It is this position of power in conjunction with his comments on the scientific community of the Victorian age in his poetry that Tennyson gained the eye of scientists and intellectuals of the day, who found validation and public sympathy through Tennyson and his poetry. Tennyson was of great value to the scientific community because of his standing with society as a “public moralist.” With science and knowledge’s unstable relationship with the religious public, Tennyson served as a connection between the two, a connection that softened the impact of the new ideas of the scientific community for the public:
Tennyson was still widely acknowledged to be the greatest English poet in living memory… For professional men of science…personal association …show more content…
Tennyson was the advocate for poetry during his time, which suggests the gravity of his death in 1892. Poetry needed a representative, someone to defend the place of the poet: “‘Poetry’ as an abstract ideal, the highest of the arts, depended on Tennyson to represent a traditional ‘august’ authority that had in reality already lapsed. His death does not create but reveals a pre-existing crisis, a loss of faith in poetry as a morally elevated yet popular medium” (Matthews 317). Tennyson’s death and the absence of an advocate for poetry caused the arguments against poetry’s usefulness in society to resurface. The search for a poet to take Tennyson’s place as Poet Laureate required three years, during which his own popularity rose along with the sentiment that he could not be replaced, a gap of time that raised old questions and reservations concerning poetry in society (Matthews 322). Tennyson became a symbol and one that was associated with the past, making his definition of the poet’s place seem an idea of the past, which made the future of poetry and the poet’s elevated position in society …show more content…
The society during this time period was different from Victorian society and the aim of Modernists was very unusual: For the rising modernist generation, the ‘light-bearers’ were no longer symbols of continuity and tradition, but iconoclasts with the confidence to break with the past” (Matthews 328). There was a complete disconnect with tradition among modernists and poetry of the early twentieth century. This type of change, while not unprecedented, was different than cultural change’s effect on poetry in the past. Wordsworth and Tennyson both dealt with similar situations. Wordsworth adapted people of the Enlightenment to Romantic idealism by acknowledging its benefits and equivalency to traditional learning and rationalism. Tennyson acknowledges Romantic idealism as his literary heritage, but adapted the accompanying poetic theories to Victorian society. The Modernists felt no such burden to carry tradition into the new age. Therefore, Tennyson’s place of prestige for the poet faded into tradition during this period among the explosion of culture and a change in literary taste and
Tennyson was still widely acknowledged to be the greatest English poet in living memory… For professional men of science…personal association …show more content…
Tennyson was the advocate for poetry during his time, which suggests the gravity of his death in 1892. Poetry needed a representative, someone to defend the place of the poet: “‘Poetry’ as an abstract ideal, the highest of the arts, depended on Tennyson to represent a traditional ‘august’ authority that had in reality already lapsed. His death does not create but reveals a pre-existing crisis, a loss of faith in poetry as a morally elevated yet popular medium” (Matthews 317). Tennyson’s death and the absence of an advocate for poetry caused the arguments against poetry’s usefulness in society to resurface. The search for a poet to take Tennyson’s place as Poet Laureate required three years, during which his own popularity rose along with the sentiment that he could not be replaced, a gap of time that raised old questions and reservations concerning poetry in society (Matthews 322). Tennyson became a symbol and one that was associated with the past, making his definition of the poet’s place seem an idea of the past, which made the future of poetry and the poet’s elevated position in society …show more content…
The society during this time period was different from Victorian society and the aim of Modernists was very unusual: For the rising modernist generation, the ‘light-bearers’ were no longer symbols of continuity and tradition, but iconoclasts with the confidence to break with the past” (Matthews 328). There was a complete disconnect with tradition among modernists and poetry of the early twentieth century. This type of change, while not unprecedented, was different than cultural change’s effect on poetry in the past. Wordsworth and Tennyson both dealt with similar situations. Wordsworth adapted people of the Enlightenment to Romantic idealism by acknowledging its benefits and equivalency to traditional learning and rationalism. Tennyson acknowledges Romantic idealism as his literary heritage, but adapted the accompanying poetic theories to Victorian society. The Modernists felt no such burden to carry tradition into the new age. Therefore, Tennyson’s place of prestige for the poet faded into tradition during this period among the explosion of culture and a change in literary taste and