Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1892 — LORD TENNYSON IS DEAD. [ARTICLE]

LORD TENNYSON IS DEAD.

An Attack of Influenza Complicated with Gout Result* Fatally. Lord Alfred Tennyson, poet-laureate of Great Britain, died at his residence, Aldworth, Surrey, at an early hour Thursday morning. A slight cold taken a week before developed into influenza, which caused death. Alfred Tennyson was born at Somersby, Llnconshire, England, in 1809. His father, the Rev. George Clayton Tennyson, was the rector of Somersby and vicar of Bennington and Grimsby, while his mother was the daughter of the Rev. Stephen Fytche, vicar of Louth. He was the third of a family of twelve children. The talent which gained for him the title of Poet Laureate of England began to develop, itself in his early youth, for when 18 years old he, with his brother Charles, who afterward became vicar of Gras by and assumed the name of Turner, published a small volume entitled “Poems by Two Brothers. " The poems attracted some attention, those signed “A. T.” receiving the highest praise, Coleridge declaring that they alone of the selections in the volume gave hopeful promise of a coming poet. In 1850 there appeared anonymously what was probably the purest and truest Soem of that period, Tennyson’s “In lemoriam,” a series of 129 brief poems all wrought together in grand pathetio tribute to the memory of the poet’s college friend and companion, Arthur Hallam, who died in Vienna in 1833. For seventeen years Tennyson had borne the sacred grief of his friend’s death, during which time he composed the elegies contained in the volume “In Memoriam.” November 21, 1850, Tennyson was appointed to the honorary place of Poet Laureate of England, succeeding Wordswoith. Of the poems written in that capacity there have been few that have been considered by critics as works which are to take rank with others of his poems, notably the “Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington,” and the “Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava.” Both of these were included in his volume entitled “Maud and Other Poems,” published in 1855. The residence of Lord Tennyson has been on the Isle of Wight for several years, near Freshwater Gate. He owned there a commodious Btone house, with a pleasant library, where he spent the most of his hours of literary work, surrounded by his books.