The Victorian Laureates

By William Wordsworth, Lord Alfred Tennyson and Alfred Austin

The office of Poet Laureate goes back many centuries―informally to the time of Geoffrey Chaucer in 1389 and followed thereafter by a number of ‘volunteer laureates’. It was formally assigned to Ben Jonson in 1617 and, as a Royal office by letters patent in 1670, to John Dryden. It is a rich, rewarding history that bursts with the words, themes and visions of many great poets that has bound poetry and poets to a Nations soul.

Victoria’s reign is mainly remembered as that which harnessed and amplified The Industrial Revolution with its myriad of inventions and the reinvention of society from agricultural to manufacturing. From there its thirst for markets and raw materials created a massive ‘Age of Empire’ that bestrode the globe yet, in its wake, left many in its homeland, destitute, impoverished and bereft of the advantages it trumpeted on a world stage.

In the Arts its artists flourished, exhibiting and publishing abroad working in new techniques and new media. In literature such noted talents as Dickens, Trollope, Thackeray, the Bronte sisters and many, many others were ambitious and acclaimed. In Poetry we were spoilt for choice; the Brownings, Matthew Arnold, Coventry Patmore, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, an endless succession of wordsmiths.

Those Laureates appointed in Queen Victoria’s reign to represent the Nation are three in number and quite simply are staggering in both verse and talent: William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Alfred Austin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Nov 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781835470398

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 at Cockermouth, in the English Lake District, the son of a lawyer. He was one of five children and developed a close bond with his only sister, Dorothy, whom he lived with for most of his life. At the age of seventeen, shortly after the deaths of his parents, Wordsworth went to St John’s College, Cambridge, and after graduating visited Revolutionary France. Upon returning to England he published his first poem and devoted himself wholly to writing. He became great friends with other Romantic poets and collaborated with Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Lyrical Ballads. In 1843, he succeeded Robert Southey as Poet Laureate and died in the year ‘Prelude’ was finally published, 1850.

Book preview

The Victorian Laureates

The office of Poet Laureate goes back many centuries―informally to the time of Geoffrey Chaucer in 1389 and followed thereafter by a number of ‘volunteer laureates’. It was formally assigned to Ben Jonson in 1617 and, as a Royal office by letters patent in 1670, to John Dryden. It is a rich, rewarding history that bursts with the words, themes and visions of many great poets that has bound poetry and poets to a Nations soul.

Victoria’s reign is mainly remembered as that which harnessed and amplified The Industrial Revolution with its myriad of inventions and the reinvention of society from agricultural to manufacturing. From there its thirst for markets and raw materials created a massive ‘Age of Empire’ that bestrode the globe yet, in its wake, left many in its homeland, destitute, impoverished and bereft of the advantages it trumpeted on a world stage. 

In the Arts its artists flourished, exhibiting and publishing abroad working in new techniques and new media. In literature such noted talents as Dickens, Trollope, Thackeray, the Bronte sisters and many, many others were ambitious and acclaimed.  In Poetry we were spoilt for choice; the Brownings, Matthew Arnold, Coventry Patmore, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, an endless succession of wordsmiths. 

Those Laureates appointed in Queen Victoria’s reign to represent the Nation are three in number and quite simply are staggering in both verse and talent: William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Alfred Austin.

Index of Contents

William Wordsworth - An Introduction

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth

It Was An April Morning Fresh and Clear by William Wordsworth

Ode Composed on a May Morning by William Wordsworth

Surprised By Joy Impatient As the Wind by William Wordsworth

Daffodils by William Wordsworth

My Hearts Leaps Up by William Wordsworth

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known by William Wordsworth

Written in London September 1802 by William Wordsworth

November 1806 by William Wordsworth

The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth

The Foresaken by William Wordsworth

The Longest Day by William Wordsworth

Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth

Alfred Lord Tennyson - An Introduction

Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Maud (An extract) by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Oak by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Spring by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Break Break Break by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Ring Out Wild Bells by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Sweet and Low by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Song - A Spirit Haunts the Year's Last Hours by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Death of the Old Year by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Crossing the Bar by Alfred Lord Tennyson

In Memoriam by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Austin - An Introduction

Agetha by Alfred Austin

A Captive Throstle by Alfred Austin

Though All the World by Alfred Austin

A Night in June by Alfred Austin

Spiritual Love by Alfred Austin

In Praise of England by Alfred Austin

Forgiveness by Alfred Austin

A Farewell To Youth by Alfred Austin

THE VICTORIAN LAUREATES

William Wordsworth - An Introduction

William Wordsworth was born on 7 April, 1770 in Cockermouth, in Cumbria, northwest England.

Wordsworth spent his early years in his beloved Lake District often with his sister, Dorothy. The English lakes could terrify as well as nurture, and as Wordsworth would write I grew up fostered alike by beauty and by fear,

After being schooled at Hawkshead he went to St. John’s College, Cambridge but not liking the competitive nature of the place idled his way through saying he was not for that hour, nor for that place.

Whilst still at Cambridge he travelled to France.  He was immediately taken by the Revolutionary fervor and the confluence of a set of great ideals and rallying calls for the people of France.

In his early twenties he ventured again to France and fathered an illegitimate child. He would not see that daughter till she was 9 owing to the tensions and hostilities between England and France.

There now followed a period of three to four years that plagued Wordsworth with doubt.  He was now in his early thirties but had no profession, was rootless and virtually penniless.

Although his career was not on track he did manage to publish two volumes, both in 1793;  An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches.

This dark period ended in 1795. A legacy of £900 received from Raisley Calvert enabled Wordsworth to pursue a literary career in earnest.

In 1797 he became great friends with a fellow poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.