Alfred Tennyson and Emily Sellwood's Enduring Courtship
Poet involved
What happened
The future Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson, fell deeply in love with Emily Sellwood, but her father forbade their marriage for over a decade due to Tennyson's severe financial instability and mental instability. The agonizing fourteen-year delay plunged Tennyson into deep depression, exacerbated by the sudden, devastating death of his closest friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. The couple was finally able to marry in 1850, the very same year Tennyson achieved sudden financial security and monumental literary fame.
Literary impact
This prolonged, painful period of forced separation heavily fueled the profound undercurrent of longing and faith found in Tennyson's elegiac masterpiece, 'In Memoriam A.H.H.'. Their eventual marriage in 1850 marked the precise turning point when Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate, solidifying his position as the definitive poetic voice of the Victorian age.
Source: Wikipedia
