Enoch Arden & Other Poems: "If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever."

By Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6th, 1809, in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the fourth of twelve children. Most of Tennyson's early education was under the direction of his father, although he did spend four unhappy years at a nearby grammar school. He left home in 1827 to join his elder brothers at Trinity College, Cambridge, more to escape his father than a desire for serious academic work. At Trinity he was living for the first time among young men of his own age who knew little of his problems. He was delighted to make new friends; he was handsome, intelligent, humorous, a gifted impersonator and soon at the center of those interested in poetry and conversation. That same year, he and his brother Charles published Poems by Two Brothers. Although the poems in the book were of teenage quality, they attracted the attention of the “Apostles," a select undergraduate literary club led by Arthur Hallam. The “Apostles” provided Tennyson with friendship and confidence. Hallam and Tennyson became the best of friends; they toured Europe together in 1830 and again in 1832. Hallam’s sudden death in 1833 greatly affected the young poet. The long elegy In Memoriam and many of Tennyson’s other poems are tributes to Hallam. In 1830, Tennyson published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical and in 1832 he published a second volume entitled simply Poems. Some reviewers condemned these books as “affected” and “obscure.” Tennyson, stung by the reviews, would not publish another book for nine years. In 1836, he became engaged to Emily Sellwood. When he lost his inheritance on a failed investment in 1840, the engagement was cancelled. In 1842, however, Tennyson’s Poems [in two volumes] was a tremendous critical and popular success. In 1850, with the publication of In Memoriam, Tennyson’s reputation was pre-eminent. He was also selected as Poet Laureate in succession to Wordsworth and, to complete a wonderful year, he married Emily Sellwood. At the age of 41, Tennyson had established himself as the most popular poet of the Victorian era. The money from his poetry [at times exceeding 10,000 pounds per year] allowed him to purchase a home in the country and to write in relative seclusion. His appearance—a large and bearded man, he regularly wore a cloak and a broad brimmed hat—enhanced his notoriety. In 1859, Tennyson published the first poems of Idylls of the Kings, which sold more than 10,000 copies in a fortnight. In 1884, he accepted a peerage, becoming Alfred Lord Tennyson. On October 6th, 1892, an hour or so after midnight, surrounded by his family, he died at Aldworth. It is said that the moonlight was streaming through the window and Tennyson himself was holding open a volume of Shakespeare. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Mar 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781785438578

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was a British poet. Born into a middle-class family in Somersby, England, Tennyson began writing poems with his brothers as a teenager. In 1827, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, joining a secret society known as the Cambridge Apostles and publishing his first book of poems, a collection of juvenile verse written by Tennyson and his brother Charles. He was awarded the Chancellor’s Gold Medal in 1829 for his poem “Timbuktu” and, in 1830, published Poems Chiefly Lyrical, his debut individual collection. Following the death of his father in 1831, Tennyson withdrew from Cambridge to care for his family. His second volume of poems, The Lady of Shalott (1833), was a critical and commercial failure that put his career on hold for the next decade. That same year, Tennyson’s friend Arthur Hallam died from a stroke while on holiday in Vienna, an event that shook the young poet and formed the inspiration for his masterpiece, In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850). The poem, a long sequence of elegiac lyrics exploring themes of loss and mourning, helped secure Tennyson the position of Poet Laureate, to which he was appointed in 1850 following the death of William Wordsworth. Tennyson would hold the position until the end of his life, making his the longest tenure in British history. With most of his best work behind him, Tennyson continued to write and publish poems, many of which adhered to the requirements of his position by focusing on political and historical themes relevant to the British royal family and peerage. An important bridge between Romanticism and the Pre-Raphaelites, Tennyson remains one of Britain’s most popular and influential poets.

Book preview

Enoch Arden & Other Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6th, 1809, in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the fourth of twelve children.

Most of Tennyson's early education was under the direction of his father, although he did spend four unhappy years at a nearby grammar school. He left home in 1827 to join his elder brothers at Trinity College, Cambridge, more to escape his father than a desire for serious academic work. At Trinity he was living for the first time among young men of his own age who knew little of his problems. He was delighted to make new friends; he was handsome, intelligent, humorous, a gifted impersonator and soon at the center of those interested in poetry and conversation.

That same year, he and his brother Charles published Poems by Two Brothers. Although the poems in the book were of teenage quality, they attracted the attention of the Apostles, a select undergraduate literary club led by Arthur Hallam. The Apostles provided Tennyson with friendship and confidence. Hallam and Tennyson became the best of friends; they toured Europe together in 1830 and again in 1832. Hallam’s sudden death in 1833 greatly affected the young poet. The long elegy In Memoriam and many of Tennyson’s other poems are tributes to Hallam.

In 1830, Tennyson published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical and in 1832 he published a second volume entitled simply Poems. Some reviewers condemned these books as affected and obscure. Tennyson, stung by the reviews, would not publish another book for nine years.

In 1836, he became engaged to Emily Sellwood. When he lost his inheritance on a failed investment in 1840, the engagement was cancelled.

In 1842, however, Tennyson’s Poems (in two volumes) was a tremendous critical and popular success. In 1850, with the publication of In Memoriam, Tennyson’s reputation was pre-eminent. He was also selected as Poet Laureate in succession to Wordsworth and, to complete a wonderful year, he married Emily Sellwood.

