| Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson | |||
| 阿佛烈·丁尼生，第一代丁尼生男爵 | |||
| 丁尼生勳爵 | |||
閱讀丁尼生 Alfred Tennyson在诗海的作品!!! | |||
阿佛烈·丁尼生，第一代丁尼生男爵（Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson，1809年8月6日－1892年10月6日），是華茲華斯之後的英國桂冠詩人，也是英國著名的詩人之一。
英國19世紀的著名詩人，在世時就獲得了極高的聲譽。生於英國林肯郡，出身牧師家庭，兄弟均有詩才，肄業於劍橋大學，詩作題材廣泛，想象豐富，形式完美，詞藻綺麗，音調鏗鏘。其131首的組詩《悼念》被視為英國文學史上最優秀哀歌之一，因而獲桂冠詩人稱號。其他重要詩作有《尤利西斯》、《伊諾剋·阿登》和《過沙洲》詩歌《悼念集》等。 他深受維多利亞女王的賞識，於1850年獲得了桂冠詩人的稱號，後來又在1884年被封為男爵。然而，這樣一位大詩人也有對自己喪失信心的時候，竟曾經想刪去自己詩作中的精華部分。
日前，人們在美國一位收藏傢搜集的大批丁尼生手稿中找到了一本詩集的校樣，其中有他對自己詩作的校改。這本留有詩人校改手跡的書籍是迄今為止絶無僅有的發現，因為丁尼生非常不願意讓人看到自己對作品的改動。從這本書中，人們發現丁尼生曾打算對自己 1855年的名作《輕騎兵進擊》（The Charge of the Light Brigade）進行大幅度刪改，原因是當時人們對他同期的作品《莫德》（Maud）頗有微詞，他因此對自己産生了懷疑。另一個原因則是丁尼生年輕時曾備受批評傢指責，以致他一度沉默了整整9年，在那期間一首詩也沒發表。
《輕騎兵進擊》是丁尼生為歌頌剋裏米亞戰爭中在巴拉剋拉瓦（Balaclava）襲擊俄軍的英國輕騎兵旅而作的。這是一次自殺襲擊，英軍傷亡人數達到了247人。在這本校樣中，丁尼生用黑色墨水勾掉了《輕騎兵進擊》一詩的幾乎半數詩行，打算把它們刪去，其中包括一些為人們熟知的名句，比如“他們無意追根究底／他們衹是慷慨赴死”以及“有人犯下了愚蠢的錯誤”。這裏所說的“愚蠢錯誤”是指巴拉剋拉瓦戰役中由英軍兩位指揮官之間的摩擦引發的指揮混亂。
不過，這些修改最終沒有成為現實。10年之後，丁尼生親筆謄寫了這首詩的最終稿。在詩稿底部的自註中，詩人着重指出了“愚蠢的錯誤”那行詩的重要意義，其中寫道：“這首長短格的詩是在讀了《泰晤士報》記者（關於戰爭）的第一篇報道後寫的，全詩由‘有人犯下了愚蠢的錯誤’一句生發而來。”其有名的一句話：for man is man and master of his fate。（人就是人，是自己命運的主人。（丁尼生））
早期生涯及作品
丁尼生出生於林肯郡的索姆斯比，在12個兄弟姐妹中排行第4。他的父親是村莊教區牧師。年輕的丁尼生曾在父親的圖書館裏閱讀大量書籍，並在8歲時開始寫詩。1827年，阿爾弗雷德和他的兄弟弗雷德裏剋及查爾斯出版了《兩兄弟詩集》，其實這部著作包括了三兄弟的作品。阿爾弗雷德的詩歌趨於平淡，衹是單純模仿偶像拜倫的作品。
1828年丁尼生進入了劍橋大學。1829年他的詩歌《廷巴剋圖》贏得了校長金牌。他成為一個學生團體“使徒（the Apostles）”中的一員，並在這些同伴的鼓舞下於1830年出版了《抒情詩集》。一些評論傢喜愛這本書中的《馬裏亞納》和其它幾首詩歌，但總的說來是持負面評價。
1831年丁尼生的父親去世，丁尼生未取得學位就離開劍橋。第二年他出版了一本小册子，名為《詩歌》，但並未被廣泛接受。隨筆作傢阿瑟·亨利·賀萊姆是丁尼生最親密的朋友，也是他姐姐的未婚夫於1833年逝世。在痛失密友及作品受到惡評的雙重打擊之下，丁尼生近10年內未再出版作品。
《詩歌》（兩捲本，1842年），贏得了評論傢及公衆的熱烈歡迎。最好的詩歌包括《拍岸麯》（受賀萊姆之死啓發而創作）、《亞瑟王之死》及《洛剋斯利大廳》。丁尼生的長詩《公主》（1847年）與婦女權益有關，並試圖證明女人最大的成就就是幸福的婚姻。（吉爾伯托和蘇利文將詩歌改編為滑稽劇《艾達公主》。）丁尼生一些最好的抒情無韻詩篇就來自於以“淚水，空虛的淚水”開篇的那首詩《公主》。後來的版本又加入《輕輕地，柔和地》以及其它幾首歌。
晚年及作品
1850年丁尼生的生活發生了三件大事。《悼念》終於付梓，自賀萊姆去世以來，丁尼生一直在創作這部作品。它包括131首短詩，外加一篇序言及後記，是英國文學中最偉大的輓歌之一，也是丁尼生最能經受時間考驗的作品。
6月丁尼生娶了艾米莉·塞爾武德（Emily Sellwood），同年11月丁尼生繼威廉·華茲華斯之後，成為桂冠詩人。
丁尼生作為桂冠詩人的首部正式作品，是莊嚴鄭重但有點拘謹的《悼惠靈頓公爵之死》（1852年）。1854年創作了《輕騎兵進擊》，以紀念英國騎兵在剋裏米亞戰爭巴拉剋拉瓦戰役（Balaklava）中體現出來的英雄氣概。《莫德》，是1855年出版的一部長篇獨白詩劇，評論傢對此頗有微辭。
1853年以後，丁尼生多數時間生活在自己位於懷特島法令福德（Farringford）的莊園中，有時會住在自己1868年建在薩裏郡阿爾沃的一所房子裏。《莫德》遭到冷遇之後，丁尼生把自己封閉在法令福德，着手創作組詩《國王敘事詩》。1859年這一係列的第一部分出版，講述亞瑟王和他的騎士的第一部分，立即獲得成功。
《伊諾剋·阿登及其他詩歌》（1864年）中的《伊諾剋·阿登》是丁尼生最著名的詩歌之一。其他幾部稍為遜色的歷史戲劇作品包括《瑪麗女王》（1875年）、《哈羅德》（1877年），以及《貝剋特》（1879年）。完整版本的《國王敘事詩》和《得墨忒爾及其他詩歌》於1889年出版，《俄諾涅之死，阿卡巴之夢及其他詩歌》於1892年他逝世後出版。
《民謠及其他詩歌》（1880年）中優美的短篇抒情詩《過沙洲》展示了丁尼生恬靜的宗教信仰。他的葬禮上來賓朗誦了該詩篇。他被葬在了威斯敏斯特教堂的詩人角，與喬叟相鄰。
