Tennyson: Poems Edited by Peter Washington

by Tennyson, Alfred; Washington, Peter

• ISBN13: 9781400041879
• ISBN10: 1400041872
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-02-17
• Publisher: Everyman's Library

Summary

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was a more complex writer than his status as Queen Victoria's favorite poet might suggest. Though capable of rendering rapture and delight in the most exquisite verse, in another mode Tennyson is brother in spirit to Poe and to Baudelaire, the author of dark, passionate reveries. And though he treasured poetic tradition, his work nevertheless engaged directly with the great issues of his time, from industrialization and the crisis of faith to scientific progress and women's rights. A master of the short, intense lyric, he can also be sardonic, humorous, voluptuous, earthy, and satirical. This collection includes, of course, such celebrated poems as "The Lady of Shalott" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade." There are extracts from all the major masterpieces"Idylls of the King," "The Princess," "In Memoriam"and several complete long poems, such as "Ulysses" and "Demeter and Persephone," that demonstrate his narrative grace. Finally, there are many of the short lyrical poems, such as "Come into the Garden, Maud" and "Break, Break, Break," for which he is justly celebrated.

Author Biography

Alfred, Lord Tennyson was a British poet. He was the Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Table of Contents

June Bracken and Heather	11	(4)
SONGS LYRIC AND DRAMATIC
Love's latest hour is this	15	(1)
To a Lady Sleeping	16	(1)
Whispers	17	(1)
Kate	18	(1)
Mariana	19	(4)
Three Sonnets to a Coquette	23	(2)
Sonnet - 'As when with downcast eyes'	25	(1)
St Agnes' Eve	26	(1)
Flower in the crannied wall	27	(1)
Leonine Elegiacs	28	(1)
Break, break, break	29	(1)
In the Valley of Cauteretz	30	(1)
Love and Death	30	(1)
Song - A spirit haunts the year's last hours'	31	(1)
From THE PRINCESS:
(i) As thro' the land at eve we went'	32	(1)
(ii) 'Sweet and low'	33	(1)
(iii) 'The splendour falls on castle walls'	33	(1)
(iv) 'Tears, idle tears'	34	(1)
(v) 'O Swallow, Swallow'	35	(1)
(vi) 'Home they brought her warrior dead'	36	(1)
(vii) Ask me no more'	37	(1)
(viii) Now sleeps the crimson petal'	38	(1)
(ix) 'Come down, O maid'	38	(2)
Move eastward, happy earth	40	(1)
From THE DAY-DREAM: The Revival	40	(7)
The Kraken	42	(1)
The Owl	43	(1)
The Eagle	43	(1)
The Blackbird	44	(1)
The Dying Swan	45	(2)
From MAUD:
(i) 'O let the solid ground'	47	(1)
(ii) 'Birds in the high Hall-garden'	47	(2)
(iii) 'Go not, happy day'	49	(1)
(iv) 'Come into the garden, Maud'	50	(3)
(v) 'O that 'twere possible'	53	(5)
To Edward Lear on His Travels in Greece	58	(1)
Sonnetto W.C. Macready	59	(1)
To J.W. Blakesley	60	(1)
Mine Host	61	(1)
A Character	62	(2)
To J.S.	64	(4)
Frater Ave Atque Vale	68	(1)
Prefatory Poem to My Brother's Sonnets	69	(2)
On His Stillborn Son	71	(1)
From THE LOTOS-EATERS: Choric Song	72	(9)
NARRATIVE POEMS
The Lady of Shalott	81	(7)
Ulysses	88	(3)
Tithonus	91	(3)
The Epic	94	(2)
Morte d'Arthur	96	(12)
St Simeon Stylites	108	(9)
To Professor Jebb, with the Following Poem	117	(1)
Demeter and Persephone	118	(9)
ABOUT POETRY
The Poet's Song	127	(1)
To Virgil	128	(2)
What Thor Said to the Bard Before Dinner	130	(1)
The Golden Year	131	(3)
Merlin and the Gleam	134	(9)
PUBLIC VERSE
England and America in 1782	143	(1)
Of old sat Freedom on the heights	144	(1)
Love thou thy land, with love far-brought	145	(5)
The Charge of the Light Brigade	150	(2)
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington	152	(15)
FRAGMENTS AND EXPERIMENTS
EPIGRAMS
Circumstance	167	(1)
We are Free	168	(1)
On One Who Affected an Effeminate Manner	168	(1)
To One Who Ran Down the English	169	(1)
A Quotable Snatch of Ovidian Song	169	(1)
TRANSLATIONS
Battle of Brunanburh	170	(6)
Specimen of a Translation of the Iliad in Blank Verse	176	(2)
METRICAL EXPERIMENTS
Semele: A Fragment	178	(1)
Milton - Alcaics	179	(1)
Milton - Hendecasyllabics	180	(1)
On Translations of Honer - Hexameters and Pentameters	181	(1)
Ilion, Ilion	182	(1)
DIALECT POEMS
Northern Farmer	183	(5)
Owd Roä	188
IN MEMORIAM
On a Mourner	201	(2)
The Ante-chamber	203	(2)
From IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.	205	(50)
Crossing the Bar	255