George Gordon, Lord Byron vs. Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Two men with unnecessarily long names, 2 well-known greats of English poetry of 2 completely different eras, Byron was the leading Romantic poet of his time, Tennyson, a favourite of Queen Victoria during her reign. Both were known to be brilliant in their own time, both seized their lives and did what they wanted to do. Byron is known for his lengthy narrative poem Childe Harold's pilgrimage, Tennyson for his various body of works but especially for his works based on myths, like Ulysses. Byron was at the forefront of the Romantic period, and his poetry reflected the views of that time, respect the environment, challenge what was considered normal, and reject what the authority was telling them. So I guess he was really a hippy.... Tennyson was a more traditionalist reflecting the stability of the times. However, Byron wasn't the most stable guy, it is rumoured that he might have suffered from bi-polar, where as Tennyson was perfectly sane. Not entirely sure if this hurts or helps Byron, a lot of great people suffered from serious mental issues...One thing I know for sure is that Tennyson was born in Lincolnshire, and that's where many awesome people come from. I would know, I'm one. Now as for the actual body of work, Tennyson did produce more shorter works, where Byron produced fewer long ones. Byron did die when he was 37 though (WHOA! THE SAME AGE AS VAN GOGH!!), so that sort of accounts for that.
The winner is....
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The final decision came to me when I realized that Byron did create the Byronic hero, which on it's own is fine. But when terrible authors like Stephenie Meyer get a hold of those things, tragedy happens. Essentially Byron created Twilight. Not cool...

Petrarch vs. Tennyson

Can I just take this time to stress how different Tennyson and Petrarch were from each other? This is essentially comparing a tomato to an an orange. Both are fruits with a high vitamin C content, and both are writers who made a huge impact on the literary world, but no one in their right mind is going to confuse an orange with a tomato. Wasn't that a super deep metaphor? I worked hard on it. Right, so we all remember who Petrarch was? The good guy with a slightly creepy obsession with Laura? (I mean 366 poems is bordering on mild psychopathy...) And Tennyson was the romantic poet who embodied all things Victorian England, and also quite possibly the poshest name ever (Alfred, Lord Tennyson). Now Tennyson was known during his own time to a brilliant poet, master of language. But this poses an interesting question: would Tennyson be as well known today if Queen Victoria hadn't loved his poems? It's a bit like modern-day celebrity endorsement, and difficult it accurately compare his poems when there could have just as easily been a more brilliant poet who just  never got "discovered".Then again, Tennyson was quoted in Skyfall, so maybe that point is moot. If M. can appreciate it, then so can I. And if you don't get the reference, haul yourself to a theatre. Like now. Where was I? Right, as for Petrarch, he was known to be a pretty smart guy, but his influences were much more long term. I mean, Petrarch wrote his sonnets, died (the day before his 70th birthday), was buried, and decomposed before one Thomas Wyatt "borrowed" his sonnet format and used it to write cryptic messages to Anne Boleyn. But I think we've already gone over that... Also Petrarch is considered to have coined  the term "dark ages". Bit pessimistic to call the time you're living in the bane of arts and culture, don't you think? 

And the winner is...

Petrarch
While I can appreciate the beauty of Tennyson's works, and they are amazing, he just didn't have the influence that Petrarch did. Keep in mind Petrarch defeated Shakespeare to get to this point. The heavyweights of the 13th-16th centuries will always destroy the Romantics. Besides, I don't think the posh Tennyson would last very long in an actual fight...