Arthur Hallam, a gifted son of the distinguished historian, who was
betrothed to Tennyson's sister, died young; and the poet has mourned and
eulogized him in a long poem entitled _In Memoriam_. It contains one
hundred and twenty-nine four-lined stanzas, and is certainly very musical
and finished; but it is rather the language of calm philosophy elaborately
studied, than that of a poignant grief. It is not, in our judgment, to be
compared with his shorter poems, and is generally read and overpraised
only by his more ardent admirers, who discover a crystal tear of genuine
emotion in every stanza.
IDYLS OF THE KING.--The fragment on the death of Arthur, already
mentioned, foreshadowed a purpose of the poet's mind to make the legends
of that almost fabulous monarch a vehicle for modern philosophy in English
verse. In 1859 appeared a volume containing the _Idyls of the King_. They
are rather minor epics than idyls. The simple materials are taken from the
Welsh and French chronicles, and are chiefly of importance in that they
cater to that English taste which finds national greatness typified in
Arthur.
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