Ballads and Other Poems

Tennyson wrote much of his better-known poetry in response to the death, at twenty-two, of his best friend, Arthur Hallam; such poems as In Memoriam represent the struggle with faith inspired in Tennyson by Hallam's fatal illness. Even as Tennyson's works are praised for their graceful composition and striking images, they are criticized for sentimental, excessively patriotic tones. A representative of conservative Victorian poetry, Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate of England in 1850, and achieved tremendous acclaim with such poems as The Charge of the Light Brigade, Crossing the Bar, and Idylls of the King.