At the age of 41, Tennyson had established himself as the most popular poet of the Victorian era. The money from his poetry (at times exceeding 10,000 pounds per year) allowed him to purchase a home in the country and to write in relative seclusion. His appearance—a large and bearded man, he regularly wore a cloak and a broad brimmed hat—enhanced his notoriety. 

In 1859, Tennyson published the first poems of Idylls of the Kings, which sold more than 10,000 copies in a fortnight. In 1884, he accepted a peerage, becoming Alfred Lord Tennyson.

On October 6th, 1892, an hour or so after midnight, surrounded by his family, he died at Aldworth.  It is said that the moonlight was streaming through the window and Tennyson himself was holding open a volume of Shakespeare.

He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Index of Contents

Enoch Arden

Aylmer's Field

Sea Dreams

The Grandmother

Northern Farmer

MISCELLANEOUS

Tithonus

The Voyage

In the Valley of Cauteretz

The Flower

Requiescat

The Sailor-Boy

The Islet

The Ringlet

A Welcome to Alexandra

Ode - Sung at the Opening of the International Exhibition

A Dedication

EXPERIMENTS

Boadicea

In Quantity

Specimen of a Translation of the Iliad in Blank Verse

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

ALFRED LORD TENNYSON – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

ENOCH ARDEN

Long lines of cliff breaking have left a chasm;

And in the chasm are foam and yellow sands;

Beyond, red roofs about a narrow wharf

In cluster; then a moulder'd church; and higher

A long street climbs to one tall-tower'd mill;

And high in heaven behind it a gray down

With Danish barrows; and a hazelwood,

By autumn nutters haunted, flourishes

Green in a cuplike hollow of the down.

Here on this beach a hundred years ago,

Three children of three houses, Annie Lee,

The prettiest little damsel in the port,

And Philip Ray the miller's only son,

And Enoch Arden, a rough sailor's lad

Made orphan by a winter shipwreck, play'd

Among the waste and lumber of the shore,

Hard coils of cordage, swarthy fishing-nets,

Anchors of rusty fluke, and boats updrawn,

And built their castles of dissolving sand

To watch them overflow'd, or following up

And flying the white breaker, daily left

The little footprint daily wash'd away.

A narrow cave ran in beneath the cliff:

In this the children play'd at keeping house.

Enoch was host one day, Philip the next,

While Annie still was mistress; but at times

Enoch would hold possession for a week:

'This is my house and this my little wife.'

'Mine too' said Philip 'turn and turn about:'

When, if they quarrell'd, Enoch stronger-made

Was master: then would Philip, his blue eyes

All flooded with the helpless wrath of tears,

Shriek out 'I hate you, Enoch,' and at this

The little wife would weep for company,

And pray them not to quarrel for her sake,

And say she would be little wife to both.

But when the dawn of rosy childhood past,

And the new warmth of life's ascending sun

Was felt by either, either fixt his heart

On that one girl; and Enoch spoke his love,

But Philip loved in silence; and the girl

Seem'd kinder unto Philip than to him;

But she loved Enoch; tho' she knew it not,

And would if ask'd deny it.  Enoch set

A purpose evermore before his eyes,

To hoard all savings to the uttermost,

To purchase his own boat, and make a home

For Annie: and so prosper'd that at last

A luckier or a bolder fisherman,

A carefuller in peril, did not breathe

For leagues along that breaker-beaten coast

Than Enoch.  Likewise had he served a year

On board a merchantman, and made himself

Full sailor; and he thrice had pluck'd a life

From the dread sweep of the down-streaming seas:

And all me look'd upon him favorably:

And ere he touch'd his one-and-twentieth May

He purchased his own boat, and made a home

For Annie, neat and nestlike, halfway up

The narrow street that clamber'd toward the mill.

Then, on a golden autumn eventide,

The younger people making holiday,

With bag and sack and basket, great and small,

Went nutting to the hazels.  Philip stay'd

(His father lying sick and needing him)

An hour behind; but as he climb'd the hill,

Just where the prone edge of the wood began

To feather toward the hollow, saw the pair,

Enoch and Annie, sitting hand-in-hand,

His large gray eyes and weather-beaten face

All-kindled by a still and sacred fire,

That burn'd as on an altar.  Philip look'd,

And in their eyes and faces read his doom;

Then, as their faces drew together, groan'd,

And slipt aside, and like a wounded life

Crept down into the hollows of the wood;

There, while the rest were loud in merrymaking,

Had his dark hour unseen, and rose and past

Bearing a lifelong hunger in his heart.

So these were wed, and merrily rang the bells,

And merrily ran the years, seven happy years,

Seven happy years of health and competence,

And mutual love and honorable toil;

With children; first a daughter.  In him woke,

With his first babe's first cry, the noble wish

To save all earnings to the uttermost,

And give his child a better bringing-up

Than his had been, or hers; a wish renew'd,

When two years after came a boy to be

The rosy idol of her solitudes,

While Enoch was abroad on wrathful seas,

Or often journeying landward; for in truth

Enoch's white horse, and Enoch's ocean-spoil

In ocean-smelling osier, and his face,

Rough-redden'd with a thousand winter gales,

Not only to the market-cross were known,

But in the leafy lanes behind the down,

Far as the portal-warding lion-whelp,

And