Dr. Eric Bontempo

Tennyson’s early poems in Poems, by Two Brothers is remarkable for its insistence on maturity, a feature that Laurie Langbauer calls prolepsis, evident in an advertisement for this volume, presumably a jointly written by Alfred and Charles, in which the two brothers boldly announce their entry into the profession of poetry: “But so it is: we have passed the Rubicon, and we leave the rest to fate; though its edict may create a fruitless regret that we ever emerged from ‘the shade,’ and courted notoriety” (Tennyson and Tennyson, Advertisement). With this language and their subsequent volume of poems, Charles and Alfred Tennyson participate in a common schoolboy tradition of writing poetry as if already imagining themselves fully fledged poets. Moreover, in announcing their crossing of the Rubicon and “submitting to the microscopic eye of periodical Criticism” (ibid.), they strategically decide to disavow their youthful influences by means of the classical rhetorical strategy of recusatio.

Yet while both Tennyson brothers participate in the normative schoolboy tradition of writing poetry in imitation of classical Greek and Latin poets, Alfred’s imitation also extends into the vogue for sentimental literature, including the gothic, that was popularized in Tennyson’s boyhood in such novels as Ann Radcliffe’s Gothic romances and in gift books, poetry albums, and literary annuals like the Keepsake and the Forget-Me-Not. In so combining his schoolboy training in classical poetry with his reading of popular sentimental and Romantic literature, which were generally considered feminine and commercial, Tennyson forges a distinctive poetic voice and effectively launches himself into the vocation of poetry.

The extraordinary music career of Isaac Nathan (1792-1864) spans over 50 years and two continents. A renowned musical composer in England and Australia, Nathan drew upon his Jewish faith and knowledge of synagogal music in his compositions. He gave singing lessons to the Princess Charlotte of Wales and maintained a long friendship with Lady Caroline Lamb, but Nathan is best remembered for his collaboration with the poet Lord Byron on A Selection of Hebrew Melodies, Ancient and Modern (1815). Nathan, for the most part, supplied the music to accompany Byron’s lyrics. Other musicians may have already set Byron’s poetry to music without the poet’s express permission, but Nathan would be Byron’s only true musical colleague with whom he would directly collaborate (Pont 53-54). Shortly before Byron’s final departure from England, and following painful divorce proceedings, Nathan sent him some matzot, the unleavened bread traditionally eaten during Passover. Byron’s acknowledgement of the kind gift is equally touching and a subtle reference to their most popular Hebrew Melody, “The Destruction of Sennacherib”: “The unleavened bread shall certainly accompany me in my pilgrimage … the Motsas shall be to me a charm against the destroying Angel wherever I may sojourn” (qtd. in Bidney 62). Nathan would cherish their friendship for the rest of his life, referring to his home in Sydney as “Byron’s Lodge.” When he emigrated to Australia in 1840, Nathan would continue as a music teacher and composer, developing several well-known operas and referred to by some as the “Father of Australian Music.”

This essay examines the variety of religious remediations of Byron’s poetry in the Victorian period, arguing that the poet’s specialized inclusion in Victorian devotional poetry anthologies signals the logic and politics of evangelical Christianity. Carefully anthologized selections of Childe Harolde’s Pilgrimage and Hebrew Melodies in devotional poetry collections like The Pious Minstrel (1831), Beauties of Modern Sacred Poetry (1862), and The Sunday Book of Poetry (1864) allowed publishers, editors, and readers to claim Byron as either a converted, saved Christian poet or as a lost soul who occasionally expressed the pious insights of someone on the brink of conversion. Byron’s posthumous reception in Victorian evangelical discourse is an understudied phenomenon that parallels other forms of Victorian Byromania that attempt to “convert” the poet and his works. I argue that the remediation and circulation of Byron’s anthologized devotional poetry offers insights into Victorian conceptions of Christian living, prayer, devotion, and piety.

Since the late twentieth century, there has been a strategic campaign to recover the impact of Victorian women writers in the field of English literature. However, with the increased understanding of the importance of interdisciplinarity in the twenty-first century, there is a need to extend this campaign beyond literary studies in order to recognise the role of women writers across the nineteenth century, a time that was intrinsically interdisciplinary in approach to scholarly writing and public intellectual engagement.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s intensely personal poem "In Memoriam" remains a gold mine for scholarship that probes the nineteenth century’s conflict between science and faith. Tennyson’s grief over losing his beloved Arthur Hallam intermixes with epistemological issues of nature and God resulting from discoveries by scientists such as William Whewell and Charles Lyell. As a long poem composed across two decades, "In Memoriam" enables the scholar to trace the gradual process of consolation, but few have traced the poem’s ability to incite a phenomenological response in readers. My article fills this gap by exploring the significance of Tennyson publishing what was essentially his private journal. Through publication, Tennyson reminds himself and his audience that community binds people together and transforms an otherwise cold and ruthless nature into something more hopeful. Moreover, literature functions as a tool whereby humanity can exert their autonomy and sense of community. Mutuality and togetherness, I think, become important qualities of nineteenth-century life because they are a means of coping with science, modernity, and the Industrial Revolution. The purpose of this article is to witness how Tennyson deals with his estrangement from Nature and to glean what we can from his wisdom on the subject of living in the age of "the Anthropocene."