Tennyson was one of the greatest and best-loved poets of the English-speaking world, and many of his poems-among them "In Memoriam," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," and "Idylls of the King"-are as well known today as they were more than a century ago. His life spanned most of the nineteenth century, and as Poet Laureate of Britain for forty years, he was a central figure in Victorian literacy and intellectual life.
Tennyson's life is an extraordinary...