Western Literature ReportAlfred, Lord Tennyson
第五組-95413107 林珮騏
95413123 陳靜榆
95413126 陳思妤
95413127 沈幸諭
95413128 謝欣君
95413130 林佳蕙
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• Alfred Tennyson (18091892), English poet often
regarded as the chief
representative of the
Victorian age in poetry.
Tennyson succeeded
Wordsworth as Poet
Laureate in 1850.
Background
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born on August 5,
1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire. His father,
George Clayton Tennyson, a clergyman and
rector, suffered from depression and was
notoriously absentminded. Alfred began to
write poetry at an early age in the style of
Lord Byron. After spending four unhappy
years in school he was tutored at home.
Tennyson then studied at Trinity College,
Cambridge, where he joined the literary
club 'The Apostles' and met Arthur Hallam,
who became his closest friend. Tennyson
published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, in 1830,
which included the popular "Mariana".
• His next book, Poems (1833), received
unfavorable reviews, and Tennyson
ceased to publish for nearly ten years.
Hallam died suddenly on the same year in
Vienna. It was a heavy blow to Tennyson.
He began to write "In Memoriam", an elegy
for his lost friend - the work took seventeen
years. "The Lady of Shalott", "The Lotuseaters" "Morte d'Arthur" and "Ulysses"
appeared in 1842 in the two-volume
Poems and established his reputation as a
writer
Poetry -The Eagle
(Fragment)
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
他用彎曲的鉤爪攫住了峭壁，
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
在孤絕的地域上接近太陽，
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
他用以碧空為環紋的足站立著，
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
在它足下波皺的海，
He watches from his mountain walls,
從山壁上的絕崖下看，
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
像迅雷般俯衝
全詩用三行體(triplet)一氣呵成，魄力雄勁，
為Tennyson最短的傑作 。全篇六個韻末均用S，
實為奇韻，而連用七個K音(clasps, crags,
crooked, close, wrinkled, crawls)，kl 和
kr 之聲在在暗示著鷹之雄勁，山之峭拔，石之
猙獰，效果極佳。前五行雖寫靜態，而蓄勢侍
發，風雨欲來；末行一落千丈，由靜入動 。此
詩之出版，在1851年，當時Tennyson正四十二
歲，已經做了一年的桂冠詩人，壯年之作，氣
象不凡。
In Memoriam A.H.H.
Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove;
Thine are these orbs of light and shade;
Thou madest Life in man and brute;
Thou madest Death; and lo, thy foot
Is on the skull which thou hast made.
Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:
Thou madest man, he knows not why,
He thinks he was not made to die;
And thou hast made him: thou art just.
Thou seemest human and divine,
The highest, holiest manhood, thou.
Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours, to make them thine.
Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.
Victorian Values
• Background
The Victorian Era describes things and events in
the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). Victoria
was just 18 years old when she became queen
upon the death of her uncle William IV in 1837.
Many people today believe that the Victorian Era
is really connotations of prudish, old-fashioned,
and very traditional. But, the Victorian Era is very
paradoxical and very complex.
The industrial revolution flourished during this time
and Britain became the world leader in
manufacturing. Factory towns grew to large cities.
Two classes of people also grew—the industrial
working class and a modern middle class.
During this time, Britain expanded its merchant fleet
and navy, which they used to acquire new colonies
in all parts of the globe. (It was during this time that
Britain carves up Africa and expanded its control
over what is now South Africa.) It was the Victorians
who could boast, "the sun never sets on the British
empire."
Victorian Values
•In politics: Leaders pushed for electoral reform
and a better trade policy. Women, though still not
able to vote, attended universities. Parliament
passed laws to reduce the working day for
women and children, and to establish a system of
free grammar schools. One of the most important
issues left unresolved in the Victorian Age was
the future of Ireland, where widespread poverty
had bred bitter opposition to British control.
Victorian Values
• In literature: The ideas of the Victorian Age—
political and moral, scientific and religious—
helped to shape the works. As literacy increased,
so did the impact of the written word. This time
was also a time of social concern, and writers
(such as Dickens-the writer of Oliver Twist and
David Copperfield ) exposed a dark underside of
the industrial age—brutal factory conditions and
stinking slums that bred poverty and disease.
Victorian Values
•Work ethics:
1.Earnestness
2.Respectabilitythe sense of duty, responsibility
•Reason?
Sources of information:
• http://www.online-literature.com/tennyson/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Tennyson
,_1st_Baron_Tennyson
• http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/st
ory/0,,1785310,00.html
• http://www.runet.edu/~ntaylor/victorian_age.
htm
• http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=27664
工作分配
• 95413107 林珮騏-搜尋Tennyson 的簡介
• 95413130 林佳蕙-提供Tennyson 的資訊
• 95413127 沈幸諭-搜尋Victorian Value資訊/彙整
Tennyson部分 PPT
• 95413126 陳思妤-提供資料及總彙整Victorian
Values 部分PPT
• 95413128 謝欣君-提供Tennyson作品資料
• 95413123 陳靜楡-總整理Tennyson.