Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson | Page 2

1857, but Messrs. Macmillan, to whom
I beg to express my hearty thanks, have most generously allowed me to

record all the variants which are still protected by copyright. I have to
thank them, too, for assistance in the Bibliography. I have also to thank
Mr. J. T. Wise for his kindness in lending me the privately printed
volume containing the 'Morte d'Arthur, Dora,' etc.
INTRODUCTION
I
The development of Tennyson's genius, methods, aims and capacity of
achievement in poetry can be studied with singular precision and
fulness in the history of the poems included in the present volume. In
1842 he published the two volumes which gave him, by almost general
consent, the first place among the poets of his time, for, though
Wordsworth was alive, Wordsworth's best work had long been done.
These two volumes contained poems which had appeared before, some
in 1830 and some in 1832, and some which were then given to the
world for the first time, so that they represent work belonging to three
eras in the poet's life, poems written before he had completed his
twenty-second year and belonging for the most part to his boyhood,
poems written in his early manhood, and poems written between his
thirty-first and thirty-fourth year.
The poems published in 1830 had the following title-page:
"Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, by Alfred Tennyson.
London: Effingham
Wilson, Royal Exchange, 1830".
They are fifty-six in number and the titles are:--
Claribel.·
Lilian. ·
Isabel. ·
Elegiacs.º
The "How" and the "Why".

Mariana. ·
To----. Madeline.
The Merman.
The Mermaid. ·

Supposed Confessions of a second-rate sensitive mind not in unity with
itself. º
The Burial of Love.
To--(Sainted Juliet dearest name.)

Song. The Owl. ·
Second Song. To the same. ·
Recollections of the
Arabian Nights. ·
Ode to Memory. ·
Song. (I'the the glooming light.)

Song. (A spirit haunts.) ·
Adeline. ·
A Character. ·
Song. (The

lint-white and the throstle cock.)
Song. (Every day hath its night.)

The Poet. ·
The Poet's Mind. ·
Nothing will die. º
All things will
die. º
Hero to Leander.
The Mystic.
The Dying Swan. ·
A
Dirge. ·
The Grasshopper.
Love, Pride and Forgetfulness.
Chorus
(in an unpublished drama written very early).
Lost Hope.
The
Deserted House. º°
The Tears of Heaven.
Love and Sorrow.
To a
Lady Sleeping.
Sonnet. (Could I outwear my present state of woe.)

Sonnet. (Though Night hath climbed her peak of highest noon.) Sonnet.
(Shall the hag Evil die with child of Good.)
Sonnet. (The pallid
thunderstricken sigh for gain.)
Love.
Love and Death. ·
The
Kraken. º
The Ballad of Oriana. ·
Circumstance. ·
English War
Song.
National Song.
The Sleeping Beauty. ·
Dualisms.
We are
Free.
The Sea-Fairies. º°
Sonnet
to J.M.K. ·
[Greek
(transliterated): oi rheontes] ·
· Of these the poems marked · appeared in the edition of 1842, and were
not much altered.
º Those marked º were, in addition to the italicised poems, afterwards
included among the 'Juvenilia' in the collected works (1871-1872),
though excluded from all preceding editions of the poems.
º° Those marked °º were restored in editions previous to the first
collected editions of the works.
In December, 1832, appeared a second volume (it is dated on the
title-page, 1833):
"Poems by Alfred Tennyson. London: Moxon, MDCCCXXXIII."
This contains thirty poems:--
Sonnet. (Mine be the strength of spirit fierce and free.) °° To--. (All
good things have not kept aloof.) °°
Buonaparte. °°
Sonnet I. (O
Beauty passing beauty, sweetest Sweet.)
Sonnet II. (But were I loved,
as I desire to be.) °°
The Lady of Shalott. ·º

Mariana in the South. ·º


Eleanore. ·
The Miller's Daughter. ·º
[Greek: phainetai moi
kaenos isos theoisin hemmen anaer] · ‘none. ·º
The Sisters. ·
To--.
(With the Palace of Art.)
The Palace of Art ·º
The May Queen. ·

New Year's Eve. ·
The Hesperides.
The Lotos Eaters. ·
Rosalind.
°°
A Dream of Fair Women ·º
Song. (Who can say.)
Margaret. ·

Kate.
Sonnet. Written on hearing of the outbreak of the Polish
Insurrection. Sonnet. On the result of the late Russian invasion of
Poland. °° Sonnet. (As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood.)
°° O Darling Room.
To Christopher North.
The Death of the Old
Year. ·
To J. S. ·
· Of these the poems marked · were included in the edition of 1842;
º those marked º being greatly altered and in some cases almost
rewritten,
° those marked ° being practically unaltered.
°° To those reprinted in the collected works °° is added.
In 1842 appeared the two volumes which contained, in addition to the
selections made from the two former volumes, several new poems:--
"Poems by Alfred Tennyson. In two volumes. London: Edward Moxon,
MDCCCXLII."
The first volume is divided into two parts:
(1) Selections from the poems published in 1830, 'Claribel' to the
'Sonnet to J. M. K.' inclusive.
(2) Selections from the poems of 1832, 'The Lady of Shalott' to 'The
Goose' inclusive.
The second volume contains poems then, with two exceptions, first
published.

INTRODUCTION
The Epic.
Morte d'Arthur.
The Gardener's Daughter.
Dora.

Audley Court.
Walking to the Mail.
St. Simeon Stylites.

Conclusion to the May Queen.
The Talking Oak.
Lady Clara Vere
de Vere.
Love and Duty.
Ulysses.
Locksley Hall.
Godiva.
The
Two Voices.
The Day Dream.
Prologue.
The Sleeping Palace.

The Sleeping Beauty.
The Arrival.
The Revival.
The Departure.

Moral.
L'Envoi.
Epilogue.
Amphion.
St. Agnes.
Sir