Poetic Recovery and Triumph, 1834–50

Abstract

For a time Hallam’s death extinguished the happy, confident expectations of Emily and Alfred Tennyson. Self-prescription of study in languages, science, and theology indicates the determination of the latter to broaden the basis of his poetry. His depression and partial recovery may be seen in ‘The Two Voices’ and ‘Ulysses’. Early lyrics on Arthur’s death reveal moods of calm. In July 1834 he visited the Hallams at Molesey Park, and received copies of Arthur’s literary remains, edited with a memoir by his father. In the autumn, at Tintern Abbey, he wrote another elegiac poem (In Memoriam, xix) and composed ‘Tears, idle tears’. During her first visit to the Hallams in October, Emily met Mr Jesse (whom she married in January 1842); she accompanied the Hallams to London for the Christmas and New Year festivities, and was accepted as one of the family. Tired of Lincolnshire society, Tennyson sold his Chancellor’s Medal and made a flying visit to Boulogne in February 1835; in the spring he joined the Speddings and Edward FitzGerald, James’s old school friend, at Mirehouse on the Skiddaw side of Bassenthwaite Water. Tennyson read aloud his latest poems, including ‘Dora’ and ‘Morte d’Arthur’, and several by Wordsworth, whose ‘Michael’ he was beginning to appreciate.