The poetry of T. is characterised by a wide outlook, by intense sympathy with the deepest feelings and aspirations of humanity, a profound realisation of the problems of life and thought, a noble patriotism finding utterance in such poems as The Revenge, the Charge of the Light Brigade, and the Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, an exquisite sense of beauty, marvellous power of vivid and minute description often achieved by a single felicitous phrase, and often heightened by the perfect matching of sense and sound, and a general loftiness and purity of tone.  No poet has excelled him in precision and delicacy of language and completeness of expression.  As a lyrist he has, perhaps, no superiors, and only two or three equals in English poetry, and even of humour he possessed no small share, as is shown in the Northern Farmer and in other pieces.  When the volume, variety, finish, and duration of his work are considered, as well as the influence which he exercised on his time, a unique place must be assigned him among the poets of his country.

SUMMARY.—­B. 1809, ed. Camb., Poems by Two Brothers 1827, Poems chiefly Lyrical 1830, his chief works Poems in two Volumes 1842, Princess 1847, In Memoriam 1850, Maud 1855, Idylls of the King 1869-72, Poet Laureate 1850, d. 1892.

Life by his s. (2 vols., 1897).  There are also numerous books, biographical and critical, by, among others, W.E.  Wace (1881), A.C.  Benson, A. Lang, F. Harrison, Sir A. Lyell, C.F.G.  Masterman (T. as a Religious Teacher), Stopford Brooke, Waugh, etc.

TENNYSON, FREDERICK (1807-1898).—­Poet, was the eldest s. of the Rector of Somersby, Lincolnshire, and brother of Alfred T. (q.v.). Ed. at Eton and Camb., he passed most of his life in Italy and Jersey.  He contributed to the Poems by Two Brothers, and produced Days and Hours (lyrics) (1854), The Isles of Greece (1890), Daphne (1891), and Poems of the Day and Night (1895).  All his works show passages of genuine poetic power.

TENNYSON TURNER, CHARLES (1808-1879).—­Poet, elder brother of Alfred T. (q.v.), ed. at Camb., entered the Church, and became Vicar of Grasby, Lincolnshire.  The name of Turner he assumed in conformity with the will of a relation.  He contributed to Poems by Two Brothers, and was the author of 340 sonnets, which were greatly admired by such critics as Coleridge, Palgrave, and his brother Alfred.