Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1894-06-17
7BNNYSONS LIFB AND WORK.
How the Author of Lady Clara We're de We're Came
to be a Lord

In the eighteenth century the world
was thrilled and Quickened with the
hope Of a larger freedom. The intel
lectual struggle of the fifteenth, six
tenth and seventeenth centuries bore
fruit in the American Revolution, the
invention OF the steam engine and at
last in the tragedy on the Seine, when
the world looked aghast at the son OF
st. Louis, the master OF the French
people by Divine right, dragged up the
steps OF the scaffold and strapped, moan
ing aud struggling, TO the slide OF the
guillOtine,
After that came reaction every
where, and for years Europe was
plunged back into the Med9ivaltsm
Of wars Of conquest, OF the absolute
despotism Of the bayonet, made more
CALLING still by the more pisiless tyran-
nv OF the greatest tyrants OF modern
times-the men who draw cent per
cent from the capital which buys the
RunpOwder which makes the cOrpses
with which oppression seeks TO OBJ
struct the progress OF humanity.
In the midst Of this reaction In 1909,
when all Europe was camp; when the
world was engaged in marching and
conference.-the; when the 6ayOnet
was overthrowing one King and setting
up another; when there was no peace
aud seemingly little hope In the new
country. there was born 10 the rector
Of Somersby In Lincolnshire, Englsnd,
a son. christaned Alfred, and by sur
name TeDnyson, destined TO remember
afterwards that be was descended
through the D'Eyncourts from the
Plantagenets-a certain family so nota-
bic in its achievements that II the ma
jority OF the most celebrated members
had been impartially judged by the law
OF the land, they would certainly have
been hanged.
tits, perhaps, true that IL allowed to
live and thrive on It's proper nutriment
of sympathy for all other souls, the soul
that comes into a man at his birth or
thereafter is capable OF overcoming all
obstacles, OF mastering the body com
plstely and Of living at last the life OF
.pIrit uncl0gged by matter. But, even
II this is true, 1t is not less true that for
most men the place and the time OF
their birth are all-important In detern-
lining what they are TO be. And for
Tennyson, the fact that he was born in
1909, in Somersby, into the family
OF parish priest Of the
established church, was decisive.
In the earlier years be rallied
all his powers in a struggle for the mas
terry OF the effects OF that environment,
and be almost succeeded. BE succeeded
far enough TO write Lady Clara We're
De We're" and other such like demo
cratical verses, but that was before De
was thirty. Not long after he was
thirty the blood OF the Plantagenets,
the year OF his birth and the influence
OF his fathers Lincolnshire parish had
mastered him, and be was more and
more certainly becoming the court poet
who found his reward 10 hearing the
applause Of royal personages, who
were graciously pleased to clap their
hands in token OF their acceptance oil
what he had written for their pleasure.
Byron and Shelley represented the
same spirit which brought on the rev
blution In America the spirit OF indi-
kidual freedom and opposition 70 imper'
Ialism; the spirit Of love OF humanity
-AsCr its own sake, and Of faith Ia liberty
as he only hope OF humanity. No one
wOu. ySaaEys 20 compare them In point
OF morals with TennysOn. He was the
superior OF either In the calmueSs and
ordeFliness Of his life. he was more self
mastered than either, more capable OF eX'
srtinE his faculties to the full than were
either OF them; and il may be that be
has written verse which is more artistic
than anything written by either Of
Ethem. But the morality or immortality
Fof their lives and the quality Of then
verse may be left out Of consideration
when the question is OF what they rep
resented; and il is not less clear tha
they stood for the advance Of the Eigh
teenth Century away from the DARK
Ages than il is that Walter Scott, Keats
Wordsworth and TennysOn represented
reaction.