ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, 425 



Idylls; and these are the most characteristic and the finest of 

 his poems. It is on them that his reputation must finally rest. 



In 1859 Tennyson was fifty years old. He had become a thor- 

 ough master of his art. Many of his best qualities remained to 

 him ; he was still the maker of graceful and sonorous verse, but 

 he was not destined to add to his already towering reputation. 

 In his later years he worked faithfully and successfully in his 

 old forms, and tried a new one, the dramatic. He retained 

 much of the vigor and sweetness of his mind; he gave to the 

 English-speaking world much good poetry, and with it very 

 little that his warmest admirers should regret. 



Of the forms of poetry, that to which Tennyson adhered 

 through life was the lyrical, with a touch of narrative, — from 

 " Mariana in the Moated Grange," at the beginning, to " Charity, " 

 at the end of his works. In this line he was very successful, 

 but it is a line which hardly admits the highest poetry. We 

 are all fond of "The May Queen," and "Lady Clare," and "The 

 Beggar Maid, " — men of fifty know them by heart ; but we do 

 not place them beside "Lycidas," or Portia's speech in court, or 

 Wordsworth's sonnets, or the best passages of "In Memoriam." 

 Yet we are grateful to the poet who gives us so much pure 

 enjoyment. The poems written officially, as laureate, often 

 belong to this category. They are strong and stirring, almost 

 the best that has been done in that manner. The " Ode on the 

 Death of the Duke of Wellington " is the most poetical, but 

 is too long to catch the popular ear. The "Welcome" to the 

 Princess of Wales on her marriage contains lines not easily 

 forgotten : — 



'* Sea-kings' daughter from over the sea, Alexandra! 

 Saxon and Norman and Dane are we, 

 But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee, Alexandra! " 



"The Charge of the Light Brigade" thunders through the 

 head, and will hold a place in the British memory but little 

 below Campbell's "Mariners of England" and Burns's "Scots 

 wha hae." 



There is another style of lyric in which Tennyson has sur- 

 passed his achievement either in narrative or in official song. 

 The poems written in this style are purely lyrical, appealing to 

 no extraneous emotion, seeking their interest neither in a story, 

 nor in a description of scenery, nor in a mood of patriotic 