英國19世紀的著名詩人，在世時就獲得了極高的聲譽。生於英國林肯郡，出身牧師家庭，兄弟均有詩才，肄業於劍橋大學，詩作題材廣泛，想象豐富，形式完美，詞藻綺麗，音調鏗鏘。其131首的組詩《悼念》被視為英國文學史上最優秀哀歌之一，因而獲桂冠詩人稱號。其他重要詩作有《尤利西斯》、《伊諾剋·阿登》和《過沙洲》詩歌《悼念集》等。 他深受維多利亞女王的賞識，於1850年獲得了桂冠詩人的稱號，後來又在1884年被封為男爵。然而，這樣一位大詩人也有對自己喪失信心的時候，竟曾經想刪去自己詩作中的精華部分。
日前，人們在美國一位收藏傢搜集的大批丁尼生手稿中找到了一本詩集的校樣，其中有他對自己詩作的校改。這本留有詩人校改手跡的書籍是迄今為止絶無僅有的發現，因為丁尼生非常不願意讓人看到自己對作品的改動。從這本書中，人們發現丁尼生曾打算對自己1855年的名作《輕騎兵進擊》(The Charge of the Light Brigade)進行大幅度刪改，原因是當時人們對他同期的作品《莫德》(Maud)頗有微詞，他因此對自己産生了懷疑。另一個原因則是丁尼生年輕時曾備受批評傢指責，以致他一度沉默了整整9年，在那期間一首詩也沒發表。
《輕騎兵進擊》是丁尼生為歌頌剋裏米亞戰爭中在巴拉剋拉瓦(Balaclava)襲擊俄軍的英國輕騎兵旅而作的。這是一次自殺式的襲擊，英軍傷亡人數達到了247人。在這本校樣中，丁尼生用黑色墨水勾掉了《輕騎兵進擊》一詩的幾乎半數詩行，打算把它們刪去，其中包括一些為人們熟知的名句，比如“他們無意追根究底／他們衹是慷慨赴死”以及“有人犯下了愚蠢的錯誤”。這裏所說的“愚蠢錯誤”是指巴拉剋拉瓦戰役中由英軍兩位指揮官之間的摩擦引發的指揮混亂。
不過，這些修改最終沒有成為現實。10年之後，丁尼生親筆謄寫了這首詩的最終稿。在詩稿底部的自註中，詩人着重指出了“愚蠢的錯誤”那行詩的重要意義，其中寫道：“這首長短格的詩是在讀了《泰晤士報》記者(關於戰爭)的第一篇報道後寫的，全詩由‘有人犯下了愚蠢的錯誤’一句生發而來。”
Much of his verse was based on classical mythological themes, although In Memoriam was written to commemorate his best friend Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet and classmate at Trinity College, Cambridge, who was engaged to Tennyson's sister, but died from a cerebral hæmorrhage before they were married. One of Tennyson's most famous works is Idylls of the King (1885), a series of narrative poems based entirely on King Arthur and the Arthurian tales, as thematically suggested by Sir Thomas Malory's earlier tales on the legendary king. The work was dedicated to Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. During his career, Lord Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success even in his lifetime.
Tennyson wrote a number of phrases that have become commonplaces of the English language, including: "nature, red in tooth and claw", "better to have loved and lost", "Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die", and "My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure". He is the second most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare.
Alfred Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, a rector's son and fourth of 12 well-spoken children. He was one of the descendants of King Edward III of England. Reportedly, "the pedigree of his grandfather, George Tennyson, is traced back to the middle-class line of the Tennysons, and through Elizabeth Clayton ten generations back to Edmund, Duke of Somerset, and farther back to Edward III."
