Alfred, Lord Tennyson(1809-1892)

• BirthAlfred Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the fourth of the twelve children of George Tennyson, clergyman, and his wife, Elizabeth. His father’s father had gone against all tradition in making his younger son, Charles, his principal heir, and arranging for George to enter the ministry.

• EducationIn 1816 (7) Tennyson was sent to Louth Grammar School, which he disliked so intensely that in later life he refused even to walk past the school. From 1820 (11) he was educated at home, mainly by his father, who introduced him to such works as The Arabian Nights, The Koran and other books of folklore and myth. He joined his brothers, Frederick and Charles, at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827 (18), and, with his brother Charles, published Poems by Two Brothers in the same year.

• First publicationIn 1830 (21) he published Poems Chiefly Lyrical.

• DeathHe died in 1892 (83) and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ringed with azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.