Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning:Contribution in Victorian Era

Topic: Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning:Contribution in Victorian Era

Name: Baraiya Saryu D.

Subject: The Victorian Literature(paper-VI)

Roll no: 27

Study: MA

Year: Semester – II

Guided By: Heenaba Zala

Submitted To: Department of English

University: MKBU

Introduction:

          In 1837 when Victoria became queen of England, new era was begun in history of England. Beginning of 19^th century is starting of ‘Victorian Era’ in England and new phase in history of English Literature. Very rich era of English Literature, named ‘Romantic Era’  was ended with it and so most of the people use to think that after death of Coleridge, Shelly, Byron, Keats, Scott and Wordsworth there were no writers to fill their places in England and so Wordsworth himself wrote that:

Like clouds that rake the mountains summits,

Or wave that own no curbing hands,

How fast has brother followed brother,

From sunshine to the sunless land!

These lines shows the sorrowful spirit of a literary man of the early 19^th century who remembered the glory that had passed away from the earth in ‘Romantic Era of English Literature’ and it can be very difficult to fulfill place of that literary leaders. But English men are lucky enough to have some other able and powerful writers during ‘Victoria Era’ and those writers give new height to English Literature.

          Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning was the most remarkable and noticeable writers of ‘Victorian Era’ and they give new summit to this era with the help of their writing and here I am going to discuss them both in detail as per my knowledge. Throughout the entire Victorian Era Lord Tennyson stood at the summit of poetry in England. And same as, Robert Browning was the only figure of this age, who after thirty years of continuous work, was finally recognized and placed beside Lord Tennyson, and whom future ages may judge to be a greater poet, even, the greatest in literature since Shakespeare.

          After ending of ‘Romantic Era’ for a time no new development was appeared in English Literature but Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning construct a new period in Victorian Time with their poems. Though the Victorian Age produces two great and remarkable poets, Tennyson and Browning, the age as a whole, is remarkable for the verity and excellence of its prose.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

“The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passion.”           

          These are the words written by Tennyson himself. He was not only poet but also voice of people on that contemporary society. He plumbs of the depth of his own consciousness while also giving voice to the national consciousness of Victorian society. He was appointed as poet laureate at the death of Wordsworth, in 1850 and because of it he felt the importance of his place, and honored and filled it. And after it for almost half a century Tennyson was not only a man and a poet but he was a voice, the voice of a whole people, expressing in exquisite melody their doubts and their faith, their griefs and their triumphs. In the wonderful variety of his verse he suggests all the qualities of England’s greatest poets.

“The dreaminess of Spencer, the majesty of Milton, the natural simplicity of Wordsworth, the fantasy of Blake and Coleridge, the melody of Keats and Shelley, the narrative vigor of Scott and Byron, all these striking qualities are evident on successive pages of Tennyson’s poetry.”                                                            -W. J.Long

                                                                               

                                                                    

These are the words written by famous historian W. J. Long and these words shows real greatness of Lord Tennyson because we cannot find this type of rich mixture of quality in any other poet so we can easily said that Tennyson is the benchmark of Victorian era.

Life of Lord Tennyson:

          Tennyson’s life is remarkable one in this respect, that from starting to ending, he seems to have been conquered by one and only impulse and that impulse is poetry. He had no large or remarkable experience, no wild oats, no great successes or reverses, no business cares or public offices. Till his death, he studied and practices his art exclusively. He served English Literature for more than 66 years during whole his life with his art and skills. Many historians wrote about him and his nature and we can easily reach to the conclusion about Tennyson’s nature that he was very shy and retiring. He was hater of noise and lover of nature and this characteristic shows a resemblance in his and Wordsworth’s nature. These characteristics made him very different among other people and his contemporaries.

          Lord Tennyson was born on 6^th August, 1809, in the rectory of Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. He was a son of a scholarly clergyman, the Rev. George Clayton Tennyson and his wife Elizabeth Fytche, a noble, gentle and lovable woman. Tennyson himself gave a gentle tribute to his mother in his poem named, ‘The Princess’

“not learned, save in gracious household ways,”

He was one of the twelve children of his parents, and it sounds very interesting that most of these children were poetically inclined, and his two brothers, Charles and Fredrick, gave far greater promise than did Alfred Tennyson.

          He proceeded to Cambridge in 1828 with his brother because of his not agreeable schooling at Louth at his grandmother’s home. At the university he was the wholly conventional person and the only mark he made was to win the Chancellor’s Medal for a poem on ‘Timbuctoo’. He left Cambridge University in 1831, without taking degree; but before it he published a small volume of mediocre verse. But we cannot consider it a first volume of Tennyson because he wrote many verses with his brothers and published it as a volume under name of ‘Poems by Two Brothers’ and he published it in, 1827, it means before entering in Trinity College, Cambridge. This thing shows us real potential of Tennyson. After wining Chancellor’s Medal, he published his first signed work, ‘Poems Chiefly Lyrical’, in 1830. In 1844 he lost all his small means in an unlucky speculation, but in very small amount of time, in 1845, he received a Government pension and in 1850 he was appointed as poet Laureate. He died in 1892, at Aldworth, near Haslemere, in Surrey, and buried in Westminster Abbey.

