
conflict during the Guelph-Ghibelline wars. This was published in 1840 and met
with widespread derision, gaining him the reputation of wanton carelessness and
obscurity. Tennyson commented that he only understood the first and last lines
and Carlyle claimed that his wife had read the poem through and could not tell
whether Sordello was a man, a city or a book.
Browning's
reputation began to make a partial recovery with the publication, 1841–1846,
of Bells and Pomegranates, a series of eight pamphlets, originally
intended just to include his plays. Fortunately his publisher, Moxon, persuaded
him to include some "dramatic lyrics", some of which had already
appeared in periodicals.
♀ winding
up:
At last I just want to say that
Victorian period is also a promoted through the English development and it’s
connect their roots with Renaissance time. Tennyson & Browning both are
distinguish poet that given their much promoted writing in this era.
Bibliography
Long,
Wiiliam J. English Literature. Books way, 2009.
Wikipedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.<http://en.m.wikipedia.org>.
Comments
Post a Comment