George Clayton Tennyson raised a large family and 'was a man of superior abilities and varied attainments, who tried his hand with fair success in architecture, painting, music, and poetry. The rector was the elder of two sons, but was disinherited at an early age by his father, the landowner George Tennyson (1750–1835) (owner of Bayons Manor and Usselby Hall), in favour of his younger brother Charles, who later took the name Charles Tennyson d'Eyncourt. His father, George Clayton Tennyson (1778–1831), was rector of Somersby (1807–1831), also rector of Benniworth and Bag Enderby, and vicar of Grimsby (1815). He derived from a middle-class line of Tennysons, but also had noble and royal ancestry. Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, a rector's son and fourth of 12 children. He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, 'Ulysses,' and 'Tithonus.' During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success.Ī number of phrases from Tennyson's work have become commonplaces of the English language, including 'Nature, red in tooth and claw', ''Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all', 'Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die', 'My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure', 'Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers', and 'The old order changeth, yielding place to new'. was written to commemorate his best friend Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet and fellow student at Trinity College, Cambridge, who was engaged to Tennyson's sister, but died from a brain haemorrhage before they could marry. Much of his verse was based on classical mythological themes, such as Ulysses, although In Memoriam A.H.H. Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as 'In the Valley of Cauteretz', 'Break, Break, Break', 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', 'Tears, Idle Tears' and 'Crossing the Bar'. Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language.

Tennyson poetry collection