take place all over the world But he also feels confused He fears these changes will make the world more materialistic and cause war This confusion mirrors the Victorian struggle people were proud of progress but worried it would destroy old values In Tithonus Tennyson uses a Greek myth to talk about the fear of living forever Tithonus is gifted immortality but not eternal youth So he grows older and older but cannot die He begs goddess Aurora to take back her gift of immortality He says Let me go take back thy gift This poem shows the Victorian fear that science like new medicine or technology might create problems instead of solving them Thirst for Adventure and Knowledge Adventure was the soul of the Victorian people Tennyson s poems show this thirst for adventure and knowledge In The Lotos-eaters Odysseus and his sailors arrive at the Lotos land after their long journey After eating the lotos fruit the sailors become stuck on that island They do not want to return to their home and families They want to rest forever The poem seems to suggest that they must continue their adventure before resting We also find Odysseus s indomitable thirst for adventure in Ulysses He does not want to stay at home as an idle king He wants to set out for more adventure and knowledge As he says I cannot rest from travel I will drink Life to the Lees Inferiority of Women Victorian people thought women were weaker and less intelligent than men Their responsibilities were only to handle household work and give birth to children We find this tendency in Locksley Hall In this poem the speaker is sad and frustrated after losing his love Amy He says Woman is the lesser man The speaker thinks women are made weak and inferior to men Though this comes from the speaker s frustration it also reveals the Victorian tendency of male domination Excessive Materialistic Tendency We also find the excessive materialistic tendency of the Victorian people in Locksley Hall The speaker could not marry Amy because her father wanted her to marry a rich man The speaker was not rich and he was an orphan So Amy's parents forced her to marry a wealthy man The speaker says Cursed be the social wants that sin against the strength of youth Here the speaker is cursing the social system that values money over love Escape from Responsibility Human beings are not machines They feel tired and need to rest after a long struggle in life Victorian people were no exception to this tendency We see this escaping tendency in Tennyson s poem The Lotos-eaters The sailors eat the magical lotos fruit and forget everything They do not want to go back to their homes or continue their journey They sing Our island home is far beyond the wave we will no longer roam In conclusion we can say that Tennyson is a true representative poet of the Victorian age He gives us science religion hope love sorrow and problems of his age Tennyson s poetry takes us back to the days of the Victorian era