His father, George Clayton Tennyson (1778–1831), was a rector for Somersby (1807–1831), also rector of Benniworth and Bag Enderby, and vicar of Grimsby (1815). The reverend was the elder of two sons, but was disinherited at an early age by his own father, the landowner George Tennyson (1750–1835) (who belonged to the Lincolnshire gentry as the owner of Bayons Manor and Usselby Hall), in favour of his younger brother Charles, who later took the name Charles Tennyson d'Eyncourt. Rev. George Clayton Tennyson raised a large family and "was a man of superior abilities and varied attainments, who tried his hand with fair success in architecture, painting, music, and poetry." Rev. Tennyson was "comfortably well off for a country clergyman and his shrewd money management enabled the family to spend summers at Mablethorpe and Skegness, on the eastern coast of England." His mother, Elizabeth Fytche (1781–1865) was the daughter of Stephen Fytche (1734–1799), vicar of Louth (1764) and rector of Withcall (1780), a small village between Horncastle and Louth. Tennyson's father "carefully attended to the education and training of his children."
Tennyson and two of his elder brothers were writing poetry in their teens, and a collection of poems by all three was published locally when Alfred was only 17. One of those brothers, Charles Tennyson Turner later married Louisa Sellwood, the younger sister of Alfred's future wife; the other poet brother was Frederick Tennyson.
Education and first publication
Tennyson was first a student of Louth Grammar School for four years (1816–1820) and then attended Scaitcliffe School, Englefield Green and King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1828, where he joined the secret society called the Cambridge Apostles. At Cambridge Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam, who became his best friend. His first publication was a collection of "his boyish rhymes and those of his elder brother Charles" entitled Poems by Two Brothers published in 1827.
In 1829 he was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, on "Timbuctoo". Reportedly, "it was thought to be no slight honor for a young man of twenty to win the chancellor's gold medal." He published his first solo collection of poems, Poems Chiefly Lyrical in 1830. "Claribel" and "Mariana", which later took their place among Tennyson's most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although decried by some critics as oversentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Return to Lincolnshire and second publication
In the spring of 1831, Tennyson's father died, requiring him to leave Cambridge before taking his degree. He returned to the rectory, where he was permitted to live for another six years, and shared responsibility for his widowed mother and her large brood. His friend Arthur Hallam came to stay with him during the summer and became engaged to Tennyson's sister, Emilia Tennyson.
