Tennyson.—From his 1842 volume, read the poems mentioned on page 556. From The Princess, read the lyrical songs; from In Memoriam, the parts numbered XLI., LIV., LVII., and CXXXI.; from Maud, the eleven stanzas beginning: "Come into the garden, Maud"; from The Idylls of the King, read Gareth and Lynette, Lancelot and Elaine, The Passing of Arthur (Van Dyke's edition in Gateway Series); from his later poems, The Higher Pantheism, Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, and Crossing the Bar.
The best single volume edition of Tennyson's works is published in
Macmillan's Globe Poets. Selections are given in Page's British
Poets of the Nineteenth Century, Bronson, IV., Oxford Book of
Victorian Verse, Manly, I., and Century.
In The Palace of Art, study carefully the stanzas from XIV. to XXIII., which are illustrative of Tennyson's characteristic style of description. Compare Locksley Hall with Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, and note the difference in thought and metrical form. Does the later poem show a gain over the earlier? Compare Tennyson's nature poetry with that of Keats and Wordsworth. To what is chiefly due the pleasure in reading Tennyson's poetry: to the imagery, form, thought? What idea of his faith do you gain from In Memoriam and The Passing of Arthur? In what is Tennyson the poetic exponent of the age? Is it probable that Tennyson's popularity will increase or wane? Select some of his verse that you think will be as popular a hundred years hence as now.
Swinburne.—Read A Song in Time of Order, The Youth of the Year (Atlanta in Calydon), A Match, The Garden of Proserpine, Hertha, By the North Sea, The Hymn of Man, The Roundel, A Child's Laughter.
The most of the above are given in Page's British Poets of the
Nineteenth Century, Bronson, IV., Manly, I., Century, Oxford Book of
Victorian Verse.
Compare both the metrical skill and poetic ideas of Swinburne and Tennyson. Can you find any poet who surpasses Swinburne in the technique of verse? What are his chief excellencies and faults?
Kipling.—Read The Jungle Books. The following are among the best
of his short stories: The Man Who Would be King, The Brushwood Boy,
The Courting of Dinah Shadd, Drums of the Fore and Aft, Without
Benefit of Clergy, On Greenhow Hill.
From his poems read Mandalay, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, Danny Deever, The 'Eathen,
Ballad of East and West, Recessional, The White Man's Burden; also
Song of the Banjo, and L'Envoi from Seven Seas, published by
Doubleday, Page and Company.
Why is The Jungle Book called an original creation? What are the most distinctive dualities of Kipling's short stories? Point out in what respects they show the methods of the journalist. How does Kipling sustain the interest? What limitations do you notice? What is specially remarkable about his style? What are the principal characteristics of his verse? What subjects appeal to him? Why is his verse so popular?
Minor Poets.—Read the selections from Clough, Henley, Bridges,
Davidson, Thompson, Watson, Dobson and Symons in either The Oxford
Book of Victorian Verse or Stevenson's The Home Book of Verse. The
Poetical Works of Robert Bridges is inexpensively published by the
Oxford University Press. Dobson's verse has been gathered into the
single volume Collected Poems (1913).