Tennyson - In Memoriam

• Early Victorian (Victorian 1832-1901)
• Poetic Prodigy - Wrote starting around 5 or 6 years old
• tall, bent over, dark (physically)
• Made friends with Arthur Holland at Cambridge
• True friendship - not necessarily homo-erotic
• Felt as a Victorian, that he needed to truly understand the condition of the human spirit
• Spent 17 years writing "In Memoriam"
• Didn't expect it to be published, wrote it as a way to stay alive
• Shows whole grieving process
• Believed in the Bible literally (Victorians)
• hopes it true, but not sure
• needed basic rhyme to control out-of-control grief
• focus on section 54, beginning of grief and very end - but read it all
• One of the early Victorians, was a prodigy
• Use of sound and rhyme, internal rhyme, meter - was amazing
• A lot of home eroticisim in reference to his BFF. Arthur Holland, but was just trying to express how important he was to him.

In Memoriam