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 19th 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 19th 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 6th
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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