Tennyson’s Poetry:

          He stared to write at the age of just seventeen and his first volume was published in collaboration with his brother in 1827 named as ‘Poems by Two Brothers’. His most famous volumes and poems are:

§  Volume of Poems - 1833

§  Poems, Chiefly Lyrical - 1830

§  Maud and Other Poems - 1855

§  Timbuctoo

§  Isabel

§  Madeline

§  The Lady of Shalott

§  The Lotos-Eater

§  The Palace of Art

§  Morte d’Arthur

§  Ulysses

§  Locksley Hall

§  In Memoriam

§  Idylls of the King

§  Enoch Arden

§  Locksley Hall Sixty Years After

          He wrote short poems till end of his life and his last poem is ‘The Death of Enone’.

Tennyson’s Plays:

          Tennyson’s dramas occupied his later years. He wrote many plays like, historical plays, comedy plays and even plays based on Robin Hood theme. His noticeable plays are:

§   Queen Marry - 1875

§   Harold - 1876

§   Becket - 1884

§   The Falcon - 1879

§   The Cup - 1881

§   The Foresters – 1892

Tennyson’s Poetical Characteristics:

v His Choice of Subject:

He was known as legendary narrator because of his narrative techniques in the volumes of 1830, 1833, and 1842. He was content to mirror the feelings and aspirations of his time but we can say that lack of depth, originality and the burning fire which we can surely expect in great literary work, we can show in Tennyson’s writing. The requirement of his office as Poet Laureate led to the production of a number of occasional poems which have caused him to be described, contemptuously, as the news paper of his age. Tennyson’s poems are best when he reverts to the lyric or narrative themes which were his original inspiration.

v His Craftsmanship:

We can easily mention method of production of Tennyson’s work cause of it’s near to perfection and great care and skill shown in his work. He was expert in handling of English metres. His works also contain alliteration and vowel-music and some lines from his poem, ‘The Princess’, can show all these stuff into his work.

“Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro’ the lawn,

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees.”

v His Pictorial Quality:

In this quality he obeyed the examples of Keats. Almost in all of Tennyson’s poems, even in some simplest also, we can fine this type of description of nature and other scene.

v His Lyrical Quality:

It is somewhat uneven. His poems are musical and attractive: but we can judge that nature of his poems is self conscious most of the time and too regular in terms of poetry. And critics gave rezone of Tennyson’s regular life and regular background for true lyrical intensity of emotion. We can see this greatness in his famous poem,                          ‘Break, break, break’:

“Break, break, break,

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

And I would that my tongue could utter

The thoughts that arise in me.”

v His Reputation:

To his contemporaries he was a demigod: but younger people strongly assailed his patent literary mannerisms. Consequently after his death, for more than twenty years, his reputation suffered considerably. He is not a supreme poet but after all deductions are made, his high place in Temple of Fame is assured.

Robert Browning (1812 – 1889)

“How good is man’s life, the mere living ! how fit to employ

All the heart and the soul and the sense for ever in joy!”

          This is a song by David from, ‘Browning’s Saul’, and after reading this line we can easily imagine the prominence of Browning’s works. He worked for more than thirty years and after this long phase of working he recognized by people and got a place besides Lord Tennyson, in ‘Victorian Era’. But critics of that time and even today’s critics also said the same thing about Browning’s work. They said that common people will find some difficulties in reading Browning and main difficulty about Browning’s work is it’s the obscurity of style. Tennyson also thinks the same kind of thing and so he said about Browning’s ‘Sordello’:

“ First line and last line are the only two lines in the whole poem that I understood, and that they were evidently both lines.”

Some critics use to think that this is the humorous criticism of ‘Sordello’. And we can said that at some extent these critics are right about Browning’s obscurity and we can find some rezones about it also through study of work and language of Browning. He is not like other common and entertaining poet. One cannot read Browning in free time or for just time pass but must sit up, think and be alert while reading Browning.

Life of Robert Browning’s:

          Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, in 1812. His father was outwardly a businessman and even he was united with the Bank of England, as a clerk for fifty years. His parents were very free, fair and liberal in nature for him, and they personally took an interest in the education and growth of their child. As a child he was very bright and even we can call it just a God gift to write lyrical poetry. He started writing at just age of twelve so he was known as precocious child. He use to read Shelley from his predecessors and he was so much inspired by Shelley. He done very brief course at University College but his most of inspiration, growth is done by Shelley’s writings and that was the time of his self development. He went to Russia, in 1833 for small phase of time. But after that he settled in London, where he became familiar with some of the chief literary works and theatrical world of England. In 1845 he met Elizabeth Barrett, the poetess, whose work had strongly attracted him, and so Elizabeth Barrett became Elizabeth Barrett Browning in very short time. Most of the time of his life passed in journeys between England, France and Italy. Now days his work is appreciated but during his time, his work is totally neglected by contemporaries. In 1882, Oxford conferred him the degree of D.C.L. He died in Italy, in 1889 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.   

