1854: Writes "The Charge of the Light Brigade". Son Lionel is born at Farringford on 16 March. Isle of Wight MP Sir John Simeon, painter John Everett Millais and writer Coventry Patmore visit. ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ is published in The Examiner on 9 December 1854.
1855: Maud is published in July. Despite causing controversy, it is a tremendous financial success, helping Tennyson raise the funds to buy Farringford.
1857: Begins to write the Arthurian epic Idylls of the King (published between 1859 and 1885). The Moxon Illustrated Edition of Tennyson’s poems is published, featuring artworks by John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
1858: Writes extra stanzas of ‘God Save the Queen’ for the Princess Royal’s wedding on 25 January. Sits for his first portrait by good friend George Frederic Watts. Theologian F.D. Maurice and educationalist Sir Alexander Grant visit.
1859: First part of Idylls of the King published in July. A second Watts portrait is completed. The authors Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), Edward Lear and Charles Kingsley visit, as well as US statesman Charles Sumner.
1860: Helps friend Francis Turner Palgrave, later the Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, to select poems for The Golden Treasury anthology. Pioneering photographer and family friend Julia Margaret Cameron moves to Freshwater. Prince Albert requests Tennyson’s autograph for his edition of Idylls. The Duke and Duchess of Argyll, Lord Dufferin, dramatist and poet Henry Taylor, and collector and publisher Lady Charlotte Schreiber (née Guest) visit.
1861: Prince Albert dies on 14 December. Palgrave’s Golden Treasury published.
1862: ‘Dedication’ to Prince Albert published with Idylls. A grieving Queen Victoria reads In Memoriam for solace, and hosts Tennyson at Osborne on 14 April. Writes ‘Ode on the Exhibition’ for the International Exhibition in London. Watts paints Emily (21-29 November), and begins two more portraits of Tennyson. Swedish photographer Oscar Rejlander photographs the family at Farringford.
1863: Writes a ‘Welcome’ to Princess Alexandra of Denmark on her marriage to Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales.
1864: Enoch Arden published. Military campaigner Giuseppe Garibaldi visits Tennyson at Farringford with much fanfare. John Mayall photographs Tennyson and his sons. Watts, his muse Ellen Terry, artistic patrons Thoby and Sara Prinsep, Master of Balliol Benjamin Jowett, Henry Taylor, poet William Allingham, scholar John Stuart Blackie and writer Martin Farquhar Tupper visit.
1875: Writes first adult play, Queen Mary: A Drama. Tours the Pyrenees.
1876: Writes another play, Harold. Queen Mary produced at the Lyceum, featuring Henry Irving.
1880: Ballads and Other Poems published. Finishes play The Cup
1884: A new edition of Tennyson’s Complete Works I published.
1885: Tiresias, and Other Poems published. Includes a verse on the marriage of Princess Beatrice.
1886: Writes ‘Locksley Hall, Sixty Years After’ and ‘The Promise of May’.
1889: Demeter, and Other Poems published. Writes ‘Crossing the Bar’ on the ferry to Yarmouth. Cruises on Liberal politician Lord Brassey’s yacht. Sir Charles Hubert Parry visits.
1892: The Death of Oenone, Akbar’s Dream, and Other Poems published. The Foresters or, Robin Hood and Maid Marian produced in New York and London, with music by Arthur Sullivan. Tennyson dies at Aldworth on 6 October, and is buried at Westminster Abbey.