History of English Literature
Question : Essay-type
Attempt a comparative study of Tennyson and Browning as poets.
Introduction
Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning were the two great representative poets of the Victorian age. They widely differed from each other in their ideals and aims as poets.
Comparative Study
Tennyson was actually the representative poet of the Victorian age. The social, political, economic and religious problems were represented by him in his poems. Browning kept himself aloof from such problems. His interest was centred in the human soul.
Tennyson was out and out an Englishman who represented the foreigners as devils. His outlook was narrow. Browning, on the other hand, was a cosmopolitan poet. He was more interested in Italy than England.
Tennyson dealt with beautiful subjects while Browning was interested in grotesque things also. Tennyson was a greater artist than Browning, and Browning was a greater thinker than Tennyson.
Tennyson aimed at lucidity and clarity of expression. Browning sacrificed lucidity and clarity at the alter of thought. Naturally his poetry is marked by obscurity.
Both Tennyson and Browning were the teachers. They shared the Victorian zest for moral preaching. Tennyson was first an artist and than a teacher. With Browning the message was important, and so he was careless of the form.
The two poets differed widely in their messages. Tennyson’s message reflects the growing order of the age and is summed up in the word of ‘law’. Browning’s message, on the other hand, is the triumph of the individual-win over all obstacles.
Tennyson wavered in his faith. Wavering thoughts are expressed in ‘The Lotus Eater’ and ‘Ulysses’. Browning never allowed a grain of pessimism to cross his philosophy. In his opinion,“God’s in his heaven” and “All’s right with the world.”
Both Tennyson and Browning attempted dramas for the stage, but unfortunately they did not achieve success. Still Browning had a greater dramatic genius than Tennyson. His Dramatic Monologue is the triumph of his dramatic power. Tennyson did not achieve the same success as Browning in the handling of Dramatic Monologue.
Tennyson was interested only in English characters.The English Idylls of Tennyson reflects the ideals of the English life. Browning’s interest in men and women was wider and comprehensive. His main emphasis was on the—“incidents in the development of a soul.”
Both Tennyson and Browning were interested in religion. They believed in God and immortality of the soul. Tennyson’s Christian faith is found to lead to his stark optimism–his faith in good things to come ultimately–
“Oh, yet we trust that somehow good
Will be final goal of ill.”
Tennyson was disturbed by honest doubt. In Browning we find no such disturbance. Tennyson was interested in the Middle Ages and he devoted–“The Idylls of the King, Arthur and The Round Table”. Browning’s interest was not in the Middle Ages proper.
Tennyson is the full of echoes from the classics. Though Browning knew all the Greek and Latin poets, there are very few lines or phrases in his works which can be traced back to them.
Tennyson’s treatment of love was from the stand point of a spiritualist who sought to glorify married love rather than the tumult of passion. Browning besides giving to love a higher place in life, did not fight shy of representing the love of sexes.
Both Tennyson and Browning were the poets of Nature. But in their approach to Nature, they were different. In Tennyson the human figure is matterless than the landscape, but in Browning the world of Nature is matterless than the human beings. Nature forms only the background of his portraits.
In their styles, Tennyson is more refined, clear and limpid than Browning who sacrificed melody and clarity for the excellence of his thoughts.
Really as Hugh Walker says–
“It was a good omen for English literature that the two leaders in poetry differed from one another so widely.”
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