Ans: Alfred Tennyson is chiefly remembered as the most representative poet of the Victorian age (1832-1901). He presents the age and temperament. His poetry foreshadows the spirits of the age. In his poems, we find the compromise between the rich and the poor, the compromise between science and religion. Reading his poems seems like reading a newspaper of the Victorian Era.
The Victorian era is specially marked by social change and intellectual advancement. It was an age of progress in science and knowledge, Tennyson’s poetry represents the craving for knowledge, the weariness, and confusion of people, the political and social life of Victorian people, the moral, philosophical, and religious problems of his time, and the doubt of Victorian.
Now let us find out the above-stated Victorian features in Tennyson’s poems and describe him as a true representative of his age.
Tennyson is typically Victorian in the sense of a desire for adventure and knowledge. In “Ulysses”, the hero expresses an insatiable thirst for knowledge. He wishes to acquire as much as possible. Ulysses is strong in will and wants —
“To strive, to seek to find and not to yield.”
Through Ulysses, Tennyson shows the indomitable spirit for knowledge and adventure which is the characteristic of the Victorian age.
“The Lotos Eaters” is a famous poem by Tennyson. In the poem, Tennyson shows Victorian confusion, weariness, and pessimism. In it, he portrays a group of sailors who are tired of their journey and want to take a rest. They doubted the fundamental religious belief of good and evil. The sailors sing about the present disorder. They also feel frustration. They are suspicious and so they say —-
“Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil the shore …….
Oh rest ye, brother mariners, we will not
Wander more.”
Again in “Tithonus”, Victorian pessimism comes through the Greek legend. The speaker of the poem violates the natural law of living Life and death are two essential truths in life that cannot be ignored. But Tithonus asks for immortality from the goddess and in the end, he finds it a curse to him. Some people in the Victorian age showed their aspiration to achieve the most impossible thing which sometimes was frustrating to them.
The passion for beauty in “Oenone” is an example of Victorian temper. The Victorian outlook occurs in the jealous and psychologically valid interior monologue of Oenone. In the poem, Tennyson focuses on the inherent contradictions of the Victorian spirit.
In “Locksley Hall”, the poet presents the typical Victorian love and frustration, the social life, the progression of science and discoveries, political change, the possible benefits of war, and the vast spread of commerce.
The speaker in the poem is frustrated because he cannot get his beloved. In the Victorian age, marriage was a woman’s identity. There was no freedom for women to choose someone. The Victorian parents were very conservative. Women were supposed to be very weak in thinking. The speaker of the poem curses the social rules and system which shows restriction.
The speaker talks about the materialistic Victorian life. He says —
“Every door is barred with gold and
Opens but to golden keys.”
The discoveries of science develop the world. Victorian society did not bother or anxious individuals. As the speaker says —
“Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers and I lingers on the shore
And the individual withers and the world is more and more.”
To sum up, we can say that Tennyson is a great Victorian poet. His poetry holds the art, philosophy, social movement, and religious disorders of his time more skillfully and largely than others. For this reason, Tennyson is tightly considered the representative poet of the Victorian age.
