were the same as those of the time. For example, the way he describes Sir Bedivere's reaction to the death of King Arthur in "Morte D'Arthur". Tennyson expresses Sir Bedivere's problem, caught in a changing world and with stable traditions disappearing fast. "For now I see the true old times are dead..."(Culler, A. Dwight, pg. 47): And I, the last, go forth companionless,And the days darken round me, and the years,Among new men, strange faces, other minds.(Culler, A. Dwight, pg. 48) Probably his greatest poem is "In Memoriam", published in 1850, though written over the previous seventeen years. He started writing it after the youthful death of his best friend, Arthur Hallam. His death led Tennyson to question the purpose of life and the importance of death. "In Memoriam" is almost like a poetic diary since all events are linked to Hallam and to the question of death. They say it's the uncertainty of the poem that makes it so good. The twentieth century poet T. S. Eliot said of it, "Its faith is a very poor thing, but its doubt is a very intense experience." The intensity, the doubt, the beauty: all are typical of Tennyson. Long-lived like most of his family, no matter how unhealthy they seemed to be, Alfred, Lord Tennyson died on October 6, 1892, at the age of 83. ...
