06 Oct 2022
On This Day
6 October 2022 Cheryl

6 October 1892: Alfred, Lord Tennyson dies

Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1870

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Tennyson is the ninth most frequently quoted writer. Among his oft quoted phrases are “‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all”, and “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die”. [1]

English poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, died on 6 October 1892 at his home in Surrey, UK. He was aged 83.

Holding the title of Poet Laureate for 40 years during much of Queen Victoria’s reign, Tennyson is still one of the most popular British poets, and his tenure as Poet Laureate remains the longest anyone has held the title.

Tennyson is the author of one of my very favourite poems, The Lady of Shallot. He excelled at short lyrics, such as Break, Break, Break, The Charge of the Light Brigade, and Crossing the Bar, but also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, Ulysses, and Tithonus. He attempted drama, but his plays were not successful.

Although sometimes described as sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought him to the attention of well-known writers of the day, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Tennyson continued writing into his eighties, although he suffered from gout. He retained intellectual clarity and command of his faculties until the last, reading Shakespeare with obvious appreciation within a few hours before his death. One of his last requests was that all published collections of his poetry end with his poem Crossing the Bar.

Thousands of mourners attended his funeral at Westminster Abbey, where the organist set music to the words from Crossing the Bar. He was laid to rest between the graves of John Dryden and Robert Browning, and in front of Chaucer’s monument.

Tennyson was succeeded as 2nd Baron Tennyson by his son, Hallam, who produced an authorised biography of his father in 1897 and was later the second Governor-General of Australia.