Poems of Tennyson

Excerpt from Poems of Tennyson

This book was planned and begun seven years ago, to meet what seemed to me a real want in English Literature: a full and representative selection of the best poems of Tennyson, arranged so as to show the variety of his work, the growth of his art, and the qualities of his poetry, and printed in a single volume not too large to hold in the hand or carry in a fair-sized pocket.

Of course, I had no notion that such a volume could take the place of Tennyson's Complete Works. But it would have a purpose and use of its own. It would be a friendly book for familiar reading, on a journey or a vacation-ramble. It would serve as a good manual for closer study with an intelligent class. It would help the understanding of the complete works. There is a distinct gain in presenting, within a small compass, a body of the best things that a man has done, disengaged and set apart from the mass of his productions. It simplifies the view and makes it easier to appreciate the vital meaning of his work.

I trust that the present volume may be acceptable and useful in this way. No other book of selections from Tennyson, of the same kind and scope, has been made hitherto. His own selection (dedicated to the "Working Men of England" and sold in three penny numbers) was printed in 1865, before the writing of some of his most important poems. Mr. Palgrave's selection(1885) was confined to lyrical verse.

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