The Lotos-Eaters, Ulysses, Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, Maud, The Coming of Arthur, The Passing of Arthur. With Introductions and Notes by F. J. Rowe and W. T. Webb

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.