The Holy Grail E-Book

Alfred Tennyson

• Herausgeber: Edizioni Aurora Boreale
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) was one of the greatest English poets of all time, becoming the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria’s reign. Tennyson’s early poetry, with its medievalism and powerful visual imagery, was a major influence on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In 1848, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt made a list of “Immortals”, artistic heroes whom they admired, especially from literature, notably including Keats and Tennyson, whose work would form subjects for Pre-Raphaelite’s paintings. The Lady of Shalott alone was a subject for Rossetti, Hunt, John William Waterhouse (three versions), and Elizabeth Siddall.
The Holy Grail is one of the twelve poems included by Tennison in the collection Idylls of the King (1885), entirely inspired by the figure of King Arthur and the Breton cycle and based on the fifteenth-century novels by Sir Thomas Malory. This Idyll is told in flashback by Sir Percivale, who had become a monk and died one summer before the account, to his fellow monk Ambrosius. The Holy Grail is symbolic of the Round Table being broken apart, a key reason for the doom of Camelot.
«And I was lifted up in heart, and thought of all my late-shown prowess in the lists, how my strong lance had beaten down the knights, so many and famous names; and never yet had heaven appeared so blue, nor earth so green, for all my blood danced in me, and I knew that I should light upon the Holy Grail».

Leseprobe

SYMBOLS & MYTHS

THE HOLY GRAIL

An Arthurian poem by

SIR ALFRED TENNYSON

Edizioni Aurora Boreale

Title: The Holy Grail

Author: Sir Alfred Tennyson

Publishing series: Symbols & Myths

Editing by Nicola Bizzi

ISBN: 979-12-5504-217-4

Edizioni Aurora Boreale

© 2023 Edizioni Aurora Boreale

Via del Fiordaliso 14 - 59100 Prato - Italia

[email protected]

www.auroraboreale-edizioni.com

INTRODUCTION BY THE PUBLISHER

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson and Fellowship of the Royal Society (1809-1892) was one of the greatest English poets of all time, becoming the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria’s reign. Although described by some critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Tennyson’s early poetry, with its medievalism and powerful visual imagery, was a major influence on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Tennyson also excelled at short lyrics, such as Break, Break, Break, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tears, Idle Tears, and Crossing the Bar. Much of his verse was based on classical mythological themes, such as Ulysses. In Memoriam A.H.H. was written to commemorate his friend Arthur Hallam, a fellow poet and student at Trinity College, Cambridge, after he died of a stroke at the age of 22. Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, Ulysses, and Tithonus. During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success.

A number of phrases from Tennyson’s work have become commonplace in the English language, including «Nature, red in tooth and claw» (In Memoriam A.H.H.), «‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all», «Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die», «My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure», «To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield», «Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers», and «The old order changeth, yielding place to new». He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.