Introduction:
Tennyson is the most representative poet of the Victorian Age. His poetry reflects the true spirit of the age. It represents the ideas and tastes, the prevailing currents of thought of English men belonging to his generation. It may be noted that he is not a mere follower but an interpreter of the age. There is nothing prophetic about his writings. His truly representative character made him universally popular in his own age. The salient features of his age were moderation in politics, refined culture, religious liberalism chequered by doubt, a lively interest in the advance of scientific discovery coupled with the fear that it might lead people astray, attachment to ancient institutions, larger views of the duty of the state towards its people, and increasing sympathy with poverty and distress. All these feelings and tendencies find their expression in Tennyson's poems.
Various Characteristics or Traits of the Age as Reflected in Tennyson's Poetical Works:
Peace, Law and Order and Settled Government:
The Victorians had a love for law, order and discipline. Tennyson reflects this craving of the age for the authority of law, and settled order. The dominant element in Tennyson's thought is his sense of law. The thing which most pleases and impresses him is the spectacle of order in the universe. The highest praise showed by Tennyson on his country is that she is a land of settled government where freedom is ever broadening down from precedent to precedent. The poet finds working of law even in the sorrows and losses of humanity. He was essentially the poet of law and order as well as of progress. He believed in slow progress and shunned revolution upsetting the order of society.
Feeling of Love and Patriotism:
Patriotism and love for the country were the significant features of the Age. The Victorians took pride in their Queen and national glories. Tennyson was among the most patriotic poets and he lost no opportunity of singing the glories of England, whether for her political stability or for her renown in arms. Almost every great national event and political change became the theme of his verse. He represents English life and manners with utmost sincerity. The Northern Farmer is the true picture of Lincolnshire peasants and The Northern Cobbler and Village Wife are all national portraits depicting the rustic life of England.
Compromising Spirit of the Age:
Politically the age was striking a compromise between the growing tide of democracy and political freedom to the masses and the continuation of the old order of aristocracy. Common people were fighting for their equal rights and political freedom. Tennyson himself belonged to the upper middle class and could not transcend the limitations of the class. Tennyson favoured peaceful and slow evolution rather than any kind of struggle or revolution. His attitude was one of compromise between the claims of masses and those of landed aristocracy. Recluse and aristocratic as he was, profoundly interested in common people and common things. In The Lord of Burleigh, he supports the claims of the landed democracy.
His High Regard for Domestic Virtues:
The Victorians did not approve of women's struggling for rights of franchise and equality with men. Women were born to fulfil their domestic duties in proper way. She was created to look after the household. This faith of the Victorians in the subordinate position of women is expressed by Tennyson in The Princess. The questions of the proper position of women in society, the function they might legitimately and usefully try to perform, in addition to family, and the education which would fit them for those functions, were just beginning to be discussed in England, and Tennyson in The Princess gives voice to them. For him it was a great change.
Condemnation of Illegal Gratification:
Tennyson reflects this spirit of the age by pointing out again and again in his love poems that true love can be found nowhere else save in married life. He cannot even contemplate the possibility of any relation between man and woman other than the conjugal. He emphasises the cultivation of domestic virtues of the home. He idealises married life. Tennyson concentrates very firmly upon the advantages of spiritual as opposed to physical love, and the age felt satisfaction in his delineation of love. The kind of love that Tennyson upholds and likes is well exemplified in The Miller's Daughter. It is a simple story of true sweet-hearts and married love.
The Importance of Morality in Life:
It was Tennyson's belief that the aim of the poet should be not merely to provide aesthetic delight. He should also be a seer and a prophet, and such his poetry should serve as an animating and enlivening force for his generation. In Tennyson's poetry there is a strong feeling for moral preaching and ethical edification. He is moralist giving to his readers the proper guidance for the wise conduct of life. Tennyson turned to the Greek legends not so much for the sake of their beauty as for their ethical significance. In The Palace of Art the poet describes and condemns the spirit of aestheticism whose sole religion is the adoration of beauty.
The Voice of Doubt and a Doctrine of Indefiniteness:
In Tennyson's religious and philosophical poems the voice of doubt is always heard. Yet the poems end almost always on a note of optimism. There is a conflict in all of Tennyson's religious poetry from the beginning to the end of his career. In The Two Voices, this conflict is vividly and clearly dramatized in the form of a dialogue between the poet and the bitter voice of disillusionment and despair. As long as the discussion is confined to earthly life, the voice of despair has the upper hand, and every argument against suicide is effectively answered. But when the discussion moves to the question of immortality, the voice is silenced. The argument in favour of immortality is that man finds in his soul ideas of eternity and perfection which cannot be realized on earth and which must, therefore, have an existence elsewhere. The vague evidence of 'mystic gleams' strengthens this argument which is further confirmed by the appearance of a Victorian family going to Church.
No Rejection of the New Theory of Evolution and Acceptance of all Facts:
Tennyson did not ignore or reject the new theory of evolution nor any of the evidence of modern science. This fact contributed all the more to Tennyson's popularity in the eyes of his contemporaries. He accepted all facts as facts. He admitted that it was impossible to fight against the findings of the human reason. He recognised and welcomed all the discoveries of modern science and its conclusions.
Faith in God and Immortality of the Soul:
Tennyson triumphantly declares his faith in God and immortality of the soul and in a life-beyond death. His doubts are dispelled like the mist of the morning. He clearly sees and experiences the hand of God in everything. He believes that God is the creator, preserver and destroyer of the universe. He has made both life and death. His scheme of things is just and divine.
The poet believes that there is life even beyond death. This life is but a sleep and forgetting. The real life begins after crossing the bar and entering into the bounds of Eternity. He writes in Crossing the Bar:
"I hope to see my pilot face to face, When I have crost the bar."
Thus, it can be observed that it would be right for the future historian to treat Tennyson as a representative poet of the Victorian period. His finest poetry is undoubtedly an illustrative record of the prevailing spirit, of the temperament, and to some degree of the national character of his period.