ABSTRACT
THIS CHAPTER IS A SURVEY OF THE MATURE TENNYSON’STREATMENT OF historical and legendary battles. These poems werewritten throughout a forty-three-year span in the prime of Tennyson’s career. In 1834, at the age of twenty-five, he wrote the original version of “The Captain” (Ricks, The Poems of Tennyson 2. 27), the first selection covered here, and in 1877, at age sixty-seven, he wrote “The Revenge” (Ricks, The Poems of Tennyson 3.25), the last selection. With the battle poems covered in this chapter Tennyson reconfirms his penchant for Homeric themes and imagery, while making an advance in the artistry with which he handles the heroic material. In many cases Tennyson plays variations on the heroic themes, utilizing them to suggest profound philosophical issues.
