The Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Goodness, he died the year my grandparents were born… In my sixth form, Tennyson was frowned upon. He was old hat, too flowery, you weren’t supposed to admire “craftsmanship” in a poem (whyever not?) The English teachers ensured that we had a relatively “modern” syllabus, of Yeats, E M

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Forster, Graham Greene, and Arthur Miller. But I have always had a soft spot for Tennyson’s musical colourful verse. Favourites: “The Lady of Shalott”; the lyrics “Blow bugle blow” and “Now sleeps the crimson petal” from “The Princess”; “All night have the roses heard” from “Maud”, and the “Morte d’Arthur”. For some odd reason this collection doesn’t include “The Dying Swan”, a favourite I had to track down online. Tennyson gave us the phrase “Nature red in tooth and claw” from “In Memoriam”.

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