certain unyielding cast of mind that made
him bide his time during the dark years when he was bitterly
criticized or coldly neglected. Tennyson had to the full the poet's
temperament, but he had also a superb physique, which carried him into
his eighty-fourth year. From a boy he was a lover of nature, and in
nearly every poem that he wrote are found many proofs of his close
observation in English woods and fields. Through a period of general
skepticism he kept unimpaired his strong faith in God and in
immortality that lends so much force to his best verse.

[Illustration: ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON AFTER AN ENGRAVING BY G.J.
STODART FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J. MAYALL]

Tennyson's genius found its natural expression in verse, and it is his
distinction that while he explored many realms of thought he was
always clear and always musical. Browning had more passion, but it was
the misfortune of the author of _The Ring and the Book_ that he could
not refrain from a cramped and obscure style of verse that makes much
of his work very hard reading. Many Browning societies have been
formed to study the works of the poet whom they are proud to call
master; but Tennyson needs no societies, as the man in the street and
the woman whose soul is troubled can understand every line he has
written. Nor is Tennyson lacking in passion, as any one may see by
reading _Locksley Hall_ or _Maud_.

Tennyson summed up in his poetry all the spiritual aspiration and the
eager search for knowledge of his time. He explored all domains of
thought, and he enriched his verse with the fruit of his studies. All
the great elemental forces are found in his poems: he is the laureate
of love and sorrow, of grief and aspiration. Throughout his verse runs
the great natural law that the man who is not pure in heart can never
see the glory of the poet's vision.

The purity of his own life was reflected in his verse, just as the mad
license and the furious self-indulgence of Byron are mirrored in _Don
Juan_, _Manfred_ and _Cain_. Even to extreme old age Tennyson
preserved that high poetic faculty which he manifested in early youth.
One of his latest poems, _Crossing the Bar_, is also one of the finest
in the language, breathing the old man's assurance of a life beyond
the grave and a reunion with the dear friend of his youth, whom he
mourned and immortalized in _In Memoriam_.

Alfred Tennyson had one of the finest lives in the roll of English
authors. He was born