Alfred tennyson famous works

Biographical Sketch by Donna-Jean Breckenridge

"I hold it true,
Whate'er befall;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all."

These oft-quoted lines by the man known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson, come from his lengthy poem, "In Memoriam." And while the typical assumption is that the poem was written after the deep pain of a broken romance, the added initials in the title, "A.H.H.," tell the full story.

"A.H.H." stands for Arthur Henry Hallam, Tennyson's dear friend who died suddenly at the age of Hallam, a brilliant fellow poet and classmate at Trinity College at Cambridge, had been engaged to marry Tennyson's sister, Emily.

"In Memoriam" was considered one of the greatest poems of the 19th century.

It was loved by Queen Victoria herself, who told Tennyson that after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, she was "soothed and pleased by it."

In his day, Tennyson was said to be one of the three most famous living pers