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Description:
15pp., 9” x 5 ¾, naïve but thoughtful high school essay on British Poet Alfred Tennyson, dated June 19, 1891, by Mollie C. Smith: “This, my final essay in the Middletown High School, is dedicated to my sister Fannie Helen Smith.” No place, but very possibly one of the New England states. She quotes Tennyson’s poetry, critiques it, speaks of several of his life experiences, which she has obviously researched, and provides her own commentary on his work. Pages are tied together with a ribbon and straight pen. Very minor, expected soiling on the first page. Else excellent condition, very readable and a fine example of high school education in Victorian America.
Entitled “The Poet Laureate,” Ms. Smith writes, in part “Not of the howling dervishes of song, Art thou Oh sweet historian of the heart, Therefore to thee the laurel leaves belong, To them our hearts and our allegiance, For thy allegiance to the poets art.
“So sang Longfellow of Alfred Tennyson. None more deserves the Laurel than he, who although unappreciated at first has come to be regarded a classic in his own life.
“Tennyson is the first of living English poets! If he is not so popular, even among his own countrymen, as is our Longfellow, the reason is not far to seek, nor is it discreditable to him. Longfellow expresses in simple language thoughts which are common to all classes of men. Tennyson does more. In exquisitely polished verse, he puts before us thoughts which instruct and elevate, which give us new ideals and higher inspirations.
“Tennyson’s poetic gift was partly inherited and was manifested at an early age. When a very little boy, he wrote an elegy on his grandmother who had just died. For this his grandfather gave him ten shillings, remarking as he placed them in his hand, ‘There, that is the first money you have ever earned by your poetry and take my word for it, it will be the last.’
As we should suspect from the character of his verse, Tennyson received all the benefits of a careful education…His early life among…led him to paint in his earlier poems such landscapes as are common there; the barren moor, the winding brook, the pool fringed with tall…grass and the mere shining in the moon light are pictures we continually meet in his volumes.
Tennyson’s first published verses appeared in 1830. His early poetry lacks depth, though it shows great polish of diction and remarkable descriptive power. But soon there comes a change and we see the poet arriving at something other than merely decorative verse. Like his Lady of Shalott, he tires of weaving with his web the mere outward show of things. Like her, he will search into the deep truths of life, cost what it may. But his observation of nature never becomes less keen nor his description of it less vivid. In the ‘Passing of Arthur’ he writes –
‘A chapel nigh the field, A broken chancel with a broken cross, That stood on a dark strait of barren land, On one side lay the ocean and on one Lay a great water and the moon was full.’
“Nor did Tenyson use any less care in polishing his verse as he grows older. He has been accused of using…Tennyson is a strong lover of his native land. He is a citizen of the liberal conservative type. He believes in progress, slow and sure…” Many more pages to read and enjoy.
| Status: For Sale |
Reference#: 00229 |
| Condition:
Excellent |
Year:
1891
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| Title:
Victorian High School Essay on Tennyson's Life and Work |
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