The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

How does one, in 2009, write a real review of the collected major works of Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson? Lord Tennyson, the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in the high Victorian era, was probably the defining English-language poet of his era (Robert Browning being probably his only real rival, and none of Browning's writings are as widely-known today as "The Lady of Shalott" or "Ulysses"). Moreover, he is one of the most proficient technicians of English language poetry in any era, matched only by a handful of others (Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, John Milton, John Keats, the aforementioned Browning). Anything less than five stars would be tantamount to heresy.

The book collects the contents in chronological order, either grouped under publication headings (such as the 1832 and 1842 volumes identically titled "Poems") or time periods ("Poems from the 1870s and 1880s"). Included in its entirety is his lengthy opus "In Memorium A.H.H.", his salute to his deceased would-be-brother-in-law Arthur Hallam (whose surname would later be repurposed as the first name of Tennyson's own son). It should be noted that Tennyson's longest poetical work, "The Idylls of the King", is not included here in its entirety, presumably because it's long enough to support its own separate publication, and this is a fairly big volume as it is. Two sections, 'Merlin and Vivien' and 'The Holy Grail', are included as samples. Other especially large works included in their entirety are "Maud" and "The Princess". As well, the book includes a selection of Tennyson's personal correspondence relating to his work (such as a letter to Princess Alice explaining the dedication of a new edition of "The Idylls of the King" to her deceased father Albert, the Prince-consort).

There's not much more to write concisely about literary contents, other than that everyone should be encouraged to read the works of one of the greats of the Victorian period. "Ulysses", Tennyson's most widely-anthologized and widely-taught poem, remains my favourite, one of the poems that got me interested in the genre. It retains an irresistible interpretational ambiguity between the inspiring language and the underlying sadness of what Ulysses has become (after a lifetime spent moving Heaven and Earth to get home to his family, all he wants to do is leave for more adventures, dismissing his "aged wife" in a single line).

The Oxford Classics edition is as good a collection of Tennyson's major writing as one is likely to find.

I assumed being an Oxford World Classic would mean A LOT of footnotes and explanations of words and phrases, but there's almost nothing. At least the poems are presented well.