CHAPTER I

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

THE study of a poet may be directed towards either the art forms, or the conceptions, embodied in his works; towards either the beauties of execution and detail by means of which he sets forth the truths and lessons he desires to exhibit, or towards those truths and lessons themselves. In Tennyson, either of these is a rich field. I have chosen but one. Upon the strictly art field, I have but touched, here and there. My main purpose, throughout, has been to bring out the central thought or lesson of each poem. During my work, the constant discovery of fresh art beauties has been a large part of my reward. Of this reward, at all events, the reader who consents to accompany me for a little is not less sure.

The highest poetry-and, indeed, the highest art in general-will within its body of beauty contain a soul of truth. The body of beauty is as essential as the soul of truth-truth without beauty cannot make art. The truth must be moral truth, or, at lowest, emotional, which is akin to moral. With intellectual truth, pure

B