The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-07
IN this volume at the suereution a Dr. Jovstt.
.hs late Master OF BarloL

On Rcp. y. 1878, Alfred and Charles Tenny'
son matriculated at Trinity College. Cambridge,
where their elder brother. Frederick, was al.
ready n distinguished scholar and had won the
university medal for the best Greek ode on the
Pyramids. The friends among whom the poot
lived Mt the unirersity were Speeding lauthor
Of Tho Life OF Bacon y. Mines (aftcrwari
lord HouGhtonl. Trench laftcrward Archbishop
OF DubliGL Afford tafterward Dean of Cantcr-
bury). Biakcsley t%afterward Dean Of LincolnL
Merivalc iaftcrward Dean OF Ely. John NJ.
keinh!e, Charles Butler, and, above all,
Arthur Henry Tfallan. or this band of men
Lord Houghton spoke in 1856, Mt tho opening
OF the new Cambridge Union: II am inclined
TO believe that the members OF that generation
were, for the wealth OF their promise, a rare
body Of men. such as this university has seldom
contained" A few OF his Cambridge contempt
raries have been drawn in verse by Tennyson.
or Kemblc, for instance, no said, In a sonnet
published in 1880: My hone and heart IL
with ~thee-thou wilt be a latter Luther and a
soldier priest" OF Blakesley no said: He
ought to be Lord Chancellor, for he IL a subtle
and powerful reasoner and honest man."
OF James SPEEDING no remarked: He was
the Pope among us young mon-the wiscst man
I know" OF Arthur Hallam: HI would have
been known. had he lived. as n great man, but
not as a great poet; he was as near perfection AZ
mortal man could be-" Whewell. who was his
tutor. ho called "ths lion-like man." and had
for him a great respect. II 10 reported that
whewe!l, recognizing his geniuu. tolerated in
him certain informalities which he would not
have overlooked in other men. Thus. NJ
Tonnysou. what's tho compound interest OF q
penny. put out at the Christian era mp to tho
present time" was whcwell's good-natured
call to the lecture room while Tennyson was
reading Virgil under tho desk.
Tennyson's friends say that. as q young man.
he had Johnsonian common sense and q rare
power Of expression; that he was very genial.
full Of enjoyment, sensitiveness, and humor.
though with the passionate heart OF q poet. and
sometimes feeling the melancholy Of life. He
passed through moods Of misery unutterable."
but he eventually shook them of. He rcmen-
bered how. when In London almost for the first
time, one of these moods came over him as he
realized that "in o few years all its inhabitants
will be lying horizontal. stark and stin In their
collins" Despite such passages OF gloom he
worked on at his English poems. wrote Latin and
Greek odes, read his classics and history and
natural science. He also took q lively interest In
politics. He was among the young supporters
Of the Anti-Slavery Convention. and advocated
the measure for abolishing subscription to the
Thirty-nino Articles, while admiring as states
men Canning. Peel and the Duke of Wellington.
England was in a state Of ferment in the hope or
SEGao vi Tx EAoIuE" jill. 1u0 EloLS OL II
poorer classes d led Tennyson with an earnest
desire TO do something to help those who lived in
misery among the "warrens OF the poor" From
first to last he preached tho onward progress Of
liberty, while steadily opposed to revolutionary
license.
On June s. 1929. the announcement was made
that Alfred Tennyson had won the prize medal
for his poem in blank verse on "Timbuctoo.'
To win the prize in anything but rhy med heroics
was an innovation. His father had desired him
to compete. so he unwillingiy patched up an old
poem on The Battle OF Armageddon." and
came out prizeman over Mines, Hallam. and
others. In the following year his first volume,
Poems. Chiefly Lyrical" vas published. and
favorable reviews appeared by Sir John
Bowring in the Westminster. by Leigh
Hunt in the 1dttier. and by Arthur
Hallam in the EH0lishman's Magazine.
The first Mariana" and "The Arabian |
Nights" were the two poems that marked the
1880 volume Us something to be thought about
Colerldge's comment was that the author had
begun to write verses without very well under
standing what metre is. Concerning this criti-
cis!n Tennyson said in 1890: "Co,eridge did
not know much about my POEMS. for he con-
founded Charles and me. From what I have
heard he may have read 'Glen-River in Above !
the Loud Glenriver,' and Tendril-Twine, in
the line 'Mantled with Towering tendril-
twine,' dactylically. because I had an absurd
antipathy for hyphens, and put two words
together as one word. II that is the case, he
might well have wished that I had more sense
OF metre" II was two years afterward that he /
made a distinc- mark upon the public mind with
the volume containing Tho Palace of Art"
THE Dream of Fair Women" The Miller's
Daughter" &c. In the summer following the
appearance OF his first serious venture. Tenny-
son. with Arthur Hallam. started of for the
Pyrenees, to carry money to the insurgent allies
OF TorriJos. who had raised the standardof revolt
against the 1nquisition and the tyranny of Fer
dinand, King OF Spain. Tennyson and Hallam
held a secret meeting with the heads of the
conspiracy on the Spanish border and were not
heard OF by their friends for some weeks.
From this time forward the Pyrcnean
peaks were q continual source of inspiration;
Tennyson wrote part of "Oenone" in the
valley OF Cauterc:z, and his sojourn there
was one and thirty years after
ward in "Ai Along the Valley He came
home impressed with tho Observation-Disclosures OF
the French. but infinitely preferring the freer,
air OF England. some one says he writes,
THAT nothing strikes u traveller more on re-
turning from the Continent than the look of an
English country town. Houses not SO big. nor
such rows OF them rs abroad. but each mans
house. little or big. distinct from the others.
his own castle, built according to his own means
and fancy. and so indicating the E~nglishnan's
free individual humor. / am struck. on return
ing from France, with the look OF good sense in
the London people" At this point In the biog-
raphy q number OF unpublished poems are
printed. from which We quote the following:
Life of the Life within my blood.
Light OF tho Light within mine eyes.
The May begins to breathe and Lud,
And softly blow the oalmy skies;