Tennyson As The Representative Poet Of The Victorian Age

Tennyson stands in the same relation to his times as Chaucer does to the 14th century and Alexander Pope to the early 18th century. Tennyson faithfully reflected the various aspects of Victorian life in his poetry. He expressed in his poetry the hopes and aspirations, the doubts and scepticism of the age. The faith, griefs and victories of the Victorians were reflected in his poetry.

Tennyson’s poetry reflects the spirit of the age. His Locksley Hall is full of least less spirit of Young England. It is also full of its faith in science, commerce and the progress of mankind. The Princess deals with the higher education of England. Maud is full of patriotic passion of the time of Crimean War. In the several other poems Tennyson has described the main tendencies of the Victorian Age. Tennyson represents the compromising spirit of the age in his poetry. He holds a balance between Science and Religion. He strikes the note of compromise between Science and Religion.

Tennyson was a keen observer of Nature like Wordsworth, but his attitude towards nature was entirely different. He saw nature as ‘red in tooth and claw’. Tennyson believed nature to be a vision of the poetic mind. In his poetry, Nature is humanized. The pictorial effects in nature are best presented by Tennyson. His pictures are full of light and shade alike and there is always an attendant music as well. No poet even dealt with nature as well as Tennyson.

Tennyson was essentially a poet of law and order, decorum and decency. He was also a poet of progress and change. He respected the English tradition and was proud of the English heritage. Yet he firmly believed in the divine scheme of things. In Morte D. Arthur he says–

Tennyson and Browning differed from each other poets. However, they combined together they reflected the entire poetry of Victorian Age. Tennyson was the representative poet of the Victorian Age. The social, political, economic and religious problems of the age were represented by Tennyson in his poetry. Browning kept himself completely aloof from the social, religious and political problems of his times. Tennyson was an English man out and out and he was a greater artist. Browning was a cosmopolitan poet. In Tennyson the landscape is more important than man. In Browning the man is more important than nature. However, all the main tendencies of poetry of the Victorian Age are reflected in the poetry of Tennyson and Browning.

So we find that Tennyson was the true representative poet of his age. The variety of the Victorian life was reflected in his poetry. Patriotism and nationalism were the cordial vibes of his poetry. He was a poet of progress and change. He moved with the times and wrote for the people at large.

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