The Poetry of Tennyson was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1889, and it represents Van Dyke’s first significant publication — a work of literary criticism that established his reputation in the academic world before his Christmas stories and nature essays made him famous to the general public. Van Dyke was thirty years old and recently appointed to the English faculty at Princeton; the book demonstrated both his scholarly command of the material and his ability to write about poetry in a way that engaged non-specialist readers.
The study covers the full range of Tennyson’s work: the early lyrics, the English Idylls, In Memoriam, Maud, Idylls of the King, and the later philosophical poems. Van Dyke’s approach combines close reading (attentive to rhythm, imagery, and verbal texture) with contextual analysis (Tennyson’s relationship to Victorian science, religion, and politics). He argues for Tennyson’s greatness on grounds that are both aesthetic (the music of the verse) and philosophical (the seriousness of the ideas).
The book appeared while Tennyson was still living (he died in 1892), and it represents the first major American critical assessment of a poet who was then at the height of his fame. Van Dyke’s judgment has largely been vindicated: his identification of Tennyson’s central achievement (the integration of musical beauty with intellectual substance) remains the basis of modern critical assessment.
Collecting The Poetry of Tennyson
First edition (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1889): Cloth binding.
Market values:
- First edition: $25–$60
- Revised tenth edition (1903): $10–$25