"Poems by Alfred Tennyson. In Two Volumes. London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street. MDCCCXLII."
The first volume contained two divisions, 1. A selection from the volume of 1830 (many of the poems
ringly demanded, and when it comes, be eagerly bought, we may safely conclude that the work has something in it of abiding interest and permanent value; for then we know that many people have been so pleased or so edified by the reading that they cannot be content without the possession. To this severe test, the author of the unpretending volumes before us has submitted an infant and what seemed to many a baseless and precarious reputation; and so well has it stood the test for we understand that preparations are already making for another edition as to give him an undeniable claim to the respectful attention of all critics."
"The book must not be treated as one collection of poems, but as three separate ones, belonging to three different periods in the development of his mind, and to be judged accordingly. Mr. Tennyson's first book was published in 1830, when he was at college. His second followed in 1832. Their reception, though far from triumphant, was not inauspicious; for while they gained him many warm admirers, they were treated even by those critics whose admiration, like their charity, begins and ends at home, as sufficiently notable to be worth some not unelaborate ridicule. The admiration and the ridicule served alike to bring them into notice, and they have both been for some years out of print."—Edinburgh Review, April, 1843, pp. 373–374.
