Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
"Splendour Falls" is a short poem that was added to a longer poem called The Princess, which was later adapted into a comic operetta called Princess Ida by Gilbert and Sullivan in 1884. "Splendour Falls" is cool enough on its own, though, so it never got lost in the shuffle—we read it as a stand-alone poem more often than in its original context. (Source.)
Although Tennyson later went on to become the Poet Laureate of England, favorite poet of Queen Victoria, and Mr. Popular all around, his first book of poems got totally panned by the critics. (Source.)
Tennyson's father was mentally ill and several other men in his family had epilepsy. Epilepsy was considered a shameful disease at the time (they thought it was brought about by too much sex… um, WRONG.) So Tennyson worried his whole life about developing a similar illness. (Source.)