Tennyson's position as the official Victorian Bard and his popularity with his contemporaries did his posthumous reputation no good. The Laurel Crown identifies him with the myth of 'Victoriamism'. Besides, he was a romantic poet, introverted and solitary by temperament, and moodily musical in his poetic talent: his place as the Laureate must, a later generation decided, have been a bought place, bought at the price of his poetic integrity.
Miss...