Originally published in 1910, this book contains the text of fifty poems written by Tennyson between 1830 and 1864, including famous pieces 'The Lady of Shalott' and 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'. Lobban includes an introduction on Tennyson's reputation as a poet, as well as detailed commentary on each poem. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Tennyson or nineteenth-century poetry more generally.

In this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past. By their choice of poems and by the personal and critical reactions they express in their prefaces, the editors offer insights into their own work as well as providing an accessible and passionate introduction to some of the greatest poets in our literature. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92) was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the sixth of eleven children of a clergyman. After a childhood marked by trauma, he went up to Cambridge in 1828, where he met Arthur Hallam, whose premature death had a lasting influence on Tennyson's life and writing. His two volumes of Poems (1842) established him as the leading poet of his generation, and of the Victorian period. He was created Poet Laureate in 1850 and in 1883 accepted a peerage.

Four gray walls, and four gray towers, Overlook a space of flowers, And the silent isle imbowers The Lady of Shalott. Tennyson's romantic poem, full of atmosphere and emotion, tells the story of the mysterious Lady of Shalott. In this exquisite illustrated edition, Charles Keeping's evocative pictures take us to Camelot, a fabled world of knights and castles, to witness the cursed life and tragic death of a beautiful but doomed maiden. This new edition features rescanned artwork to capture the inspiring detail of Keeping's illustrations and a striking new cover.

Selected by Rosemary Gray. Poignant, wry, chilling, challenging, amusing, thought-provoking and always intriguing, these accomplished tales from the pens of great writers are object-lessons in the art of creating a literary masterpiece on a small canvas. From the straightforwardly anecdotal to the more analytical of human behaviour, all are guaranteed to capture the imagination, stir the emotions, linger in the memory and whet the reader's appetite for more. In this book, Wordsworth Editions presents the modern reader with a rich variety of short stories by a host of towering literary figures ranging from Arnold Bennett to Virginia Woolf. This disparate and distinguished company of writers has rarely - if ever - met within the pages of one volume: the result is a positive feast.

The Princess (1847) is a poem by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written before Tennyson was named Poet Laureate, the poem addresses accusations from critics that the poet refused to write on serious subjects, as well as the founding of Queen's College, London, the first college for women in Britain. Despite its comedic tone and somewhat critical outlook, the poem is seen as an important early work dedicated to exploring the concerns of the burgeoning feminist movement. Unable to find the princess Ida, a young prince seeks the council of her father, King Gama, in order to locate his young fiancee. The king tells him that Ida has fled to a distant retreat, where she has founded a university for women and forsaken the ways of men. Joined by his friends Cyril and Florian, the prince disguises himself as a woman and journeys in search of Ida. The three enroll as students at her university, learning its lessons and absorbing its goals for equality between men and women. As the prince grows close to Ida, he struggles to hide his true identity from her, and is eventually forced to flee. Captured, he is held by the princess while King Gama and his father threaten to go to war over his release. As Ida prepares for battle, the prince and Florian manage to escape, returning home to prepare for conflict with Ida and her brothers. The Princess is a serio-comic poem which dramatizes the goals of the early feminist movement while examining the institution of marriage and the highly gendered nature of education and opportunity in Britain. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's The Princess is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Princess (1847) is a poem by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written before Tennyson was named Poet Laureate, the poem addresses accusations from critics that the poet refused to write on serious subjects, as well as the founding of Queen's College, London, the first college for women in Britain. Despite its comedic tone and somewhat critical outlook, the poem is seen as an important early work dedicated to exploring the concerns of the burgeoning feminist movement. Unable to find the princess Ida, a young prince seeks the council of her father, King Gama, in order to locate his young fiancee. The king tells him that Ida has fled to a distant retreat, where she has founded a university for women and forsaken the ways of men. Joined by his friends Cyril and Florian, the prince disguises himself as a woman and journeys in search of Ida. The three enroll as students at her university, learning its lessons and absorbing its goals for equality between men and women. As the prince grows close to Ida, he struggles to hide his true identity from her, and is eventually forced to flee. Captured, he is held by the princess while King Gama and his father threaten to go to war over his release. As Ida prepares for battle, the prince and Florian manage to escape, returning home to prepare for conflict with Ida and her brothers. The Princess is a serio-comic poem which dramatizes the goals of the early feminist movement while examining the institution of marriage and the highly gendered nature of education and opportunity in Britain. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's The Princess is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Idylls of the King (1859-1885) is a cycle of narrative poems by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written while Tennyson was serving as Poet Laureate, Idylls of the King reworks the medieval Arthurian legend in blank verse and with an elegiac tone. Based on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the early British Mabinogion manuscripts, Tennyson's work connects an ancient tradition to the reign and ideals of Queen Victoria. "The Coming of Arthur" traces Arthur's rise to power, narrating his role in the siege of Cameliard and the liberation of Leodogran's kingdom. Following their victory, Arthur marries Guinevere, Leodogran's daughter, who is brought to Camelot by the loyal Sir Lancelot, one of Arthur's finest knights. In "Gareth and Lynette," the young Gareth begins as a worker in Camelot's kitchens before ascending to the role of knight and being sent on a quest to Castle Perilous. In "Enid," Sir Geraint, disturbed by a rumored liaison between Lancelot and Guinevere, grows suspicious of his wife Enid and decides to leave Camelot. Unable to quell his distrust and jealousy, Geraint brings Enid on a dangerous quest in order to test her faith. Other sections of the sequence follow the quest for the Holy Grail, Guinevere's escape from Camelot, and Mordred's betrayal of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Idylls of the King illuminates an ancient legend for modern audiences, presenting stories of honor, romance, and adventure in engaging, accessible verse. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Maud, and Other Poems (1850) is a collection of poems by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The first work Tennyson published after becoming Poet Laureate in 1850, Maud, and Other Poems contains several of the poet's most celebrated works. "Maud," the title poem, is a narrative that explores themes of forbidden romance, marriage, death, and mourning. "The Charge of the Light Brigade," originally published in The Examiner in 1854, was written as a tribute to the British Light Cavalry Brigade, which led an ill-fated charge at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. "Maud" follows a young poet who, after the tragic loss of his father, falls in love with the beautiful Maud. Despite his honorable intentions, the narrator is thwarted by Maud's brother, who wants his sister to marry a wealthy businessman. When the brother takes a brief trip to London, the young poet uses the opportunity to court Maud in earnest. But time is not on his side, and the brother returns to throw a ball in order to introduce the businessman to his sister. As his chance at love erodes, the poet makes a desperate choice and risks losing everything-love, home, and life itself. "The Charge of the Light Brigade" is a tribute to the British casualties at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. Tennyson's patriotic narrative poem addresses the controversy surrounding the charge, which took place because of a mistaken order and sent hundreds of British cavalrymen in a doomed head-on assault on a well-fortified Russian line of defense. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Maud, and Other Poems is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Idylls of the King (1859-1885) is a cycle of narrative poems by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written while Tennyson was serving as Poet Laureate, Idylls of the King reworks the medieval Arthurian legend in blank verse and with an elegiac tone. Based on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the early British Mabinogion manuscripts, Tennyson's work connects an ancient tradition to the reign and ideals of Queen Victoria. "The Coming of Arthur" traces Arthur's rise to power, narrating his role in the siege of Cameliard and the liberation of Leodogran's kingdom. Following their victory, Arthur marries Guinevere, Leodogran's daughter, who is brought to Camelot by the loyal Sir Lancelot, one of Arthur's finest knights. In "Gareth and Lynette," the young Gareth begins as a worker in Camelot's kitchens before ascending to the role of knight and being sent on a quest to Castle Perilous. In "Enid," Sir Geraint, disturbed by a rumored liaison between Lancelot and Guinevere, grows suspicious of his wife Enid and decides to leave Camelot. Unable to quell his distrust and jealousy, Geraint brings Enid on a dangerous quest in order to test her faith. Other sections of the sequence follow the quest for the Holy Grail, Guinevere's escape from Camelot, and Mordred's betrayal of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Idylls of the King illuminates an ancient legend for modern audiences, presenting stories of honor, romance, and adventure in engaging, accessible verse. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

As Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign, Alfred Lord Tennyson's spellbinding poetry epitomized the Victorian age, and Selected Poems is edited with an introduction and notes by Christopher Ricks. 'Into the jaw of Death Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred' The works in this volume trace nearly sixty years in the literary career of one of the nineteenth century's greatest poets, and show the wide variety of poetic forms he mastered. This selection gives some of Tennyson's most famous works in full, including Maud, depicting a tragic love affair, and In Memoriam, a profound tribute to his dearest friend. Excerpts from Idylls of the King show a lifelong passion for Arthurian legend, also seen in the dream-like The Lady of Shalot and in Morte d'Arthur. Other works respond to contemporary events, such as Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, written in Tennyson's official role as Poet Laureate, or the patriotic Charge of the Light Brigade, while Locksley Hall provides a Utopian vision of the future, and the late poem Crossing the Bar is a haunting meditation on his own mortality. In his introduction, Christopher Ricks discusses aspects of Tennyson's life and works, his revisions of his poems, and his friendship with Arthur Hallam. This edition also includes a chronology, further reading and notes. Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, the sixth of eleven children. His first important book, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, was published in 1830, and was not a critical success, but his two volumes of Poems, 1842, which contain some of his finest work, established him as the leading poet of his generation. If you enjoyed Selected Poems, you might like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads, also available in Penguin Classics. 'He had the finest ear of any English poet since Milton' T.S. Eliot

Written in the middle of his career, Idylls of the King is Tennyson's longest and most ambitious work. Reflecting his lifelong interest in Arthurian themes, his primary sources were Malory's Morte d'Arthur and the Welsh Mabinogion. For him, the Idylls embodied the universal and unending war between sense and soul, and Arthur the highest ideals of manhood and kingship; an attitude totally compatible with the moral outlook of his age. Poetically, Tennyson was heir to the Romantics, and Keats's influence in particular can be seen clearly in much of his work. Yet Tennyson's style is undoubtedly his own and he achieved a delicacy of phrase and subtlety of metrical effect that are unmatched. This edition, based on the text authorized by Tennyson himself, contains full critical apparatus.

Published in 1850, "In Memoriam" won its author the Poet Laureateship of Britain and received widespread attention from critics and reviewers, as well as ordinary readers. The poem was written in memory of Tennyson's close friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly in 1833; it became a kind of unofficial devotional manual for mourners, including Queen Victoria after the death of Prince Albert. The poem's scope goes beyond individual grief, however, to the development and extinction of species, audaciously exploring history, evolution and God's relationship with humanity. Its formal beauty and emotional resonance make "In Memoriam" as compelling today as it was for nineteenth-century readers. Matthew Rowlinson's introduction traces the poem's composition history and places it in the context of Tennyson's personal and intellectual development. Historical appendices include writings by Arthur Hallam, Victorian fiction on courtship and marriage and materials on natural history and evolution.