In 1833, Tennyson published his second book of poetry, which included his well-known poem, The Lady of Shalott. The volume met heavy criticism, which so discouraged Tennyson that he did not publish again for 10 more years, although he continued to write. That same year, Hallam suffered a cerebral hæmorrhage while on holiday in Vienna and died. It devastated Alfred, but inspired him to produce a body of poetry that has come to be seen as among the world's finest and best poems. However, roughly a decade of poetic silence followed Hallam's death.
Tennyson and his family were allowed to stay in the rectory for some time, but later moved to Essex. An unwise investment in an ecclesiastical wood-carving enterprise soon led to the loss of much of the family fortune.
Third publication and recognition
In 1842, while living modestly in London, Tennyson published two volumes of Poems, the first of which included works already published and the second of which was made up almost entirely of new poems. They met with immediate success. Poems from this collection, such as Locksley Hall, "Tithonus", and "Ulysses" have met enduring fame. The Princess: A Medley, a satire of women's education, which came out in 1847, was also popular. W. S. Gilbert later adapted and parodied the piece twice: in The Princess (1870) and in Princess Ida (1884).
It was in 1850 that Tennyson reached the pinnacle of his career, finally publishing his masterpiece, In Memoriam A.H.H., dedicated to Hallam. Later the same year he was appointed Poet Laureate in succession to William Wordsworth. In the same year (June 13), Tennyson married Emily Sellwood, whom he had known since childhood, in the village of Shiplake. They had two sons, Hallam (b. Aug. 11, 1852) — named after his friend — and Lionel (b. March 16, 1854).
Farringford - Lord Tennyson's residence on the Isle of Wight
The Poet Laureate
He held the position of Poet Laureate from 1850 until his death, turning out appropriate but often mediocre verse, such as a poem of greeting to Alexandra of Denmark when she arrived in Britain to marry the future King Edward VII. In 1855, Tennyson produced one of his best known works, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," a dramatic tribute to the British cavalrymen involved in an ill-advised charge on 25 October 1854, during the Crimean War. Other works written as Laureate include Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington and Ode Sung at the Opening of the International Exhibition.
Statue of Lord Tennyson in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge.Queen Victoria was an ardent admirer of Tennyson's work, and in 1884 created him Baron Tennyson, of Aldworth in the County of Sussex and of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight. Tennyson initially declined a baronetcy in 1865 and 1868 (when tendered by Disraeli), finally accepting a peerage in 1883 at Gladstone's earnest solicitation. He took his seat in the House of Lords on 11 March 1884.
Tennyson's life at Freshwater features in Virginia Woolf's play of the same name, in which Tennyson mingles with his friend Julia Margaret Cameron and G.F.Watts. He was the first English writer raised to the Peerage. A passionate man with some peculiarities of nature, he was never particularly comfortable as a peer, and it is widely held that he took the peerage in order to secure a future for his son Hallam. Recordings exist of Lord Tennyson declaiming his own poetry, which were made by Thomas Edison, but they are of relatively poor quality.
Towards the end of his life Tennyson revealed that his "religious beliefs also defied convention, leaning towards agnosticism and pandeism":
Famously, he wrote in In Memoriam: "There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds." In Maud, 1855, he wrote: "The churches have killed their Christ." In "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," Tennyson wrote: "Christian love among the churches look'd the twin of heathen hate." In his play, Becket, he wrote: "We are self-uncertain creatures, and we may, Yea, even when we know not, mix our spites and private hates with our defence of Heaven." Tennyson recorded in his Diary (p. 127): "I believe in Pantheism of a sort." His son's biography confirms that Tennyson was not Christian, noting that Tennyson praised Giordano Bruno and Spinoza on his deathbed, saying of Bruno: "His view of God is in some ways mine." D. 1892.
Tennyson continued writing into his eighties, and died on 6 October 1892, aged 83. He was buried at Westminster Abbey. He was succeeded as 2nd Baron Tennyson by his son, Hallam, who produced an authorised biography of his father in 1897, and was later the second Governor-General of Australia.
Throughout his career some anthologists have noted subtle anti-American undertones in his work. Tennyson never denied the underlying themes when questioned about them.
Relationship with Arthur Hallam
Tennyson's poetry describing his tormented soul established him as the greatest poet of his day. The focus of his suffering was the grief he could not assuage over the death of his beloved friend Arthur Hallam, whom he met while an undergraduate. The men formed a relationship of such intensity that the word 'love' is barely adequate to describe it. When Hallam died suddenly in 1833, Tennyson was more than bereft; he entered a state of mourning and melancholia which was to last for 20 years, resolved finally by the completion of his masterpiece In Memoriam A.H.H., a long poem detailing the 'voyage of his soul', as the poet himself described it, from despair to resignation and acceptance.
