By 
Alfred Tennyson is a notable poet of the Victorian era who also studied nature with painstaking detail and precision of observation. Although Tennyson handles nature in his poems, he fails to achieve the prominence of Wordsworth and Keats as a nature poet. Wordsworth explores the spiritual meaning of nature, while Keats’s treatment of nature is purely sensual, but Tennyson has drawn and colored images of nature with the conscientious care of the pictorial artist. Tennyson believes with Coleridge that we interpret the mood of Nature according to our mood and that Nature is either happy or not. During the Romantic Movement Nature was considered as a phenomenon to which one could turn for guidance, spiritual sustenance and psychic restoration. Tennyson’s belief often led him to describe and develop a human being in terms of natural phenomena. For example, in “The Lotus Eaters” the indolence of the sailor is elaborated with reference to the pause of the streams, the delay of the sun, the fading of the languid air, etc.
Tennyson, Browning and Arnold lost a total enthusiasm for Nature like the romantic poets. In most cases, Nature’s influence on them was healthy and wholesome, and symptomatic of the spiritual unity of the universe. The Victorians were noted for maintaining the confidence and optimism possible for the Romantics. On the one hand, as we shall see, science inculcated a love of Nature in some ways as intense as anything one can recognize in previous centuries, but on the other hand, by emphasizing the mechanical and chemical aspects of the natural process, it deflected magic. and left no room for spiritual direction. However now we can channel Tennyson’s poems where he is very interested in Nature. “In Memorium” is one of the most outstanding poems, serving as immense evidence of Tennyson’s great interest and love of nature. In this poem there is a quiet, still morning with the withered leaves, the silvery cobwebs, the crowded farms, the ambrosial air, the towering sycamore trees, the bats circling in the fragrant skies, the trees stretching out their dark arms over the field, the old gray orange tree, the lonely field, the ship walks through the windy world, etc. images of nature in this poem give both pleasure and sadness, because the poet shows that the moonlight falls not only on the poet’s bed, but also on the grave of dead friends in the church. Natural objects often evoke a mood of sadness rather than joy because they emphasize human morality. In a famous passage (85), for example, the classic procession of Nature underscores human pain.
Reviewing “In Memorium” Charles Kingsley thought that the idea of ”dignity of nature in all its manifestations” was the root idea of all the poetry of his generation. The description of the Nature of this poem gives us the idea that it plays an important role in the emotional development of the poem. In this poem, Tennyson does not search Nature for any underlying associative principle to which a permanent reference can be made. However, Tennyson’s poem “Ooeone” begins with a description of a valley in Ida where swimming steam creeps from pine to pine. On both sides of the stream are meadows and meadow ledges rich in flowers. Far below them the long stream roars, falling in waterfall after waterfall into the sea. Behind the valley is the highest peak of Gargarus:
“…….. the clov’n ravine
In cataract after cataract of the sea.
Behind the highest valley of Gargarus.”
The theme of this poem focuses on “Oeone’s” miserable experience when her husband Paris leaves her. Addressing her mother Ida, and addressing the land, the hills, the caves, and the streams of the mountains, Oeone began to narrate her painful story in song. Also, the poem “Tithonus” begins with the description of Nature as “The woods rot, the woods rot and fall”. In this poem is the cry of the steamer and the description of the death of the swan after many summers. The poet describes the gradual appearance of dawn in the person of Aurora. We have a richly sensual image of Aurora showering her kisses over her mouth and Tithonus’s eyelids, kisses that were “more balmy than parted April buds.”
The study of Nature in Victorian poetry is inextricably linked with the study of religion and science, since the revolution that took place in religious and scientific thought inevitably had a direct effect on and attitude towards Nature. Nature must always figure prominently in any study of Victorian poetry, as it was one of the three or four most important poetic themes. For the successful foundation of Tennyson’s poems, nature serves as one of the basic functions. In “The Lotos Eaters” the landscape and the landscape symbolize the inner feelings of the sailors. There is a description of ample images of nature such as the lingering sunset, the crimson light of the setting sun, the snow on the peaks, the leaf, the apple and the flower grow, ripen and fall silently. Indeed, Nature, like the inhabitants of this island, has eaten from the indolent forgetfulness of the fruit of the lotus. In “Locksley Hall”, the poet deals with the nostalgic feeling expressing natural images. The poet wandered along the seashore and saw at night through the window the great Orion and the Pleiades. In short, we cannot consider Tennyson in terms of the romantic poets as a poet of Nature, but we see that he certainly treats Nature by the close and painstaking scientific observation of it. Very often Nature is anticipated to describe and develop the human being in general.