Thus, I will focus on one his early poem "The Lady of Shalott", considered as "art poem",which provides an insight into Tennyson's ideas on the figure of poet by portraying an isolated artist-like figure in conflict with society, in other words which represents best the charactersistics of Tennyson's artist-figures and Tennyson's internal struggle between "social responsibility" and "artistic detatchment"(alaya)
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However , to be able to see if and where Tennyson fits amongst other Victorian author an intellectuals, one will have to go through the Victorian poetry debate. As we will see, Tennyson was not the only Victorian anxious about the poet's role in society and the function of poetry. Many Victorians, such as Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, John Stuart Mill and Arthur Hallam, wrote essays on what the Victorian poet should do and what poetry should be. I will take a look at the poetic theories propagated by these four authors, as to provide a general overview of what the most important issues concerning poetry were at the time. At the end we will perhaps be able to determine with whom Tennyson shares his ideas on poetry.
The Victorian era was characterized by a climate of uncertainty about the function of poetry and the role of the poet. As Joseph Bristow argues in his introduction to The Victorian Poet: Poetics and Persona, the Victorians "were at something of a loss to define and defend the role of the poet, his poetry and indeed, his persona" (Introduction 1). This feeling of uncertainty resulted in a string of publications and essays on poetic theories; critics such as Arnold, Carlyle, Mill and Hallam were at the centre of what seems to be an unresolved discussion on the worthy subjects of poetry, its ultimate purpose and the relation between the poet and society.
