![]() ![]() Perhaps, though, Wilfrid Owen still said it best, in terms of the relationship between poetry and war: Or to quote the allied French Marshal, Pierre Bosquet, at the time: “ C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre.” (“It is magnificent, but it is not war.”) He is said to have added: “ C’est de la folie” - “It is madness.” While it does stir the heart still, I also feel it is true to say that the poetry that arose out of World War 1, most notably of Wilfrid Owen marked a turning point: from then to now, poetry has focused far more on recording the reality of war, rather than celebrating doomed charges resulting in significant loss of life. The poem makes a virtue of necessity: that the soldiers knew they were doomed, but being required to obey orders, they charged anyway. The rider ‘for the past century” is critical, because I think the poetry arising out of World War 1 marked a real change from the poetry that had preceded it, which far more often celebrated the glory of war, even in the case of a suicidal change like that of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in 1854 - also the year the poem was written and published. He continued writing and publishing poems until his death in 1892.I’m currently featuring a series of poems for Tuesday themed around “war.” What I’ve said on past Tuesdays is: ” because I believe poetry often encapsulates the realism of war and has done so, in terms of modern poetry, for the past century.” In 1859, he published the first four books of his epic Idylls of the King. He craved solitude and bought an isolated home where he could write in peace. Tennyson’s massive frame and booming voice, together with his taste for solitude, made him an imposing character. At long last, Tennyson achieved financial stability and finally married his fiancée, Emily Sellwood, whom he had loved since 1836. The book boosted Tennyson’s reputation, and in 1850 Queen Victoria named him poet laureate. Later that year, he published a volume called Poems, containing some of his best works. The sudden death of Tennyson’s dear friend Arthur Hallam in 1833 inspired several important works throughout Tennyson’s later life, including the masterful In Memoriam of 1842. Besieged by critical attacks and struggling with poverty, Tennyson nevertheless remained dedicated to his work and published several more volumes. The following year, his father died, and he was forced to leave Cambridge for financial reasons. In 1830, Tennyson published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical. Chief among them was Arthur Hallam, who became Tennyson’s closest friend and who later proposed to Tennyson’s sister. At Cambridge, Tennyson befriended a circle of intellectual undergraduates who strongly encouraged his poetry. The same year, he and his brother Charles published Poems by Two Brothers. However, he educated his sons in the classics, and Alfred Tennyson, the fourth of 12 children, went to Trinity College at Cambridge in 1827. George Tennyson became a bitter alcoholic. Forced to enter the church to support himself, the Reverend Dr. His father, the eldest son of a wealthy landowner, was disinherited in favor of his younger brother. Tennyson was born into a chaotic and disrupted home. ![]() ![]() Tennyson had been named poet laureate in 1850 by Queen Victoria. On December 9, The Examiner prints Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” which commemorates the courage of 600 British soldiers charging a heavily defended position during the Battle of Balaklava, in the Crimea, just six weeks earlier.
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