In Break, Break,
Break, we hear a note prelusive to In Memoriam, much of which was
already composed.
The Poems of 1842 are always vocal in the memories of all readers of
English verse. None are more familiar, at least to men of the
generations which immediately followed Tennyson's. FitzGerald was
apt to think that the poet never again attained the same level, and I
venture to suppose that he never rose above it. For FitzGerald's
opinion, right or wrong, it is easy to account. He had seen all the
pieces in manuscript; they were his cherished possession before the
world knew them. C'est mon homme, he might have said of Tennyson, as
Boileau said of Moliere. Before the public awoke FitzGerald had
"discovered Tennyson," and that at the age most open to poetry and
most enthusiastic in friendship. Again, the Poems of 1842 were
SHORT, while The Princess, Maud, and The Idylls of the King were
relatively long, and, with In Memoriam, possessed unity of subject.
They lacked the rich, the unexampled variety of topic, treatment, and
theme which marks the Poems of 1842. These were all reasons why
FitzGerald should think that the two slim green volumes held the
poet's work at its highest level. Perhaps he was not wrong, after
all.
CHAPTER IV.--1842-848--THE PRINCESS.
The Poems, and such criticisms as those of Spedding and Sterling,
gave Tennyson his place. All the world of letters heard of him.
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