Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"Its themes were death and sorrow, and the struggle between faith and doubt; the resolution in a confident belief in immortality was enthusiastically received" (Rausen IX). Professor Corson called "In Memoriam" "that beautiful poem of nineteenth-century skepticism" (Woods et al. 594). In this poem, Tennyson was very impressive in his dark moods of pessimism (Bush XIV). While in the process of writing the poem, he attempted to make the adjustment between religious faith and science that many other Victorian thinkers were also attempting to make. Also while laboring over the poem, he abandoned fate and had a richer and deeper understanding of life (Woods et al. 594).
             Rather than being a continuous narrative, "In Memoriam" is a loosely assembled collage that, when read as a whole, reflects the varied emotions that one man experiences when prompted by the death of a loved one to face the reality of death and change in the world and the possibilities for life after death. (Mazzeno 7: 2868).
             This poem was vastly received as a great one and brought Tennyson out of the dreadful past and into the hopeful future.
             "Idylls of the King" has been called one of the truly great long poems of the language. The Arthurian tales were so popular among the people that ten thousand copies were sold in the first week after publication in 1859 (Mazzeno 7: 2859-2860). After this publication, he achieved widespread popularity, which persisted and grew until his death (deford 611). "Idylls of the King" is a long series of picturesque narratives which he drew from Malony and molded into a Victorian pattern (Woods et al. 594). .
             It consists of twelve separate pieces tied together by the overarching structure provided by the legend itself--the rise and fall of Arthur and his Round Table. Within the framework individual idylls remain relatively self-contained units. The poet's examination of the downfall of a society that abandons its ideals is carried forward through an intricate patterning of repeated images and parallel scenes.