| Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson | |||
| ā fó liè · dīng ní shēng， dì yī dài dīng ní shēng nán jué | |||
| dīng ní shēng xūn jué | |||
yuèdòudīng ní shēng Alfred Tennysonzài诗海dezuòpǐn!!! | |||
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），是华兹华斯之后的英国桂冠诗人，也是英国著名的诗人之一。
英国19世纪的著名诗人，在世时就获得了极高的声誉。生于英国林肯郡，出身牧师家庭，兄弟均有诗才，肄业于剑桥大学，诗作题材广泛，想象丰富，形式完美，词藻绮丽，音调铿锵。其131首的组诗《悼念》被视为英国文学史上最优秀哀歌之一，因而获桂冠诗人称号。其他重要诗作有《尤利西斯》、《伊诺克·阿登》和《过沙洲》诗歌《悼念集》等。 他深受维多利亚女王的赏识，于1850年获得了桂冠诗人的称号，后来又在1884年被封为男爵。然而，这样一位大诗人也有对自己丧失信心的时候，竟曾经想删去自己诗作中的精华部分。
日前，人们在美国一位收藏家搜集的大批丁尼生手稿中找到了一本诗集的校样，其中有他对自己诗作的校改。这本留有诗人校改手迹的书籍是迄今为止绝无仅有的发现，因为丁尼生非常不愿意让人看到自己对作品的改动。从这本书中，人们发现丁尼生曾打算对自己 1855年的名作《轻骑兵进击》（The Charge of the Light Brigade）进行大幅度删改，原因是当时人们对他同期的作品《莫德》（Maud）颇有微词，他因此对自己产生了怀疑。另一个原因则是丁尼生年轻时曾备受批评家指责，以致他一度沉默了整整9年，在那期间一首诗也没发表。
《轻骑兵进击》是丁尼生为歌颂克里米亚战争中在巴拉克拉瓦（Balaclava）袭击俄军的英国轻骑兵旅而作的。这是一次自杀袭击，英军伤亡人数达到了247人。在这本校样中，丁尼生用黑色墨水勾掉了《轻骑兵进击》一诗的几乎半数诗行，打算把它们删去，其中包括一些为人们熟知的名句，比如“他们无意追根究底／他们只是慷慨赴死”以及“有人犯下了愚蠢的错误”。这里所说的“愚蠢错误”是指巴拉克拉瓦战役中由英军两位指挥官之间的摩擦引发的指挥混乱。
不过，这些修改最终没有成为现实。10年之后，丁尼生亲笔誊写了这首诗的最终稿。在诗稿底部的自注中，诗人着重指出了“愚蠢的错误”那行诗的重要意义，其中写道：“这首长短格的诗是在读了《泰晤士报》记者（关于战争）的第一篇报道后写的，全诗由‘有人犯下了愚蠢的错误’一句生发而来。”其有名的一句话：for man is man and master of his fate。（人就是人，是自己命运的主人。（丁尼生））
早期生涯及作品
丁尼生出生于林肯郡的索姆斯比，在12个兄弟姐妹中排行第4。他的父亲是村庄教区牧师。年轻的丁尼生曾在父亲的图书馆里阅读大量书籍，并在8岁时开始写诗。1827年，阿尔弗雷德和他的兄弟弗雷德里克及查尔斯出版了《两兄弟诗集》，其实这部著作包括了三兄弟的作品。阿尔弗雷德的诗歌趋于平淡，只是单纯模仿偶像拜伦的作品。
1828年丁尼生进入了剑桥大学。1829年他的诗歌《廷巴克图》赢得了校长金牌。他成为一个学生团体“使徒（the Apostles）”中的一员，并在这些同伴的鼓舞下于1830年出版了《抒情诗集》。一些评论家喜爱这本书中的《马里亚纳》和其它几首诗歌，但总的说来是持负面评价。
1831年丁尼生的父亲去世，丁尼生未取得学位就离开剑桥。第二年他出版了一本小册子，名为《诗歌》，但并未被广泛接受。随笔作家阿瑟·亨利·贺莱姆是丁尼生最亲密的朋友，也是他姐姐的未婚夫于1833年逝世。在痛失密友及作品受到恶评的双重打击之下，丁尼生近10年内未再出版作品。
