Tennyson A Critical Study By STEPHEN GWYNN LONDON BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED, 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C. GLASGOW AND DUBLIN 1899 Preface For the existence of this book my publishers must be responsible. It seems to me impossible to say anything that is at once new and true about Tennyson. But, having undertaken to write a critical study of him, it seemed to me best to give, as clearly as I could, my own point of view, and for that reason I have abstained from extending my knowledge of the many books which have been written about him by admirable critics. Contemporary criticism of his earlier poems I have studied primarily for its historical interest, and in the process of illustrating it by quotations, I have had to expose my own work to very damaging comparisons. There is no more to be said here, but to express my thanks to the Messrs. Macmillan for their courteous permission to me to illustrate my criticism by full quotation; to Mr. Stephen Phillips for leave to reprint his |