Historical figure · Pearson Edexcel International GCSE revision on Incandio

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Who Wrote That Someone Had Blundered · Poet Laureate · 1809–1892

Queen Victoria's Poet Laureate for over forty years, who wrote In Memoriam for his dead friend Arthur Hallam and The Charge of the Light Brigade within weeks of reading about a blunder at Balaclava.

Defend these ideas against Tennyson

Incandio is a free revision platform for the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE, and on it a topic counts as mastered only once you have learned it, proved it in questions, taught it back and defended it against the person with the strongest claim on it. Alfred, Lord Tennyson is that person for one topic on the course:

• The Charge of the Light Brigade in The Charge of the Light Brigade — English Literature

Who was Tennyson?

Born in 1809 at Somersby rectory in Lincolnshire, one of twelve children of an embittered, heavy-drinking clergyman, Tennyson went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he formed a deep friendship with Arthur Henry Hallam. A harsh review of his 1832 Poems and Hallam's sudden death in 1833 led to nearly ten years in which he published little, while writing the elegies that became In Memoriam A.H.H. His Poems of 1842 made his name. In 1850 In Memoriam was published, he married Emily Sellwood after a long engagement, and he succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate. After the disastrous cavalry charge at Balaclava on 25 October 1854 he wrote The Charge of the Light Brigade, published in The Examiner on 9 December. He wrote Maud, the Idylls of the King and Crossing the Bar, was made a peer in 1884, and died on 6 October 1892. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Major achievements

• Wrote In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), one of the great elegies in English
• Wrote The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854)
• Poet Laureate from 1850 to 1892, the longest-serving
• Wrote Ulysses, The Lady of Shalott, Maud and the Idylls of the King
• Raised to the peerage in 1884 in recognition of his poetry

Life in brief

• 1809 — Born at Somersby: Fourth of twelve children of a Lincolnshire rector.
• 1827 — Cambridge: Enters Trinity College; meets Arthur Hallam.
• 1833 — Hallam dies: Suddenly in Vienna, aged twenty-two.
• 1842 — Poems: Two volumes including Ulysses make his reputation.
• 1850 — In Memoriam and the Laureateship: Marries Emily Sellwood; succeeds Wordsworth.
• 1854 — The Charge of the Light Brigade: Published in The Examiner, 9 December.
• 1884 — Made a peer: Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater.
• 1892 — Dies at Aldworth: 6 October; buried in Westminster Abbey.

Explore the life of Tennyson — five chapters

1. Somersby — A rectory full of poets and black moods
2. Hallam — The friendship of a lifetime, cut off at twenty-two
3. In Memoriam — Seventeen years of grief and a Laureate's crown
4. Someone Had Blundered — Balaclava, The Times, and a poem in a few minutes
5. Laureate and Lord — A queen's friend, a son lost at sea, and crossing the bar

Read the five-chapter life of Alfred, Lord Tennyson →

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