Victorian Era Life: Inspiration Revealed Essay -- Literary Analysis, T

Is it not true that events from the past can subsequently affect or influence the events of the future? This is certainly demonstrated in the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson. His nineteenth century background is clearly evident in his poetry. Inspirations for majorities of his works were from people he knew, occurrences in his life, imagery of trials, tribulations, love, and death in the Victorian era. His literary works in Poems of Tennyson 1830-1870 and The Poems and Plays of Tennyson strictly show the effects of his background during his adolescence and early adulthood. Tennyson was born in 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England; the fourth of twelve children (Everett). After leaving grammar school in 1820, his father, a rector, managed to give him a broad literary education, despite difficult conditions at home (“Tennyson…”). As a precocious young man, Alfred learned to write in styles of John Milton, and Alexander Pope, as well as established an exceptional understanding of Elizabethan dramatic verse (Everett).