His drama The Promise of May proves a failure, 1882.
Raised to the peerage as Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Farringford, 1884.
Publishes Becket, 1884.
His son Lionel dies, 1885.
Publishes Tiresias and Other Poems, 1885. This volume contains Balin and Balan, thus completing his Idylls of the King.
Publishes Demeter and Other Poems, 1889.
Dies at Aldworth, October 6, 1892, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
The Death of Oenone is published, 1892.
APPRECIATIONS
"Since the days when Dryden held office no Laureate has been appointed so distinctly pre-eminent above all his contemporaries, so truly the king of the poets, as he upon whose brows now rests the Laureate crown. Dryden's grandeur was sullied, his muse was venal, and his life was vicious; still in his keeping the office acquired a certain dignity; after his death it declined into the depths of depredation, and each succeeding dullard dimmed its failing lustre. The first ray of hope for its revival sprang into life with the appointment of Southey, to whom succeeded Wordsworth, a poet of worth and genius, whose name certainly assisted in resuscitating the ancient dignity of the appointment. Alfred Tennyson derives less honor from the title than he confers upon it; to him we owe a debt of gratitude that he has redeemed the laurels with his poetry, noble, pure, and undefiled as ever poet sung."—Walter Hamilton.