Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson | Page 2

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 ·?The Grasshopper.?Love, Pride and Forgetfulness.?Chorus (in an unpublished drama written very early).?Lost Hope.?The Deserted House.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 Galahad.?Edward Gray.?Will Waterproofs Lyrical Monologue, made at the Cock.?Lady Clare.?The Lord of Burleigh.?Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere.?A Farewell.?The Beggar Maid.?The Vision of Sin.?The Skipping Rope.?Move Eastward, happy Earth.?"Break, break, break."?The Poet's Song.
Only two of these poems had been published before, namely, 'St. Agnes', which was printed in 'The Keepsake' for 1837, and