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Alfred Lord Tennyson as a representative poet who is known as a Victorian poet whose
poetry is the philosophy of faith and hope enriched the spirit of our complex modern
civilization, culture, art, and criticism. The age where Tennyson lived is known as an age of
“industrial revolution”. As a result of the industrial revelation, the economic condition of the
people improved. This improvement brought about a change in man’s outlook.
Some people looked upon wealth as an end in itself. People ad-heard to traditional values
like wisdom, justice, truth, patriotism, public welfare. Some people claimed to maintain the
traditional social order where women were considered inferior to men.
At the time new discoveries were made. They were against the truths of religion. Religion
taught that God is the creator of the world as well as life. But scientific discoveries proved
that the world and life were created in the course of time, not at a particular time. Tennyson
gives expression to the scientific spirit of the age. There is something universal in his poetry
that has an appeal to all hearts-ancient or modern.
Table Of Contents
Arthur tells him to pray to God. God will show him the right way. Here Arthur’s knight faces
a conflict in his mind between his desire for wealth and his loyalty to the kings.
“Oenone” is one of the remarkable poems by Tennyson. In this poem, Oenone laments her
betrayal by her lover Paris. Paris was lured by physical pleasure only. He underrated the
purity of her love. His disregard for Nobel ideal caused sufferings to her. Paris rejected the
offer of power that knowledge gives. Oenone echoes the poet’s view when she speaks of the
words Pallas-
The Victorian who upheld moral virtues in domestic life was heart moralistic. In this respect,
Tennyson is the mouthpiece of the Victorian’s. In this respect Tennyson poetry there is a
strong feeling for moral teaching and ethical edification. He turned to the Greek legends not
so much for the sake of their beauty as for their ethical significance. The legendary “Ulysses”
imparts the massage of action urges the readers:
In “The Ancient sage”, we may see how the poet challenged the current materialism and
asserted the eternal verities of God and immortality:
The speaker describes the vision of the world that he used to see in his younger days. People
are greedy and are driven by commercial motives. Money rules the world. According to the
speaker, a woman’s brain is less developed than a man. The speaker thinks to set himself
free from the limitations of his present life.
A note of melancholy is seen in this whole poem. He does not like commercialism. According
to him, wisdom is slower in coming to us that knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge differ.
Knowledge means acquiring more facts and more information about the world but it is
wisdom that gives us the capacity to make proper use of those facts and information. The
speaker says:
And the individual withers and the world is more and more
To sum up, we may very firmly assert that Tennyson presented in this poetry all the essential
features of Victorian life. So Tennyson as a representative poet is well recognized. The ideas
and taste the inherited predictions belonging to his class and generation, moderation in
polities refined culture, religious liberalism checked by doubt a lively interest in the advance
of scientific discovery attachment to ancient institution all Victorian feeling find expression
in Tennyson Poetry.
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