《诗歌》（两卷本，1842年），赢得了评论家及公众的热烈欢迎。最好的诗歌包括《拍岸曲》（受贺莱姆之死启发而创作）、《亚瑟王之死》及《洛克斯利大厅》。丁尼生的长诗《公主》（1847年）与妇女权益有关，并试图证明女人最大的成就就是幸福的婚姻。（吉尔伯托和苏利文将诗歌改编为滑稽剧《艾达公主》。）丁尼生一些最好的抒情无韵诗篇就来自于以“泪水，空虚的泪水”开篇的那首诗《公主》。后来的版本又加入《轻轻地，柔和地》以及其它几首歌。
晚年及作品
1850年丁尼生的生活发生了三件大事。《悼念》终于付梓，自贺莱姆去世以来，丁尼生一直在创作这部作品。它包括131首短诗，外加一篇序言及后记，是英国文学中最伟大的挽歌之一，也是丁尼生最能经受时间考验的作品。
6月丁尼生娶了艾米莉·塞尔武德（Emily Sellwood），同年11月丁尼生继威廉·华兹华斯之后，成为桂冠诗人。
丁尼生作为桂冠诗人的首部正式作品，是庄严郑重但有点拘谨的《悼惠灵顿公爵之死》（1852年）。1854年创作了《轻骑兵进击》，以纪念英国骑兵在克里米亚战争巴拉克拉瓦战役（Balaklava）中体现出来的英雄气概。《莫德》，是1855年出版的一部长篇独白诗剧，评论家对此颇有微辞。
1853年以后，丁尼生多数时间生活在自己位于怀特岛法令福德（Farringford）的庄园中，有时会住在自己1868年建在萨里郡阿尔沃的一所房子里。《莫德》遭到冷遇之后，丁尼生把自己封闭在法令福德，着手创作组诗《国王叙事诗》。1859年这一系列的第一部分出版，讲述亚瑟王和他的骑士的第一部分，立即获得成功。
《伊诺克·阿登及其他诗歌》（1864年）中的《伊诺克·阿登》是丁尼生最著名的诗歌之一。其他几部稍为逊色的历史戏剧作品包括《玛丽女王》（1875年）、《哈罗德》（1877年），以及《贝克特》（1879年）。完整版本的《国王叙事诗》和《得墨忒尔及其他诗歌》于1889年出版，《俄诺涅之死，阿卡巴之梦及其他诗歌》于1892年他逝世后出版。
《民谣及其他诗歌》（1880年）中优美的短篇抒情诗《过沙洲》展示了丁尼生恬静的宗教信仰。他的葬礼上来宾朗诵了该诗篇。他被葬在了威斯敏斯特教堂的诗人角，与乔叟相邻。
英国19世纪的著名诗人，在世时就获得了极高的声誉。生于英国林肯郡，出身牧师家庭，兄弟均有诗才，肄业于剑桥大学，诗作题材广泛，想象丰富，形式完美，词藻绮丽，音调铿锵。其131首的组诗《悼念》被视为英国文学史上最优秀哀歌之一，因而获桂冠诗人称号。其他重要诗作有《尤利西斯》、《伊诺克·阿登》和《过沙洲》诗歌《悼念集》等。 他深受维多利亚女王的赏识，于1850年获得了桂冠诗人的称号，后来又在1884年被封为男爵。然而，这样一位大诗人也有对自己丧失信心的时候，竟曾经想删去自己诗作中的精华部分。
日前，人们在美国一位收藏家搜集的大批丁尼生手稿中找到了一本诗集的校样，其中有他对自己诗作的校改。这本留有诗人校改手迹的书籍是迄今为止绝无仅有的发现，因为丁尼生非常不愿意让人看到自己对作品的改动。从这本书中，人们发现丁尼生曾打算对自己1855年的名作《轻骑兵进击》(The Charge of the Light Brigade)进行大幅度删改，原因是当时人们对他同期的作品《莫德》(Maud)颇有微词，他因此对自己产生了怀疑。另一个原因则是丁尼生年轻时曾备受批评家指责，以致他一度沉默了整整9年，在那期间一首诗也没发表。
《轻骑兵进击》是丁尼生为歌颂克里米亚战争中在巴拉克拉瓦(Balaclava)袭击俄军的英国轻骑兵旅而作的。这是一次自杀式的袭击，英军伤亡人数达到了247人。在这本校样中，丁尼生用黑色墨水勾掉了《轻骑兵进击》一诗的几乎半数诗行，打算把它们删去，其中包括一些为人们熟知的名句，比如“他们无意追根究底／他们只是慷慨赴死”以及“有人犯下了愚蠢的错误”。这里所说的“愚蠢错误”是指巴拉克拉瓦战役中由英军两位指挥官之间的摩擦引发的指挥混乱。
不过，这些修改最终没有成为现实。10年之后，丁尼生亲笔誊写了这首诗的最终稿。在诗稿底部的自注中，诗人着重指出了“愚蠢的错误”那行诗的重要意义，其中写道：“这首长短格的诗是在读了《泰晤士报》记者(关于战争)的第一篇报道后写的，全诗由‘有人犯下了愚蠢的错误’一句生发而来。”
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).