a. and sb. [f. the name of the poet Alfred (Lord) Tennyson (1809–92) + -IAN.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to Tennyson, his works, or his style.
1834. Gentl. Mag., April, 403. We must however confine ourselves to two specimens, which will give the author’s [Milnes’s] manner of expression and thought. We think the latter very Tennysonian.
1853. Longf. in Life (1891), II. 249. [M. Arnold’s poems] Very clever; with a little of the Tennysonian leaven in them.
1861. Times, 10 Oct. His success exceeds that of his predecessors who have attempted the rendering of this Tennysonian classic [Catullus].
1876. Stedman, Vict. Poets, vi. (1887), 227. These effects, which the Laureate employs with such variation and continuance that the resultant style is known as Tennysonian, were Dorian first of all.
B. sb. An admirer, imitator, disciple, or student of Tennyson.
1883. Harper’s Mag., Feb., 469/1. By all the Tennysonians of this generation it will be deeply regretted.
Hence Tennysonianism, Tennysonism, a characteristic trait or mannerism of Tennyson’s style; an imitation of that style.
1843. Mrs. Browning, Lett. to C. Mathews, 14 March (in Davey’s Catal. [1895], 15). I had been pleased with the poetical sense of his [Lowell’s] book, which he sent me long ago,—notwithstanding the Tennysonianisms of it.
a. 1849. Poe, Channing, Wks. 1864, III. 234. The affectations—the Tennysonisms of Mr. Channing.
