Home. The grave is next to that of Robert Browning, and in front of the monument to Chaucer. The bust of the poet by Woolner was subsequently placed 'against the pillar, near the grave.' The Tennyson memorial beacon upon the summit of High Down above Freshwater was unveiled by the dean of Westminster on 6 Aug. 1897. Lady Tennyson died, at the age of eighty-three, on 10 Aug. 1896, and was buried in the churchyard at Freshwater. A tablet in the church commemorates her and her husband.
That brilliant, if wayward, genius Edward Fitzgerald persisted in maintaining that Tennyson never materially added to the reputation obtained by the two volumes of 1842; and this may be so far true that had he died or ceased to write at that date he would still have ranked, among all good critics, as a poet of absolute individuality, the rarest charm, the widest range of intellect and imagination, and an unsurpassed felicity and melody of diction. In all that constitutes a consummate lyrical artist, Tennyson could hardly give further proof of his quality. But he would never have reached the vast audience that he lived to father round him had it not been for 'In Memoriam,' the Arthurian idylls (notably the first instalment), and the many stirring odes and ballads commemorating the greatness of England and the prowess and loyalty of her children. It is this many-sidedness and large-heartedness, the intensity with which Tennyson identified himself with his country's needs and interests, her joys and griefs, that, quite as much as his purely poetic genius, has made him beloved and popular with a far larger public than perhaps any poet of the century. The publication of the biography by his son still further widened and heightened the world's estimate of Tennyson. It revealed, what was before known only to his intimate friends, that the poet who lived as a recluse, seldom for the last half of his life emerging from his domestic surroundings, used his retirement for the continuous acquisition of knowledge and perfecting of his art, while never losing touch with the pulse of the nation, or sympathy with whatever affected the honour and happiness of the people. This study of perfection made of him one of the finest critics of others as well as of himself; and had he chosen to live in more social and public relations with the literature and thought of his time he would have taken his place with Ben Jonson, Dryden, and Samuel Johnson, as among the leading and most salutary arbiters of literary opinion in the ages they respectively adorned.
The chief portraits of Tennyson are: 1. The fine head painted by Samuel Laurence about 1838, of which a reproduction is prefixed to the 'Memoir,' 1897. 2. A three-quarter length by Mr. G. F. Watts, painted in 1859, and now owned by Lady Henry Somerset (Memoir, i. 428). 3. A full face by Watts, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London, dated 1865. 4. A portrait by Professor Herkomer, painted in 1878. 5. Three-quarter figure in dark blue cloak, 'one of the finest portraits by Sir John Millais' painted in 1881, and owned by Mr. James Knowles. 6. A three-quarter length by Watts, painted in 1891 for Trinity College, Cambridge (a replica of this was made by the painter for bequest to the nation). The admirable bust of Tennyson by Woolner, of which that in the abbey is a replica, was executed in 1857 (a copy by Miss Grant is in the National Portrait Gallery, London). Another bust by Woolner was done from life in 1873.
The following is a list of Tennyson's publications as first issued : 1. 'Poems by Two Brothers,' London and Louth, 1827, 8vo and 12mo (the original manuscript was sold at Sotheby's in December 1892 for 480l.; large paper copies fetch 30l.) 2. 'Timbuctoo: a Poem which obtained the Chancellor's Medal at the Cambridge Commencement' (ap. 'Prolusiones Academicæ'), Cambridge, 1829, 8vo (in blue wrapper valued at 7l.) 3. 'Poems, chiefly Lyrical,' London, 1830, 8vo (Southey's copy is in the Dyce collection, South Kensington). 4. 'Poems by Alfred Tennyson,' London, 1833 [1832], 12mo. A selection from 3 and 4 was issued in Canada [1862], 8vo, as 'Poems MDCCCXXX-MDCCCXXXIII' and a few copies, now scarce, were circulated before the publication was prohibited by the court of chancery. 5. 'The Lover's Tale,' privately printed, London, 1833 (very rare, valued at 100l.); an unauthorised edition appeared in 1875; another edition 1879, 6. 'Poems by Alfred Tennyson. In two volumes,' London, 1842, 12mo. 7. 'The Princess: a Medley,' London, 1847, 16mo; 3rd edit, with songs added, 1850, 12mo. 8. 'In Memoriam (A. H. H.),' London, 1850, 8vo (the manuscript was presented to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1897 by Lady Simeon, widow of Tennyson's friend Sir John Simeon, to whom Tennyson had given it). 9. 'Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington,' London, 1852, 8vo; 2nd edit, altered, 1853. 10. 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' [London, 1855], s. sh. 4to; and a variant, 'In Honorem,' 1856, 8vo. 11. 'Maud, and other Poems,' London, 1855, 8vo; 1850, enlarged; Kelmscott edit. 1893. 12. 'Idylls of the King,' London, 1859,