Browning’s Poetry:

          His first work is Pauline and it was written in 1833. This poem also shows very strong influence of Shelley upon Browning’s writing. Browning held Shelley in great reverence. His most famous and noticeable poems are as under:

§  Porphyria’s Lover

§  Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister

§  My Last Duchess

§  The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church

§  Home-Thoughts, From Abroad

§  Fra Lippo Lippi

§  A Toccata of Galuppi’s

§  Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

§  Memorabilia

§  Andrea del Sarto

§  Two in the Campagna

Browning’s Plays:

          He wrote several plays but all his plays are without moments of drama, and all his plays shown considerable spirit in their style. But some of his plays contain fine songs. But Browning lacks the fundamental qualities of the dramatist. His amazing subtle analysis of character and motive is not sufficient for true and real drama because he cannot reveal character in action. He uses method of flash back and so he takes a character at a moment of crisis and after that by allowing him to talk, to reveal not only his present thoughts and feelings but past history or story also. His plays like,

§  Bells and Pomegranates – 1846

§  Pippa Passes -1841

§  King Victor and King Charles – 1842

§  The Return of the Druses – 1843

§  A Blot on the ’Scutcheon – 1843

§  Colombe’s Birthday – 1844

§  Luria; and a Soul’s Tragedy – 1846

contain all these characteristics.

Browning’s Poetical Characteristics:

v His Choice of Subject:

Browning’s themes divided themselves broadly into three groups, philosophical or religious, love and lighter themes. His all religious or philosophical poems is based on his own central beliefs. He himself said:

“God’s task to make the heavenly period perfect the earthen.”

 His love poems are his greatest achievement. They have a calm authenticity of tone. And we can easily found in those poems that his first and main concern was with human soul. He was practically interested in abnormal people. He put himself at the place of that abnormal people and tries to feel that person’s feelings, motives, mind and heart. He has so many themes as his own mouthpiece of his own philosophy so we can never find his any character as an objective character. He likes the historical settings the most. All these stuff we can find in his noticeable work, ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came’:

“Which, while I forded-good saints, how I feared

To set my foot upon a dead man’s cheek,

Each step, or feel the spear I thrust to seek

For hollows, tangled in his hair or beard!

-It may have been a water-rat I speared,

But, ugh! it sounded like a baby’s shriek.”

v His Style:

Browning’s style is always a subject of long discussion among critics. And this thing presents fascinating problems and because of it sometimes it happens that his ability to write poetry and his works are neglected by contemporaries and critics. At awful time in his life, his poems are a series of bewildering mental acrobatics, expressed in a willfully harsh rhyme and vocabulary. But as soon as he gets his best in life, he can achieve a noble dignity, and a verbal music as good as anything produced by that master of melody, Tennyson. This thing shows that that person has ability to liquefy his work and his self in any situation. Apart from all these things, his verse reflects the abundant vitality of his character. The following extract is enough to show his style of writing:

“And one would bury his brow with a blind plunge down to hell,

Burrow awhile and build, broad on the roots of things,

Then up again swim into sight, having based me my palace well,

Founded it, fearless of flame, flat on the nether springs.”

v  His Descriptive Power:

In this characteristic Browning totally differs from Tennyson. Browning cares less for beauty of description for its own sake. In most of his work it is found only in flashes, where he paints the background of his story in a few dashing strokes. He is fond of striking primary colors which startle by their very vividness, and as a painter of movement he has few equals.

v  His Reputation:

Browning’s acknowledgment was slow in coming like any other common writer but he is lucky enough like Wordsworth that he lived to see his name established high among his fellows. He wrote too freely, carelessly, and perversely, and most of his works will pass into oblivion. His last four volumes contain his love lyrics and dramatic monologues and because of it only he is this much famous and noticeable now days. No more is needed to place him among the truly great.

 Conclusion:

          The Victorian epoch was exceedingly productive of literary work of high quality and Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning also gave new summit to literature of Victorian Era and they contribute lot in it. For a full half century Lord Tennyson was the voice of England, loved and honored as a man and a poet, not simple by a few discerning critics, but by a whole people that do not easily give their allegiance to anyone man. And that, for the present, is Tennyson’s sufficient eulogy. Robert Browning is at present regarded as the poet who has spoken the strongest word of faith to an age of doubt. His energy, his cheerful courage, his faith in life and in the development that awaits us beyond the portals of death, is like a

bugle-call to good living. These two poets differs from each other widely in nature, writing and many other things but they both done the same work and that work is to enrich literature of ‘Victorian Era’.  

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