Tennyson's love for Hallam has remained until recent decades critically sacrosanct, the ideal friendship, a relationship of platonic perfection. This was partly the result of the prudery of academic scholars, but also because all the letters between Hallam and Tennyson were burned by Hallam's father immediately after his son's death and because Tennyson's eldest son, his literary executor and first biographer, Hallam Tennyson, destroyed many more letters after his father's death. In Memoriam was viewed as a metaphysical poem laden with symbolic and allegorical meaning. Only since the reprinting of his early poems, have critics begun to re-examine the nature of Tennyson's love for Hallam. Now it seems clear that their relationship was both passionate and romantic, though it is doubtful that it was ever consummated.
Tennyson's love for Hallam, likely homoerotic, was also unselfconscious, free from remorse or guilt or a sense of the illicit. The idea of homosexuality denoting a psychological identity did not yet exist, and since the men were most likely chaste, they had nothing to reproach themselves for, regarding the sin of sodomy. To the end of his days, and literally on his deathbed, Tennyson would proclaim that the greatest love of his life, the love that 'surpassed the love of women', was Hallam.
The art of Tennyson's poetry
Tennyson used a wide range of subject matter, ranging from medieval legends to classical myths and from domestic situations to observations of nature, as source material for his poetry. The influence of John Keats and other Romantic poets published before and during his childhood is evident from the richness of his imagery and descriptive writing. He also handled rhythm masterfully. The insistent beat of Break, Break, Break emphasizes the sadness and relentlessness of the subject matter. Tennyson's use of the musical qualities of words to emphasize his rhythms and meanings is sensitive. The language of "I come from haunts of coot and hern" lilts and ripples like the brook in the poem and the last two lines of "Come down O maid from yonder mountain height" illustrate his telling combination of onomatopoeia, alliteration and assonance:
The moan of doves in immemorial elms
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
Tennyson was a craftsman who polished and revised his manuscripts extensively. Few poets have used such a variety of styles with such an exact understanding of metre. He reflects the Victorian period of his maturity in his feeling for order and his tendency towards moralizing and self-indulgent melancholy. He also reflects a concern common among Victorian writers in being troubled by the apparent conflict between religious faith and scientific progress. Like many writers who write a great deal over a long time, he can be pompous or banal, and his personality rings throughout all his works—work that reflects a grand and special variability in its quality. Tennyson possessed the strongest poetic power; he put great length into many works, most famous of which are Maud and Idylls of the King, the latter one of literature's greatest treatments of the legend of King Arthur and The Knights of the Round Table.
Partial list of work
From Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830):
The Dying Swan
The Kraken
Mariana
Lady Clara Vere de Vere (1832)
From Poems (1833):
The Lotos-Eaters
The Lady of Shalott (1832, 1842)
From Poems (1842):
Locksley Hall
Tithonus
Vision of Sin
The Two Voices (1834)
"Ulysses" (1833)
The Princess (1847)
"Tears, Idle Tears"
In Memoriam A.H.H. (1849)
Ring Out, Wild Bells (1850)
The Eagle (1851)
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854) - an early recording exists of Tennyson reading this
Maud (1855/1856)
Enoch Arden (1862/1864)
Flower in the crannied wall (1869)
The Window - Song cycle with Arthur Sullivan. (1871)
Harold (1876) - began a revival of interest in King Harold
Idylls of the King (composed 1833-1874)
Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886)
Crossing the Bar (1889)
The Foresters - a play with incidental music by Arthur Sullivan (1891)
Reference
^ The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 5th ed. OUP 1999
^ Genealogists Discover Royal Roots for All
^ a b c d e f g h i j Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Eugene Parsons (Introduction). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1900.
^ Friedlander, Ed. "Enjoying "Timbuctoo" by Alfred Tennyson"
^ "Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809 - 1892". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 27 October 2007.
^ Cambridge Book and Print Gallery
^ Freethought of the Day, August 6, 2006, Alfred Tennyson
^ C. Ricks, Tennyson, London, 1972.
^ R. B. Martin, Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart, Oxford, 1980.
^ R. B. Martin, Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart, Oxford, 1980.
^ Seymour Kleinbourg in Who's who in gay and lesbian history, London 1980 (ed Aldrich and Wotherspoon).