Passing by without comment Poems by two Brothers (1826), “The Lover’s Tale” (composed about 1828), and “Timbuctoo” (1829), we come to Tennyson’s first bid for fame in Poems, chiefly Lyrical (1830). This slender volume included (along with much rubbish) a few pieces which are perennial favorites with lovers of Tennyson, viz.: “Mariana,” “Recollections of the Arabian Nights,” “The Dying Swan,” “A Dirge,” “Love and Death,” and “Circumstance.” Among the poems suppressed in later editions is one in an unusual vein—“Nero to Leander”—which Emerson inserted in his Parnassus.
His second book of Poems (1833) was a more ambitious venture. Its contents, though marred by faults of crude taste, possessed in a marked degree, the characteristic qualities of the Laureate’s poetry. Nearly all of the lyrics in it have been found worthy of a permanent place in the collected editions of his poems, but most of them underwent countless changes before they were republished in 1842—being corrected and polished till they were well-nigh perfect from a critical standpoint.
The two volumes of Poems (1842) revealed Tennyson at his best—a mature singer whose dignified, harmonious verse compares favorably with the most splendid contributions to British poetry. “The Princess” (1847), “In Memoriam” (1850), and “Maud” (1855) made his position secure as the greatest of living poets.
Not satisfied to rest content as a lyrist, Tennyson essayed extended narrative in Idyls of the King (1859) and “Enoch Arden” (1864). Gaining courage from the enthusiastic reception of the four Arthurian idyls, he undertook to carry out a long cherished design—which Milton and Dryden had conceived—of writing a national epic on King Arthur. He had already made several attempts at versifying incidents from the Mabinogion and Malory’s old romance Morte d’ Arthur, but they were isolated fragments. From time to time he added others, making the series of tales called the Round Table a complete cycle as follows:
The Coming of Arthur, 1869; Gareth and Lynette, 1872; Geraint and Enid, 1859; Balin and Balan, 1885; Merlin and Vivien, 1859; Lancelot and Elaine, 1859; The Holy Grail, 1869; Pelleas and Ettarre, 1869; The Last Tournament, 1871; Guinevere, 1859; The Passing of Arthur, 1842, 1869.
Then boldly entering the dangerous field of historical drama, Tennyson became a rival of Shakspeare himself in “Queen Mary”[14] (1875), “Harold” (1876), and “Becket” (1884). Besides these, he brought forth three shorter plays or dramatic sketches—“The Cup”[15] (1884), “The Falcon”[16] (1884), “The Promise of May”[17] (1886), and a lengthy idyllic drama called “The Foresters”[18] (1892).
As if to prove that his fertility was not exhausted in the province of the lyric, he made fresh incursions into fields of song long familiar to him. These winnowings of the last two decades are gathered into the following volumes:
Ballads, and Other Poems (1880); Tiresias, and Other Poems (1885); Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, etc. (1886); Demeter, and Other Poems (1889).
Enough books have been named to give at least half a dozen minstrels a firm footing on Parnassus. The number of Tennyson’s meritorious performances is simply astonishing. But few poets have wrought with such unwearying patience. Not many can present as imposing a catalogue of works that are confessedly of such a high order of excellence. Browning has written more, but Browning has not taken the trouble to perfect himself in form—in short, he is not a finished artist. In literary workmanship, Tennyson stands supreme. It is universally admitted that none of his contemporaries ranks so high as man of letters. He is the brightest ornament of the Victorian reign.
Without doubt the Laureate deserves his hard-won glory. In his hale old age, he has disarmed the critics of years ago who sneered at his empty lays and feminine ways. The question—Cui bono? could be asked as to many of Tennyson’s earlier efforts, such as “Oriana,” “The Lady of Shalott,” “Audley Court,” “Edwin Morris,” “Amphion,” “Lady Clare,” “The Lord of Burleigh,” “The Beggar Maid” and others. These lyrics and idyls are made up of ornate commonplaces which show the artistic instinct rather than the poetic. They abound with the ephemeral conceits of drawing-room poetry. They contain nothing that resembles vivacity or sublimity. They have not the interest which is general and universal as distinguished from the private or the unusual. They are not representative of human nature, but of individual peculiarities. They are ideal pictures, not transcripts from experience.