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Features of His Poems
Tennyson lived in an age of great changes in
biology, geology and industry. His poems can be grouped into two types. One
was about his feelings of the recent changes in society and scientific
field, represented by In Memoriam; the other was derived from some
old legends or subjects to reflect his feelings of his age, represented by
The Idylls of the King. But generally speaking, he wrote apart from
daily life and sometimes also eulogized the monarchy and the capitalist
society, especially after he succeeded Wordsworth as the Poet Laureate.
He had a great gift in mixing his feelings with natural
sceneries. For example, in “Break, Break, Break”, the sound of the sea
reflected the feelings of the heart-broken poet.
Tennyson had tried in many forms of poetry,
monologue, sonnet, ballad, blank verse, etc. But he was most successful in
writing elegies. With enchanting cadences and charming rhymes, his poems
were often pleasant to the ear. But his over-emphasis on meter,
rhyme and diction of the
poems has sometimes led him to an ornate style. Anyhow, he was the most
important English poet in the ninetieth century without question.
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