Alfred Lord Tennyson 
Selected Poems 

‚Tennyson‘, wrote T. S. Eliot, ‚has the finest ear of any English poet since Milton, ‚ and his verse remains unrivalled in its combination of verbal richness, emotional depth and intellectual engagement. Tennyson drew on classical and medieval legends in poems like ‚The Lotos-Eaters‘ (1832) and ‚The Lady of Shalott‘ (1832) to explore the spiritual tensions of the nineteenth century. In one of the great works of his maturity, ‚In Memoriam‘ (1850) – written after the loss of his dearest friend – Tennyson vividly negotiated contemporary scepticism and the modern sciences of geology and evolution. Similar ground is covered in a dramatically darker mood in ‚Maud‘ (1855), a poignant account of psychological disintegration.