He was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, a rector's son and fourth of twelve children. Early in life he showed a precocious talent, delighting his brothers and sisters with richly embroidered tales of chivalry drawn from mythological themes. He began to write poetry at the age of eight. By the age of ten or eleven he had written hundreds of lines in the style of Pope, and at least two blank-verse plays. In 1829, while at Cambridge, he won a prize for a piece entitled "Timbuktoo". The following year saw his first solo publication, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, which included "Mariana", later to become one of his most celebrated poems. In 1832 Tennyson published his second volume, Poems. His verse steadily gained in popularity drawing him to the attention of well known writers, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

In 1833 fate dealt Tennyson a terrible blow when his close friend Arthur Hallam died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. The resulting depression plunged him into a spell of intense creative activity producing some fine poems including, "The Two Voices" , "Ulysses", "Lancelot and Guinevere" and "Sir Galahad and the Beggar Maid". These were to appear in the two-volume Poems, but Tennyson, ever fearful of criticism, held off publication until 1842. He also began work on In Memoriam, which took seventeen years to complete. Much of his verse, including one of his celebrated later works, Idylls of the King 1885, was based on classical mythology and medieval legend. In Memoriam, however, is highly topical dealing as it does not only with his personal loss, but also touching on the common concern of the universal impact of recent scientific discoveries and the resulting conflict with religious faith. Not published until 1850, it was, nonetheless, to become his most famous work earning him his laureateship.

In the same year Alfred Tennyson married Emily Sellwood, whom he had met in 1836. After moving from Twickenham the couple rented Farringford in 1853 with the right to purchase, which they duly did in 1856 on the proceeds of the publication of Maud. This would be their home for the next forty years, and so began the happiest period of Tennyson's life. The first visitors to the house included the celebrated academic reformer, Benjamin Jowett, and the artists Edward Lear and Sir John Everett Miilais. In time the list of visitors to Farringford came to present a role call of the good and the great of Victorian society, including Lewis Carroll, his neighbor Julia Margaret Cameron, Garibaldi, who during his visit planted a Wellingtonia, Charles Darwin, George Frederick Watts, Bishop Wilberforce and William Holman Hunt, to name but a few.

Other works written at Farringford include Idylls of the King 1859, and Enoch Arden and Other Poems 1864, the latter composed in a fortnight in the summer house, which he had built in the grounds to his own design in 1858, sadly since demolished. In 1871 he added a new wing to the house, which comprised a new study for Tennyson and beneath, a room for parties and dances, now part of the dining room. In his new study he wrote "Gareth and Lynette and 'Balin, Balan' in 1872, which signaled the completion of the Idylls. Here also, after having survived a recent serious illness he composed 'Crossing the Bar' 1889, having sketched it out during his last ever ferry crossing to the Island. 'It came in a moment'

Tennyson wrote a number of phrases still in use to this day, including: 'nature, red in tooth and claw' and 'better to have love and lost'.