Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in the Victorian era. He remains one of the most popular poets in the English language.
Tennyson was excellent at writing short lyrics like "In the valley of Cauteretz", "Break, break, break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "Tears, idle tears" and "Crossing the Bar". Much of his verse like The Lotus Eaters was based on classical mythological themes. Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including "Idylls of the King", "Ulysses", and "Tithonus". During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays were not very successful.
"In Memoriam A.H.H." was a poem by Tennyson, written in memory of his best friend Arthur Hallam. Hallam was a fellow poet and classmate at Trinity College, Cambridge. He had been engaged to Tennyson's sister, but died from a cerebral hemorrhage before they could get married.
The poem was published after Tennyson had read a pro-evolution book by Robert Chambers. The fundamentalist idea of Biblical inerrancy was in conflict with science. Tennyson expressed the difficulties evolution raised for faith in "the truths that never can be proved".
The poem is too long to quote in full, but this shows how he was thinking of the living world:
The much-quoted phrase comes soon after, in section 56. It refers to humanity:
The phrase "Nature, red in tooth and claw" was taken up as a metaphor for life in general, even before Darwin's "Origin of species" was published.
The poem has another, perhaps even better-known stanza:
Rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that happens in children and young adults as a result of becoming infected by group A streptococci bacteria. The first attack usually happens between the ages of 5 and 15. It affects the heart, skin, joints and the central nervous system. It is most common in the Middle East, eastern Europe, South America and the Far East and is rare in western Europe and North America. Treatment includes resting in bed and antibiotics.
Wolfgang Mozart, the famous composer famously died of rheumatic fever.
The Main Ingredient
The Main Ingredient is an American soul and R&B group best known for their 1972 hit song, "Everybody Plays the Fool".
Secondhand Serenade
Secondhand Serenade is an American rock/emo solo project started by John Vesley. Vesley is the singer, guitarist and pianoplayer. Secondhand Serenade is most famous for the song "Fall For You". This song was in the top 40 for many charts.
Edward Downes
Sir Edward Downes, (born Birmingham, England, 17 June 1924; died Switzerland, 10 July 2009) was an English conductor. He was famous for conducting opera, but also conducted orchestral concerts. He worked a lot with the orchestra of the Royal Opera House as well as Opera Australia.
When he was old he was almost totally blind and deaf and his wife was dying of cancer, so they both decided that they wanted to die together. They went to Switzerland where they were allowed to commit assisted suicide.
Downes was born in Birmingham, England. His father worked in a bank. He left school when he was 14 and got a simple job in a gas store where he earned 16s 10d (16 shillings and 10 pence, which is 84p in modern British money) a week.
He had been playing the piano and violin since he was five. When he was 16 he got a scholarship to the University of Birmingham where he studied English literature and music, and began playing the cor anglais. He then got a scholarship to study conducting at the University of Aberdeen.
In the 1960s, he married Joan, a dancer with the Royal Ballet. She later became a choreographer and television producer. They had two children: a son, Caractacus (born December 1967), who became a musician and recording engineer, and a daughter, Boudicca, who became a video producer.
In 1952 he started his work in the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where he was assistant to Rafael Kubelík. He worked for the ROH for 17 years, becoming Associate Music Director in 1991.
From 1970 he was Music Director of Australian Opera. He conducted the first performance in the new Sydney Opera House in 1973 conducting Prokofiev’s opera "War and Peace". He was Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic.
Downes was remembered in particular for conducting music by British composers. He was also especially fond of the operas by Verdi as well as the symphonies of Shostakovich. People often thought he looked like Shostakovich, especially when he wore his glasses.
He received the honour of CBE.
In his last years he could hardly see and so he could only conduct music that he knew from memory.
When he was 85 he had become almost totally blind and deaf. His wife was dying of cancer and was in a lot of pain. They both wanted to die together, but in Britain it is against the law to help someone to die, so they decided to go to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. There, surrounded by members of their family, they drank a fatal dose of barbiturates and died on 10 July 2009.
Some people who support the idea of assisted suicide are hoping that this case may lead to more discussion which could bring about a change in the law in Britain and other countries.
Assisted suicide
Assisted suicide is when somebody who wants to commit suicide (wants to die) is helped to do this by someone else. Normally, people who ask for assisted suicide are very ill and in a lot of pain, so they want someone to help them to die, for example by being given access to drugs which will kill them. Some people prefer the terms aid in dying or death with dignity to describe assisted suicide. The term euthanasia is sometimes used, although euthanasia is generally regarded as different to assisted suicide, as it involves causing a person to die rather than helping them to kill themselves.
The law about this varies a lot in different countries. In Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and in three American states it is legal to help someone to die in these circumstances. However, in many countries it is not allowed, and the person who helps someone to die may be arrested and sent to prison.
Some people who are very ill and want to die may go to these countries, such as Switzerland, in order to end their life.
Dignitas (euthanasia group)
Dignitas is a Swiss group that helps people with assisted suicide. This means that, if a person is very ill and wants to die, the doctors and nurses help them to end their life. Only people who have a terminal illness or very bad physical or mental illnesses are allowed to be helped. The patients must be able to understand what is happening and decide for themselves that death is what they want.
Dignitas was started in 1998 by Ludwig Minelli, a Swiss lawyer. The law in Switzerland says that someone can help in an assisted suicide so long as they do not have any self-interest (for example, so long as they are not going to inherit money from the person who dies). The doctor has to meet the person on two occasions and make sure that the person really does wish to die. There must be evidence for this, i.e. the patient has to sign a paper, and two witnesses have to sign to say they saw the patient signing. If the patient is too ill to sign, a video film can be made. The patient is asked several times whether that is what they want. If everyone is absolutely sure, then he or she is given a drug which will kill them.
Some people travel from other countries such as Britain to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland so that they can be helped to die. For example, the rugby player Daniel James, who was 23, had a terrible injury to his spine which left him paralysed from his chest down, travelled there with his parents to die. In 2009 the British conductor Edward Downes and his wife both travelled to Dignitas where they died together.
Euthanasia