Enoch Arden is a narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published in 1864 during his tenure as British poet laureate. The story on which it was based was provided to Tennyson by Thomas Woolner. The poem lends its name to a principle in law that after being missing for a certain number of years (typically seven) a person may be declared dead for purposes of remarriage and inheritance of their survivors. Background The hero of the poem, fisherman turned merchant sailor Enoch Arden, leaves his wife Annie and three children to go to sea with his old captain, who offers him work after he had lost his job due to an accident; in a manner that reflects the hero's masculine view of personal toil and hardship to support his family, Enoch Arden left his family to better serve them as a husband and father. However, during his voyage, Enoch Arden is shipwrecked on a desert island with two companions; both eventually die, leaving Arden alone there. This part of the story is reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe. Enoch Arden remains lost and missing for at least eleven and half years. This is all referenced in the text of the work. It is after ten years that Phillip Ray asks Annie to marry him, stating that it is obvious Enoch is dead. Phillip states this is obvious not only because Enoch has not returned, but there has been no word. It was not unusual for merchant boats in 18th century England (indicated by the fact that Tennyson states at the beginning of the poem that the children played together 100 years prior to the story.) often stayed away for months and even years. However, in port towns as described in this work, there was always some rumor of the ship's whereabouts since this was common work for men who lived in such places. At the time that Phillip proposes to Annie (ten years after Enoch has been missing) Annie gets Phillip to agree to wait a year. A year passes, and Phillip proposes to Annie again. She puts him off for what is described in the text as another "half-year." At this point Annie goes to bed reading her Bible and asks for a sign as to whether Enoch is dead or alive, she dreams of Enoch being on a desert island and misinterprets this as him being in heaven. They marry