Alfred Lord Tennyson (Bloom's Modern Critical Views) - Hardcover

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92) was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the sixth of eleven children of a clergyman. After a childhood marked by trauma, he went up to Cambridge in 1828, where he met Arthur Hallam, whose premature death had a lasting influence on Tennyson's life and writing. His two volumes of Poems (1842) established him as the leading poet of his generation, and of the Victorian period. He was created Poet Laureate in 1850 and in 1883 accepted a peerage. Mick Imlah was born in 1956 and brought up near Glasgow and in Kent. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he taught as a Junior Fellow. He was editor of Poetry Review from 1983 to 1986, and worked at the Times Literary Supplement from 1992. His poems appeared in The Zoologist's Bath (1982), Birthmarks (1988), Penguin New Poets 3 (1994) and Diehard (2006). He edited The New Penguin Book of Scottish Verse (with Robert Crawford, 2000) and made selections for Faber of the poems of Tennyson and Edwin Muir. He died in 2009.

Some of the finest Victorian poetry grew out of Tennyson's troubled personal life - he and all his eleven siblings suffered some kind of mental health problems, and his beloved friend Hallam died at 22. He succeeded in echoing deep emotions in simple words - 'But a for the touch of a vanish'd hand, / And the sound of a voice that is still!' - and in creating tremendous rhythmic narratives - 'Forward the Light Brigade! / Charge for the guns!' he said. The narration of the 24 poems here does Tennyson proud. - Rachel Redford, The Oldie There's no need to dip into the lesser works in a collection of Tennyson, and Naxos has made a fine selection here, mixing the best known (The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Lady of Shalott, Ulysses, The Lotus-Eaters) with others that will be less familiar to casual readers. One might quibble with some of Michael Pennington's line readings, but he has made thoughtful interpretations, and his voice is quite capable of meeting the musical demands of the poetry. There's nothing new here for Tennyson's fans, but the presentation is a strong introduction to a master's range of style and emotion. - D.M.H., AudioFile