As Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria’s reign, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s spellbinding poetry epitomized the Victorian age.The works in this volume trace nearly sixty years of his literary careerand show the wide variety of poetic forms he mastered. This selection gives some of Tennyson’s most famous works in full, includingMaud, depicting a tragic love affair, andIn Memoriam, a profound tribute to his dearest friend. Excerpts fromIdylls of the Kingshow a lifelong passion for Arthurian legend, also seen in the dream-likeThe Lady of Shalotand inMorte d’Arthur. Other works respond to contemporary events, such asOde on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, written in Tennyson’s official role as Poet Laureate, or the patrioticCharge of the Light Brigade, whileLocksley Hallprovides a Utopian vision of the future, and the late poemCrossing the Baris a haunting meditation on his own mortality.