Tennyson, in the range and scope of his work, in the variety of his interests, and in the versatility of his art, is the most representative poet of the nineteenth century. He tried many kinds of poetry and met with some success in all. He learned versification as Stevenson did his prose style, by long-continued study and practice, with the result that he became eventually a supreme literary artist, a master of melody in words. His diction is admirably precise and exact, and he is easy to read and understand. While he is rarely profound or searching, like Browning, neither is he overintellectual; but he embeds sane and safe thought in a mould of beauty. He was a national poet in his patriotism and fondness for English scenery. Finally he was an apostle of religious optimism, ready to combat the morbid beliefs which were disturbing contemporary philosophy.
Dora [(Page 103)]
Published in 1842.
The clearness and simplicity of this exquisite pastoral make any explanatory notes superfluous. Regarding it, Wordsworth once said to Tennyson, "I have been endeavoring all my life to write a pastoral like your Dora and have not yet succeeded."
Œnone [(Page 108)]
Most of this poem was written in 1830 while Tennyson was travelling in the Pyrenees Mountains with his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. The descriptions of scenery belong, therefore, to that district, and not to the vicinity of ancient Troy. Œnone was first published in 1832, but was afterward frequently revised; it appears here in the final form approved by Tennyson himself.
[ [176] 1. Ida is a mountain in northwest Asia Minor near the site of Troy.
[ [177] 2. Ionian; Grecian.
[ [178] 10. Gargarus is the highest peak of Mount Ida.