Tennyson had actually accomplished during the lifetime of Hallam. There can be no doubt that the judgment of his friend on these early productions was more acceptable and valuable to him than that of any less sympathetic reviewer.
Hitherto we have been examining the anonymous productions of a school-boy of eighteen, and the prize poem of a Cambridge undergraduate. On neither of these, notwithstanding the high praise which the "Athenæum" bestowed on the latter, could a poetical reputation be built.
The first volume of poems to which Alfred Tennyson affixed his name—a thin duodecimo of 154 pages—appeared with the following title:
"Poems, chiefly Lyrical. By Alfred Tennyson. London: Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange, Cornhill. 1830."[1]
The following is a list of the poems: the titles of those that have been suppressed are printed in italics:
- ↑ It had been originally intended that this volume should be a joint publication, containing the poems of Alfred Tennyson and Arthur Hallam—a memorial of friendship similar to the "Lyrical Ballads" of Wordsworth and Coleridge. This idea was abandoned at the suggestion of Hallam's father.
